Windows Server Finally Comes Home
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It must be November, that month when Microsoft rolls out new consumer goodies. This morning, the company proclaimed that Windows Home Server-based systems are now "generally available." |
What Microsoft means by "generally available" is preorder of two Windows Home Server models from one manufacturer. Line up to get them folks—and try to understand Microsoft code words for when "when" doesn't mean "now."
HP will offer two MediaSmart Home Server models, the EX470 and EX475, sometime really soon. Sure, the computers run a derivative version of Windows Server 2003 R2, but must the names be so much more suitable for the rack room than the living room?
Microsoft lists the servers as $599 with 500MB of storage and $749 for 1TB of storage. But Amazon.com lists them for more—$708 and $885, respectively—but sells them for less, as in $534.99 and $679.99. Best Buy lists the 500MB model for the $599, also as preorder and online only. Buy.com and Circuit City.com also are supposed to carry the servers, which aren't apparently scheduled to make store shelves anytime soon.
The online, early sales approach says something about how techie-niche Windows Home Server really is. Microsoft positions Windows Home Server as a consumer product, which may be more true next holiday sales season than this one. Still, the software has its place, and my money is on the sole proprietorship and very small business for this first release. Products like MediaSmart Home Server are right for people who commingle personal and professional data but don't need or want Small Business Server 2003 R2.
"Some of the small-business implementations are going to be the biggest for Windows Home Server," Microsoft WHS Senior Product Manager Joel Sider told me last week. I agree but will go further: This is potentially a great channel product, but Windows Home Server will have to be sold. I mean sold hard—and online only won't be enough. Conceptually, people might have an idea that they need something like Windows Home Server, but they'll really need to see it to understand. Windows Home Server packs cool backup—and even some remote access and personal Web services—features that really will need more hands-on experience than explanation.
TiVo is the classic example showing what's ahead for Microsoft. I remember the early DVR days, when TiVo or Windows Media Center users tried to explain the benefits to other folks. Some products really need to be used first, before people grok them. Windows Home Server is one of those products. By the way, Microsoft's Windows Home Server promo and video page is pretty good at conveying some benefits. But touch-and-feel is more important, and the channel needs to connect end user and product.
Strangely, Windows Home Server may get some unexpected marketing benefit from, of all companies, Apple. Mac OS X 10.5 (aka Leopard) comes with new backup feature Time Machine, which offers many of the same benefits as Windows Home Server, including incremental backup and recovery of recent content versions. Apple is doing a great job explaining Windows Home Server benefits in Time Machine marketing. Microsoft and its partners should ride Time Machine's coattails.
What I find interesting is how different are the Apple and Microsoft product approaches. To get back to your computer or to back it up, Microsoft sells a separate server product. By contrast, Apple offers similar benefits in Time Machine and other Leopard feature Back to My Mac, without requiring the end user to plunk down hundreds of extra dollars.
Microsoft's approach is indicative of a trend started in earnest during the 2003 product release cycle: Increase the number of version SKUs by breaking out more features from one (or more) product and extending them across others. Backup and remote access capabilities are longstanding Windows client features. While they got modest makeover in Vista, the real new versions come in new product Windows Home Server.
The SKU strategy is really starting to pay off with Office 2007 and Windows Vista, for which Microsoft successfully and subtlety raised prices by way of new versions. Microsoft chocked up some of the payoff during its 2008 fiscal first quarter, where revenues came in more than a $1 billion over company guidance.
Circling back, Windows Home Server gives end users quite a bit more server and storage bang for that extra buck than they would get with Time Machine. For starters, dedicated hardware and separate storage.
Something else: Apple's Time Machine is an annoying piece of work, or so I say. There's simplicity—and then there's too much of it. On Sunday night, I replaced my father-in-law's aging G4 iMac with a newer G5 model, loaded up with Leopard. I had planned on plugging in an external hard drive to let Time Machine back up his machine. But for the first backup, Time Machine offered no real option other than a full backup of the entire computer. That's a little too simple.
Apple's marketing tagline is "Time Machine. A giant leap backward." How absolutely true! Apple's push-the-button-and-back-up-everything approach is so 1990s. Better: Only back up the stuff that matters—and give the end user more choice about what's important. Sure as there's a sun tomorrow, some Mac user will call wrong what I've said about Time Machine. Please take your Time Machine and keep on living in the past.
Still, Apple's got a little future here. External hard drives are cheap. Do consumers really need a whole server product to do what a network-attached storage device could do with some good backup software—and for lots less money?
