Entourage Web Services Edition a stepping stone to Outlook for Mac

Stephen Withers
Friday, 14 August 2009 07:15

IT Industry - Development

As for Time Machine, that works by backing up changed files. Closing a file adds it to the list of items to be backed up.

In that context, the problems with Entourage's approach is that the entire database file must be backed up even if the only change is the arrival of one new message, and that the database remains open as long as the program is running.

Moving to a file-based database solves both problems. Spotlight can directly index the files containing the individual emails and other items, and Time Machine can back them up.

It should also allow the retrieval of individual messages, contacts and so on from the Time Machine archive.

The Information Rights Management feature is the sort of thing that's either essential or of no interest whatsoever.

If your organisation uses it as a way of helping to avoid information leakage (eg, a protected spreadsheet can't be opened by someone that doesn't have the required rights, so if a whistleblower forwards it to a journalist or enforcement agency the recipient will be unable to read it), then it makes all the difference between being able to use Office for Mac or having to run the Windows version. Otherwise, you'll hardly notice that it is there.

MacBU senior marketing manager Amanda Lefebvre said Microsoft will provide users with a seamless transition from Entourage to Outlook, and that Office would continue to support Mac OS X's Sync Services.

What's happening with Entourage right now? See page 3.