Calendar Sharing and resource limits

The only way that calendar sharing will bog down a server is if all the users have everyone's calendar open, so that when Outlook starts, it is opening every other mailbox.

If you are limiting who has access, then having all calendars shared is not a problem - I have a client with over 80 calendars shared.
They use an application called Look which seems to cope very well with this size. Only a few people need to see everyone's calendar - for the rest it is just a subset.

http://www.symprex.com/products/look

Simon.

Simon,

I'm wondering about not using a third party software though.  Can't I share Calendars using the Exchange Server?  I'm wondering why the third party, why not just use Exchange server? Is it too slow or complicated to set up?

Wendy

What the third party tool does is bring all the information together. You can see at a glance what everyone, team members etc are doing. This tool was used as a driver to get the staff to use Outlook calendar - as it made arranging meetings much easier. The few that didn't use the Outlook calendar were soon feeling left out.

It relies on the calendar being shared - so doesn't bring anything new to the table in that respect. However it does make the information much easier to share and work with.
Using native tools means opening everyone's calendar individually.

If you are implementing shared calendars then make sure that your users are told where the "Private" option is so that the content of an appointment can be hidden.

Simon.

"Using native tools means opening everyone's calendar individually."

Are you saying here that if we strictly use Exchange we would have to have (potentially) 25 Calendars open at once?  Any ideas what this means for the Exchange server?
-wendy

thanks Simon!