Last week, I asked Sider about storage-server convergence because so many Windows Home Server partners are more traditional storage manufacturers. I wondered whether some Windows Home Server products might get more storage positioning.
"We see this as being in the PC aisle," he responded. "We don't regard Home Server as a storage product."
Related Posts:
- Windows Home Server Is Golden, July 16, 2007
- One Plus One Equals Two Care, Microsoft Watch, July 11, 2007
- Windows Home Server Is Almost Home, Microsoft Watch, June 12, 2007
- 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, Jan. 8, 20007
- Windows Home Server Predictions, Microsoft Watch, Jan. 8, 2007
- Microsoft Connects the Den and Living Room, Microsoft Watch, Jan. 7, 2007
- The Ghost of CES Future, Microsoft Watch, Jan. 3, 2007
Comments (14)
Ok why. 500 AUD for a NAS with 1 TB of storage that does almost everything it does . Only using 60 watts max. 4 watts idle.
Basically over priced.
Posted by oiaohm | November 5, 2007 1:56 AM
I think MS have lost the plot with WHS. If they do educate people to the benefits of a Windows Home Server then they may fall victim to their own success.
If you were to build your own "Home Server" from scratch then you can take home a 500Gb hard drive for $99. Some retailers have CPU/Mobo bundles for around $60. Giving you an Athlon 3200, which is more than enough power. $50 gets you at least 1Gb of memory. $50 on a case. Add another 500Gb drive and you have spent $360. You then are faced with the question is WHS worth spending $300 on?
Also, I believe that 3rd party companies will provide some of the functionality that WHS provides that you can install on your existing PC. So you can convert your existing machine into a WHS, and use the $700+ to buy yourself a spanking brand new machine.
I cannot see any techie in their right mind buying a WHS server. Why on Earth would they? And why on Earth would a consultant advice a small business to buy a WHS server. When they could probably buy an off the shelf PC and add a 500gb drive and probably only have to spend $50-$100 more to get Server 2003 Small Business. ($429 Small Business Server 2003 - 5 CAL)
It is just too expensive a product for what you get and aimed at the wrong people completely.
Posted by William | November 5, 2007 4:10 AM
Crazy wrong. Time Machine allows you to select which directories you'd like to include/exclude in the backup. Only by default does the app backup the entire disk.
For the people that are storing files out on this this thing.. what is backing up the Windows Home Server should (when) the OS or hardware goes toes up?? And don't tell me RAID. RAID is not a backup!!
Completely FUD article.
Posted by devnull | November 5, 2007 7:48 AM
Line up to get them folks-and try to understand Microsoft code words for when "when" doesn't mean "now."
For when "journalism" does not mean "proof reading"....
Posted by Bob | November 5, 2007 8:05 AM
Microsoft either settled with VCSY or they are just suicidal! We'll see!
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/071105/aqm103.html?.v=27
Microsoft Commits to November Release Date for Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5
Monday November 5, 8:00 am ET
Microsoft expands interoperability options for partners, delivers new innovations with Microsoft Sync Framework and Popfly Explorer releases.
-------------------------------------------------
FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2007
Vertical Computer Systems, Inc. Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Microsoft Corporation
Fort Worth, TX, April 20, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE)? Vertical Computer Systems, Inc. (OTCBB: VCSY)(www.vcsy.com) announced today that on April 18, 2007, Vertical Computer Systems, Inc. filed suit for patent infringement against Microsoft Corp. in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. VCSY claims that the Microsoft .Net System infringes U.S. Patent No. 6,826,744.
Posted by I-Man | November 5, 2007 8:21 AM
Microsoft either settled with VCSY or they are just suicidal! We'll see!
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/071105/aqm103.html?.v=27
Microsoft Commits to November Release Date for Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5
Monday November 5, 8:00 am ET
Microsoft expands interoperability options for partners, delivers new innovations with Microsoft Sync Framework and Popfly Explorer releases.
-------------------------------------------------
FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2007
Vertical Computer Systems, Inc. Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Microsoft Corporation
Fort Worth, TX, April 20, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE)? Vertical Computer Systems, Inc. (OTCBB: VCSY)(www.vcsy.com) announced today that on April 18, 2007, Vertical Computer Systems, Inc. filed suit for patent infringement against Microsoft Corp. in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. VCSY claims that the Microsoft .Net System infringes U.S. Patent No. 6,826,744.
