Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 Administrator's Companion

Benefits of Using Storage Groups

These days, it is not uncommon to find Exchange databases that are massive—approaching 100 GB or more. The time necessary to back up these databases can exceed several hours. The problem with this is not the time it takes to back up the database, but the time it takes to restore such a large database. During the restoration, of course, your users’ productivity with regard to e-mail approaches zero. In Exchange database planning, the old cliché is a good one: Always plan for failure so that you can succeed. You’ll find that prudent use of storage groups helps you succeed during disaster recovery.

As you read earlier, in implementing storage groups and allowing multiple databases per Mailbox server, Microsoft has ...