Public Folders

If users will access public folders, will they connect to public folder replicas in their site, or will they connect to public folders in remote sites by using public folder affinity?

Determine when public folder replications will occur between sites. When you configure the public folder replication schedule, remember that message traffic will also be generated.

If your users frequently connect to public folders in another site, you should replicate the public folders to the local site to minimize traffic across the site connection. If your users do not connect to public folders frequently in another site, configure public folder affinity between the sites to minimize replication traffic across the connection. If there are multiple sites with a replica of the same folder, determine the order of connection attempts, based on a public folder affinity cost parameter.

You should also consider how you group servers into locations. A location is a group of servers connected across a network. By grouping servers into locations, you enable users to access public folder replicas more quickly because each server automatically searches for public folder replicas within its location.

Also consider who has permission to create top-level public folders and how public folders should be organized. For example, you could organize public folders by topic, language, or department.