As an alternative to Public Folders, consider Site Mailboxes. Site mailboxes improve collaboration and user productivity by allowing access to both SharePoint Server documents and Exchange email that are in the same client interface. A site mailbox consists of SharePoint Server site membership (owners and members), shared storage through an Exchange Server mailbox for email messages and a SharePoint Server site for documents, and a management interface that addresses provisioning and life-cycle needs. SharePoint Server documents that are viewed in the site mailbox are stored only on SharePoint Server. For more information, see Configure site mailboxes in SharePoint Server.