Standards » Outlook Backup Blog

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010: Implication on Local PST Use

IT Management, Microsoft, Standards, Sys Admin No Responses »

Jun 212010

Microsoft's Exchange Server 2010 new "Archiving, Retention, and Discovery" features. A peek at future technology for regulation and reporting. See Microsoft website for details.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 added a whole new feature set: “Archiving, Retention, and Discovery” (see description here). Many Windows (and Office) system admins believe that this new Exchange 2010 server is a major improvement over the previous Exchange 2007. Microsoft essentially gives users a point-and-click archive and restore capability that every user can perform on their own. What a great idea at first look. Backup is different from archive however, backup is a complete copy of the item rather than moving it between mailboxes. A second look reveals how Microsoft has added some policy capability like “Retention Policies”, “Legal Hold” and “Role-based Access Control (RBAC)”. To use some of these features, Microsoft moved mail messages from local PST storage to the Exchange Server. In corporate deployment this means more than just purchasing more central storage.

2 New Open Source Microsoft Projects on Interoperability Blog

Application, Microsoft, PST-Files, Standards No Responses »

Jun 132010

Two new open source projects by Microsoft: PST Data Structure View Tool (here) and PST File Format SDK (here) both on the Codeplex Open Source Project Community portal. Both are discussed on the Ineroperability @ microsoft blog (here)

Microsoft initiative in Open Source with the PST standard is helpful for both open source projects and proprietary product developers. Microsoft Office documents use the open standard XML format. This has enabled many developers to integrate MS Office documents into many products. By using an open standard format (XML) in all Office documents, Microsoft enables users to take their data anywhere. Open source projects as well as proprietary products can use Microsoft generated data without a conversion stage. This benefits users by letting them start using new products with the data they already have. Building on Microsoft generated data is an effective strategy in building momentum in new applications. Why is this important to users and developers? The US today is going through an IT regulation phase. There are many new needs to implement new government regulations in the financial world. What the finance IT world gets will be useful to non-financial companies as well. Case in point: the BP oil spill in the gulf on Mexico. What will government regulators want from companies using state and federal resources? Probably the same as the financial regulators. World wide, there is a continuation of globalization and trade phase with many new regions developing more trade and at a more strategic levels. In the technology domain, many new changes, from LED displays replacing LCD and Plasma, to mobile devices, to integration of data sources and user interfaces to more reuse of information on many platforms, all are opportunities for develop new, useful products.
Continue reading »

Microsoft Opens .pst File Format

Application, PST-Files, Standards No Responses »

May 282010

Microsoft’s .pst database format is now an open specification. This will assure independent developers interoperability and less undocumented changes: extending Outlook just became easier and less risky.

Microsoft just released a complete PST format specification. Together with two utility programs and an SDK (Software Development Kit) this “opens up” the format. While Microsoft’s programs are still not really “open source” (you can not see the code for Outlook) the PST format is documented and public. DataMills, however, for three years now have already built a solid foundation to build new applications accessing the PST file. The SDK is a big change coming from Microsoft. It also assures one central place to interface with PST databases.

In a recent blog article, SeattlePI.com reported on the .pst file format documentation. The article, titled: “Microsoft continues opening up Outlook file format” reports on new documentation, two new tools and a developers SDK (Software Development Kit.) [see article here] All are in line with Microsoft’s policy in opening up their formats and enabling users and developers to use .pst files for both Outlook extension and other applications. This will be an exciting new phase for all kind of applications.