Posted by I-Man | November 5, 2007 8:24 AM
Joes, can we please stop I-Man spouting his spam.
Posted by William | November 5, 2007 10:46 AM
Claiming WHS is a consumer product is like trying to sell a dovetail joiner template to weekend DIY carpenters. Sure a few might pick up the torch and run with it, but without some serious advertising, merchandising, and after sale hand-holding, this thing is going nowhere. My guess is 90% of potential customers will avoid this product completely.
Maybe selling to the 10% uber-geeks is all MSFT wants in order to call this a success. Are there any adults working in the marketing group at Redmond?
Posted by freddy | November 5, 2007 11:16 AM
Everex notebook to spur 'Jobs effect' for Linux
http://www.electronista.com/articles/07/11/02/everex.300.linux.notebook/
Quote from the link: "Everex will have brand-new notebooks that popularize Linux by making it accessible and widespread in the same way Steve Jobs generated success for the Mac, the company revealed today. Like the company's new $199 gPC desktop, the portables would achieve an extremely low baseline price of $300 or less by running a custom Linux distribution known as GOS; the variant on Ubuntu Linux is designed to be more accessible to newcomers but retains the open-source design and typically free licensing. This could be essential for Linux adoption in the general market, where difficult software can easily scare away users; Apple has recognized this, according to GOS Linux founder David Liu."
Posted by chips | November 5, 2007 12:52 PM
Maybe I don't have Apple Time Machine's capabilities full understood, but the obvious power of WHS is its ability to backup more than one desktop and, or laptop. Given the ease at which users are also able to remotely access their data, this would appear to be a very good product. For now, it will remain a niche product, but slowly this could be a solid addition to the Windows SKU lineup.
Posted by jay | November 5, 2007 3:54 PM
No Linux is a little sneaker that just installing Linux instead of windows. Everex is just marketing.
Most instant on tech so far for computers is Linux. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/05/1533209&from=rss
Ie use Linux until windows gets its act into gear.
Question is how long until use Linux until you need something from windows then boot windows. Basically at long last the true Linux run for the desktop has started. Problem is they are looking to turn computers into nothing more than devices.
Note my 500 AUD not that is lower in USD dollar nas. Is a custom soc chip. Main advantage bugger all power usage a no soc system cannot get close.
Its like the Linux Server Market Loss in X86. They nicely miss that NAS servers using all kinds of different chips is current is in booming. Yes Linux percent loss in x86 is that is beating the crap out itself. The NAS's are booming because they have insanely low power usage. You would think that home users would want that too. Samba 4 release will be a test if this home server is worth it. Samba 4 as well as supporting ADS it clusters.
So if I over load my NAS box just get another NAS box and sit down beside it and clone while still appearing to be one NAS on the network.
Basically MS Home Sever lacks function. Next question can a Linux NAS with Samba 4 and other applications destroy MS Small Business Servers.
The game is going to be taken to MS. Question are they ready. Vista sure the hell was not. It completely missed the critical market.
Posted by oiaohm | November 5, 2007 5:47 PM
Game-changer: Asus Eee PC a win for Intel and Linux, at Microsoft's expense
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071105-game-changer-asus-eee-pc-a-win-for-intel-and-linux-at-microsofts-expense.html
Quotes from the link:
"Intel wins, and Microsoft loses
Thanks to its combination of Intel hardware and a non-bloated Linux install, reviewers found that Asus's little laptop performs just as well as much larger and more expensive Windows notebooks."
Posted by chips | November 6, 2007 12:39 PM
MS Home Server Marketing Missteps
http://www.marketingshift.com/2007/11/ms-home-server-marketing-missteps.cfm
Quote from the link:
"Most consumers won't want to pay $600 to $750 and set up a server just to share photos around the house. Shouldn't Vista be able to do this on its own, why do I need another box?"
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Set yourself and your business free, download and try some of the free community distro's from distrowatch.com Chips recommends SimplyMepis and PCLinuxOS.
Posted by chips | November 6, 2007 2:28 PM
There is a minor reason for it.
Linux NASs do media streaming to Xbox's PS3 and the like. So you don't need your power eating computer on to do it.
If you don't mind Linux set a Linux NAS up right and you can diskless remote boot linux on them. Ie computers without hard drives everything stored in server.
So 2 computers 1 set of updates. Basically MS Home Server is feature lacking.
Posted by oiaohm | November 7, 2007 2:15 AM