Windows Home Server finally hits the shelves today. There is a ton of news coverage over it, everything positive. Two models are on the street already, the product is easy to use, price is very attractive (starting at $599 for the HP MediaSmart Server that showed up at CES).
The most interesting summary comes from Nick Mokey at Wired:
“Windows Home Server gives users access to the features of having an ordinary server without needing the expertise to deal with it.”
And with those two lines comes the end of SMB server computing as we know it – the complex setup, overinvolved options, expensive maintenance and convoluted licensing are coming in a $599 plug-and-play box which at its core runs…. yup, SBS 2003.
For the riff-raff, this is a tombstone. For the true solution providers though, this is nothing but a godsent opportunity from Microsoft to target new markets and open up new possibilities where they were too complex and too expensive to ever stand a chance before. To those of you that think “Home”, that’s not “Business” I dare you to find me one SMB business owner that doesn’t do a ton of work at home. How is that computer managed, backed up, secured, monitored, accessed… This is the answer.
For the less coherent, more grammatically correct realtime insight, follow me on Twitter at