Solution Providers: Data Store Migration Will Take Patience

But with progress comes challenges. After Microsoft ships the next release of SQL Server, code-named Yukon, due next year, it plans to make that code the foundation for a new Exchange Server data store, the company said last week during its TechEd conference here.

A Microsoft executive promises an easy migration for current Exchange Server applications once the data store is changed. "We've got 100 million clients on Exchange. . . . We're not going to slap IMAP and SMTP on top of a database and call it 'unbreakable' [as Oracle did. We'll do things [to make migration easy," said Gordon Mangione, vice president of SQL Server at Microsoft.

After Yukon debuts, Microsoft plans to start moving new applications to the SQL Server technology. It will migrate legacy applications "at a pace that makes business sense for users," Mangione said.

Solution providers are less hopeful. "It's never an easy transition. Where was the easy transition from Site Server to Commerce Server? What will happen to applications built around shared Exchange folders?" said one solution provider who requested anonymity.

Another solution provider echoed his sentiments: "We've done a ton of application work atop Exchange Server, and I'd say none of that will transition easily."

However, he said the move to transition to a relational store is "absolutely the right one" for Microsoft.

Ironically, Microsoft and rival IBM's Lotus Software Group appear to be in the same boat on the data storage issue. Even as Microsoft prepares the SQL Server update, Lotus plans to transition Domino off its Notes Storage Facility to a DB2-based store after it ships Release 6 later this year.

Lotus likely will be more impacted by the technology transition than Microsoft, said Matt Cain, an analyst at Meta Group. "People haven't written [as many apps atop Exchange, so whether or not those apps will run or break on SQL Server is almost immaterial. The converse is true with IBM. Most organizations have a significant investment in applications written atop Domino, and there's no question that they'll break moving to the new Domino," he said.