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Javier Soltero: The Outsider Microsoft Tapped To Reinvent Outlook (windowsitpro.com)
v3rgEz writes: In a wide ranging interview, IT Pro talks with Microsoft's Javier Soltero about his plans to help Redmond get its groove back when it comes to email, walking a fine line between keeping traditional Outlook users (and IT administrators) happy while radically reworking software that hasn't seen a huge shakeup since 2003.
Outlook isn't the fucking problem, exchange and its bastardised architecture is.
No. Outlook is also a fucking problem.
The architecture of the data stores is an ongoing cluster-fuck. A single-file data file-based data store that's simply allowed to grow into obscene, unstable, performance destroying sizes. More-over, if you crash one of the files, your chances of actually recovering anything is somewhere between "Pray for a miracle" and "Just start over".
When used in a corporate environment (with an Exchange server), the Outlook data store does not grow unbounded. Outlook caches a subset of your mailbox for potential offline use and the bulk of your data sits on the Exchange server. When online you can seamlessly search and access all of your past email; when offline you can access what you have cached. The Exchange server uses a fairly robust database which supports transaction logging and replication, and also has several recovery options if needed.