One technique that I see frequently splits the message body from the header info. The message body is stored as a flat file in a directory, but the header and threading information is stored in an RDBMS.

Where this really comes into its own is when you store the headers in an RDBMS on a SAN, and keep the file refs for the bodies on a NAS system. It scales wonderfully huge!

If the data that would be stored in the database has few relationships, then you wouldn't necessarily have to use a fullblown RDBMS; you could simply use a collection of flat files, or a simpler DB, like .dbm files. That way, you could exploit things like tie; Tie::File for files, and even DBI for more complex structures.

Thoughts,
-v

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