Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server: Building Knowledge-Sharing Applications

Why does the title of this chapter include the Exchange store when this book is all about SPS? The answer to this question is quite straightforward if you understand the intricacies of marketing. With the release of Exchange 2000, the next evolution of the Information Store was delivered and known as the Web Storage System (WSS). [1] The WSS was always intended to serve as a foundation for other products, and therefore a name that was not necessarily tied to Exchange made sense. SPS was the second product to use the WSS as a foundation, and shortly after its release, Microsoft decided to rename it the Exchange store (no new functionality, just a name change). More correctly, Microsoft felt that the WSS was being viewed as a product rather than just a technology that was used by other products. Therefore, when referring to Exchange 2000, the WSS is now known as the Exchange store, and when referring to SPS, it is known as the document store. To simplify this further we will use a generic term of store unless we need to specifically identify the actual product. Clearly, the term Web Storage System will still be around for some time to come, as it will take a while to remove it from all documentation and utilities that are out there. It's our guess that if you are a marketeer this paragraph may make sense to you; if not, we suggest you just carry on reading and don't let...