Retention Policies - What's the purpose of Archiving?

[Mike Boehm]

Howdy,

We're looking to setup some retention policies and I'm not understanding what Archiving actually does.

For example, what's the difference between these two things:

• Emails stay in Inbox for 1 year and then move to Archive.  Emails stay in Archive for 1 year and are then deleted.
• Emails stay in Inbox for 2 years and are then deleted.

Either way emails are gone after two years but what happens during the 2nd year if emails are in Archive vs just in the Inbox?

Thanks.

[#2]

Well they don't stay in Inbox is what happens - less space used by the "main" mailbox, so less issues with Outlook cached mode, etc. With respect to the actual keeping/removing the item, it's no difference.