On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 10:43 PM, Ken Schaefer <k...@adopenstatic.com> wrote: > Hmm - do you use a DBMS (like SQL Server or Oracle) as well?
Actually, not really. We're small. (There's a couple MSDE instances, and a Firebird instance, all in support of various applications, but they're more "embedded" then something we use in and of itself.) And that's the thing: What typically separates an embedded database from a "real DBMS" is that a DBMS is generic, and has lots of general-purpose tools to explore and manipulate the data, independent of any particular application or use. Just like we have for a filesystem. Just like we *don't* have for ESE. :) More to the point, email doesn't really fit the database model. Email doesn't consist of fixed-length records, or rows and columns. Email is a bunch of discrete, variable-length entities, with arbitrary internal structure. In other words, it's a lot more like a bunch of files than database. Someone on the Sunbelt Exchange list once remarked that ESE is as much like a filesystem as it is a traditional database. Which I'm guessing is true. But that leads to the question... why not use the filesystem? :) Again, on my list of things to worry about, the nature of Exchange's backend storage is fairly far down. But if we're on the subject, I think the design has some issues, and there are ways it could be done better. I've also got plans for world peace. Just put me in charge of everything and we're all set... ;-) -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
