In my ECM article I mentioned that WSS didn’t provide support external storage for files and documents. However, Microsoft has recently released new functionality in an API trough a hotfix (which is probably why I didn’t notice it before. Who puts new functionality in a hotfix?) . I didn’t have any time yet to investigate further in this API, but sounding from the description it looks promising when there is an requirement for CAS & HSM storage of Sharepoint documents.

“An external storage API is available for Microsoft Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0. The external storage API lets you store documents or files on an external storage device other than Microsoft SQL Server. This API also lets you upgrade existing Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0 sites to point to an external storage device.”

It could be a very powerful feature in the records center in combination with the DoD-5015.2 that should be released fall 2007. Too bad that there isn’t any documentation available yet.

You can find information on the hotfix here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938499/en-us