
They’re available in Exchange Online

Great for simple sharing and
distribution list archiving in Outlook

Site Mailboxes and SharePoint are
better for rich document
collaboration

No changes to end user experience
• Working towards a
shared outcome/purpose
• Working together on
shared deliverables
• Need to get all the tools
we need to be successful
• History of public
conversations
• Accessible to everyone
• Discoverable/searchable
for everyone
• Not in the inbox
• Team appears as virtual
identity (e.g.,
sales@contoso.com)
• Working on shared queue
of incoming requests
• Answering as the virtual
identity, not the individual
• Delivering information
into the inboxes of a
group of people
Working
together as a
team
Public,
unobtrusive
conversations
Working on
behalf of a
virtual entity
Direct
communications
with a group
Shared Mailboxes
Distribution Lists
Site Mailboxes
Public Folders
What’s new?
Migration support from E2010 and E2007
Cross-premise & cross-forest access:
E2013 E2013, E2013  E2010, E2013  E2007
OWA access for Public Folders
EAC UI for admin tasks
Public Folder and Mailbox restore
Full text search
Automated Storage Management for service customers
Clients
- Outlook 2013, Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007 + updates
- Outlook Web App (in Exchange Online)
Exchange Server
- E2013 users can access E2013 / E2010 / E2007 Public Folders
- E2007/E2010 users cannot access E2013 Public Folders, so migrate Public
Folder users before Public Folder data
Migration support
- Cutover migration from E2010 and E2007
- Same forest and cross-premise
Public Folder databases replaced by mailboxes
High availability, data redundancy, and low cost storage support
through use of DAGs
Multi-master replication simplified and replaced by single-master
replication of folder hierarchy
Public Folder architecture
Architectural bet
Public
logon
Public Logon
Public
logon
CAS 2013
Red Folder
Green Folder
Blue Folder
Pink Folder
Public folders are based on the mailbox
architecture
Details
• Hierarchy is stored in all public folder
mailboxes
• Content can be broken up and placed
across multiple mailboxes
• Similar administrative features
• No end-user changes
Yellow Folder
Storage and scale
Create a mailbox in a DAG
• New-Mailbox -PublicFolder
Users create folders and messages
• Users grow
• Create more mailboxes! (NewMailbox -PublicFolder)
• Hierarchy is copied automatically
Users create more folders and
messages
• Mailbox grows. Split it!
• Split-PublicFolderMailbox.ps1
Like one big online mailbox move, but migrate users first.
Exchange 2007
1. Prepare
Outlook clients
Install Exchange SP and/or updates across the ORG
Migrate all users that require access to Exchange 2013
2. Analyze
4
E2007 SP3 RU or E2010 SP3
1
E2013 CU1 or Exchange Online
2
Map PF folders to PF mailboxes
PF dbase 1
MBX
PFs
PF dbase 2
PF
Take snapshot of existing PF folder structure, statistics and
permissions
PF dbase 3
3. Create new Public Folder mailboxes
Set to HoldForMigration Mode, mailboxes invisible to clients
PF mbx 1
3
5
4. Begin Migration Request
MBX MBX
PF mbx 2
6
PF mbx 3
Clients continue to access and create new data during copy
After copy is complete migration request status is
AutoSuspended
5. Finalize Migration Request
Update snapshot of existing PF folder structure, statistics
and permissions
Lock source, clients logged off, final sync occurs
6. Validate
Check and verify destination folders
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj150538%28v=exchg.150%29
http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2012/11/08/public-folders-in-the-new-office.aspx
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/messaging/contents/exchange/6029.modern-publicfolders.aspx