Windows Home Server Is Golden

The milestone is significant for reasons not necessarily obvious. While slow development and release schedules have become common practices for most Microsoft products, a handful of them move along at, comparably, fairly rapid pace. Windows Home Server is one example. Windows Live OneCare, which went into version 2.0 beta last week, is another.

Microsoft announced Windows Home Server in early January, during the Consumer Electronics Show. Based on Windows Server 2003 R2, Home Server went from announcement to RTM in little more than six months. Albeit, the entire process took longer than six months. Microsoft formed the Windows Home Server (then "Quattro") product group in April 2005. Two-and-a-half years, from start of a new product to its RTM, is brisk by Microsoft standards. By comparison, more than five years separated Windows XP and Vista releases and nearly five years will pass between the launches of Windows Server versions 2003 and 2008. Longer development cycles are more typical.

Last week, Microsoft Watch commenter Paul observed: "We're all watching for signs of life from the executive suite, boardroom and 'R&D' labs in Redmond."

Faster development of products like Windows Home Server—and supporting marketing—shows "signs of life" somewhere in Redmond. The groups working on these products could and should set the development agenda for other Microsoft application divisions.

Many, but not all, of the products on faster development tracks seek to open up a marginally tapped U.S. market segment: The multi-PC household. From my days working as an analyst, I observed that multi-PC households typically had different needs and exhibited different behavior than homes with just one computer.

The differences are exacerbated by increased mobility. IDC predictes that U.S. notebook shipments will exceed desktops during this quarter. Notebook shipments already exceed desktops in Europe and Japan and IDC predicts the same worldwide by 2010. Whereas, in the past, that second computer was a desktop, it's more likely now to be notebook. Multi-PC and multi-mobile households create new needs for information access and protection.

Apparently, Microsoft understands this need and the opportunity. Windows Home Server is rightly positioned for the multi-PC/multi-mobile market. Same can be said of Windows Live OneCare and other services under the Live—whether Office or Windows—brand. While Live hasn't been setting development records compared to some Web platform (e.g., Web 2.0) applications or services, the pace is brisk compared to most other Microsoft products.

"With multi-PC homes now common—50 percent of U.S. households have multiple PCs—and growing collections of media and content, this is an idea whose time has come," Michael Gartenberg, a JupiterResearch research director, said of Windows Home Server.

"Consumers are now faced with the same tasks as small businesses in terms of management and backup and lack the resources," he emphasized. "Dad doesn't want to be CIO, mom doesn't want to run the help desk and the kids don't want to do tech support." The point is to give consumers tools to "manage and safeguard their digital assets."

Windows Home Server, Windows Live Folders and Windows Live OneCare 2.0 seek to solve problems specific to multi-PC or multi-mobile households, such as anytime backup and data access and simpler management. These three products also hook together in some way. OneCare's backup feature is designed to work in concert with Home Server's similar utility. Similarly, OneCare can backup data to Live Folders.

It's encouraging to see some new products on faster developer cycles and also focusing on untapped market opportunities. What's disappointing: How little Microsoft has done with Office 2007 and Windows Vista with respect to pace of development and offering features for the multi-PC and multi-mobile markets, which include very small businesses as much as consumers. There are certainly some multi-PC/multi-mobile features within both products, but they're not core, as they should be.

For some time, I've thought Microsoft should make one or several internal startups—groups that are christened with the task of developing new products free of all legacy ties, whether they be other other Microsoft software or existing customer considerations. Microsoft makes too many compromised decisions because of its existing software and customers.

Should such startups be given the freedom to really innovate and release products unfettered by legacy concerns, Microsoft could establish a road map for its own transformation. Is such as thing possible? Commenters, I ask you to please answer that question.

[Editor's Footnote: We avoided temptation to abbreviate Windows Home Server, because WHS looks to much like the name of a high school.]

Related Posts:

• One plus One Equals Two Care, Microsoft Watch, July 11, 2007
• Live Lives, But How Well?, Microsoft Watch, June 27, 2007
• Windows Home Server is Almost Home, Microsoft Watch, June 12, 200
• What's What with Windows Home Server?, Microsoft Watch Podcast, May, 15, 2007
• Windows Server Is Coming Home, Microsoft Watch, May 15, 2007
• Windows Home Server Reaches Beta 2, Microsoft Watch, Feb. 13, 2007
• Live from CES, Microsoft Watch, January 8, 20007
• Windows Home Server Predictions, Microsoft Watch, January 8, 2007
• Microsoft Connects the Den and Living Room, Microsoft Watch, January 7, 2007
• The Ghost of CES Future, Microsoft Watch, Jan. 3, 2007