Exchange 5.5 Information store size/Mailbox size limits

[SaleenWRX]

Hello all,
I am looking for some help/information

My users are pack rats and store EVERYTHING in email

I have tried to impliment limits - but i am always told - I need everything

I am trying to get some info toghter that will support me in Strictly inforcing mail box size limits

So i need to here what your Information store size is, mail box limits, and number of users

Here is how I have it set up - I think I am being more then Generous and well over the industry standards - Please let me know...

Exchange 5.5 standard- 110 Users
Privite store size currently 9.98GIG - on a 46.8GIG drive
Limits
200000K - Warning
400000K - Prohibit send
500000K - Disable mailbox

Currently I have 10 users over 300000K and 9 users over 200000K

These users cried to the CFO and I was TOLD to give them more space - So I set up personal folders for each one

Now they are all over 500MB on their personal folders and some in the 900MB range - the personal folders are stored on their private network share's

Again they are crying for more space - even though they have junk in their Personal folders and Inboxes that they can remove - they say they do not have time.

And my BU times have Tripled, Their Personal shares are growing in excess of 1GIG a month

The Private store grew 2gig's in 5 weeks

As you can see I need to control this growth - So I need data to show that my limits are Reasonable and DATA and Mail storage and clean up IS PART OF THEIR JOB!!

 

[jonarden]

Thank you all for your previous posts! Here are a few additional points that some may find helpful in proposing solutions to management:

1. One issue is e-mailed attachments, especially if they are repeatedly edited and e-mailed back and forth. Provide project shares/folders on a file server for large documents being edited (and set-up specific user group permissions for those shares/folders). Educate users how to use change tracking feature in Word to edit those documents. This can help reduce the "repeat internal e-mailing of edited attachments" problem.

2. Provide user education and guidelines for saving critical attached e-mail documents and moving them to project folders on a file server. Have "Project Directors" assume responsibility for their project folder(s) size and contents.

3. Allocate mailbox limits based on type of user and need. Here's one example of a category set that can be modified for different company sizes (and which obviously gives upper management more e-mail storage).

User Type Warning Deny Send/Receive
Executive (4) 395,000K 400,000K
Elevated Project Director (2) 345,000K 350,000K
Project Director (15) 295,000K 300,000K
Elevated User (10) 145,000K 150,000K
Regular User (80) 49,000K 50,000K

"Elevated" space would be assigned on an "as needed" basis, based on project and job, and users would be assigned and removed from "Elevated" groups based on job need.

4. Some businesses (stock trading, some government contracting, etc.) have legal requirements to retain some types of e-mail; so user education, top level corporate policy, and special storage solutions are essential for cost avoidance and legal compliance in these cases.