Sail Through Public Folder Migration

Public folder implementation and migration are similar in Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange 2000 Server, and moving or rehoming user public folders (folders that contain users' documents) from an Exchange Server 5.5 server to an Exchange 2003 server is simple. However, migrating system public folders, which contain data relating to items such as Offline Address Books and Schedule+ free/busy information, is somewhat different. Here are some techniques for implementing your public folder infrastructure and for moving or migrating user and system public folders. The procedures are the same for Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2000 servers unless otherwise noted. The migration techniques that I describe in this article apply only to migrations within an organization, not to the more complex interorganizational migrations.

Efficient Public Folder Access
Your usage of public folders determines the number and location of your public folder replicas. If your company uses many public folders (e.g., more than 200), consider locating public folder content on servers that are near those folders' users. You can do so by replicating the folders to multiple servers distributed across the network. Alternatively, you can use high-bandwidth, low-latency connections between clients and a few core public folder servers to ensure that public folder access is as fast as possible. . . .