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Time:
17:10 EST/22:10 GMT | News Source:
ActiveWin.com |
Posted By: Robert Stein |
My name is Todd Headrick and I am the product planner for the Microsoft Windows Home Server. I have been working on this product for a few years now, and I am looking forward to sharing my knowledge about Home Server here on this blog.
The Windows Home Server team is eager to share news, insights and information about our product. And we're equally eager to hear your thoughts and feedback. This blog will include contributions from the product management team, development team, support team and the marketing team.
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#1 By
23275 (68.17.42.38)
at
2/4/2007 12:11:15 PM
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Woot! I am so glad to see news on this new product. Every so often, a new product, or idea cathces a lot more of our attention than the others coming out at a CES. I think the new Home Server is going to be a "sleeper" - that not easy to spot car that is not overdone outwardly, but smokes anyone off the line that dares challenge it. No boy-racer frills, no fancy face... just a lot of power and performance. Anyone who's ever built up cars, or custom PC's for whatever reason, knows what I'm taking about - to be able to build something that has a presence, but isn't overdone on the outside. That's harder to do in the virtual world, but it can be just as satisfying and even more so when what is built has so much potential to solve so many challenges at once.
The Home Server is going to be extremely popular with people of all types - and especially small partners and integrators looking for answers to the challenges that home users with three or more PC's face. It's going to be a sleeper and share many of the qualities that make that kind of rig so special - intelligent yet simple and practical, efficient yet powerful and reliable.
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#2 By
2960 (24.254.95.224)
at
2/4/2007 6:42:07 PM
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It depends on what it costs :)
TL
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#3 By
23443 (75.132.183.93)
at
2/4/2007 10:35:00 PM
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I'm hoping that they expand the scope of this to include a "communication server" component, namely Exchange 2007 Lite, with mail, fax and voice mail all in one mailbox.
I am running SBS 2K3 R2 at the moment, but it's overkill for my wife and I and our son. This could hit the sweet spot for me if it's done right, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I wasn't the only post on the blog asking for a mail server, so we'll see what happens.
TowerDave
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#4 By
23275 (68.17.42.38)
at
2/5/2007 12:16:49 AM
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#3, Great ideas. I think a hybrid solution would be best - a mix of resident Home Server features and Live based services for a hosted domain, family centric SharePoint sites with both private and public/friends accessible pages and hosted Exchange 2007 services with communications via IP would be great.
Hosted Exchange services can supply a family with all the benefits of a full MS MAPI connection, client services and dedicated GAL/OL, etc... RPC over HTTPS and the ability of OL2003/2007 to cache content and poll with the server make this both very secure, and possible. OL client performance is as good as it is on a LAN.
This would also provide a clear path to both better presence awareness solutions and "anywhere" solutions which would make your and your family's content and profiles available no matter what machine you logged into - hybrid DFS and rep services could keep all machines in your home and office sync'd and consistent.
If Xbox can "see" the Home Server, it'd make a great container for all the content people can download and store from the Xbox and Zune marketplaces. Add IPTV and user defined preferences and one would have a really nice set of distributed services - fast and practical with each type of system doing what it does best - rich local clients enhanced by background and on-demand information from many types of server based services.
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#5 By
23443 (63.93.197.67)
at
2/5/2007 9:46:09 AM
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I'm not big on hosted Exchange, although my mind could be changed. Here is my dream "Home Server" product:
1. Take what has already been publicized about this product, it's a good start.
2. Add in Exchange 2007 Lite (10 users max, with access to e-mail, voice mail and faxes, possibly using a standard voice modem on a phone line. I know that the full version of 2007 requires a PBX, but maybe they could modify it to use a voice modem.)
3. Add in Sharepoint Lite to provide secured (by user/password) access to photos and other files on the server. It would rock if I could go to my parents' house and login to the server to get mail, voice mail, and show them all the new photos we have, without having to burn to a DVD and haul up there with me. Also to have access to documents, files, etc. This part could be integrated with the Live Domains somehow, but I want remote access to my files.
4. I'm thinking 5 client licenses, tied to machine, not user, would be enough for a default, with additional license available.
I'm looking forward to beta testing this (if my hardware will support it.)
TowerDave
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#6 By
23275 (68.17.42.38)
at
2/5/2007 10:31:43 AM
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#5, what you describe is exactly what we do for businesses and people - well, a small part of the base services, in any case, but just the same, exactly what we provide to businesses and then extend in private and secure ways, to the people and their homes - taking that last part to extreme measure, by integrating the home(s) to the office(s) and media - and NOT/NOT just for wealthy people, either, but all people - some scaling is just smaller, where say only one or two users and one large screen are integrated in a home. We even add video, conferencing, etc... and top it off with animated real-time reporting in personal and team dashes that monitor all sorts of things - from sales numbers, to soccer schedules.
The idea is selling all things, like hardware, and networks, as services and improving the quality of both work and life. It's like crack - for both ourselves and the customers, because it really does work and it really does help. The real trick is balance and timing - not doing too much, too fast. So one has to take care to have a platform and plans that are flexible enough to make it happen in a way that works for all people of all types. For example, managing the mess of ISP's for people - where Bellsouth DSL services conflict with the address spaces that are issued by say a Linsys Router/WAP - typically, we get a call from a business customer to see if we can help one of them at home. Which we do at no charge and in a few seconds set the router to simply issue in a new address space - ending the mess for good. Normally, we do a cleanup on whatever system we're putting in and then we harden it. That always results in, "what about..." kind of questions and the slow, crawl, walk, run... move toward integration begins. The neat part is watching how it really does change people - how they can do more and how the frustration ends, - one web page from which they can do all they need to. A starting point, if you will. So for me, Home Server means I can do this more easily and more quickly, and extend this sort of thing to more people of different types.
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#7 By
23275 (68.17.42.38)
at
2/5/2007 10:45:51 AM
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I'm not big on hosted Exchange, although my mind could be changed.
#5, if done right, it would be changed in a matter of moments. It has to be safe, fee of SPAM and false positives, have zero infections, unlimited in size, fast, and reliable. It has to be managed and fully support mobile push, web access and any client type... e.g., web, MS MAPI, POP, IMAP and any combination. Finally, one has to be able to have it all set up on as many clients systems as are needed and they all need to stay sync'd up and stay that way - read a mail on your mobile device and all connected clients and applications have to reflect that. Add a contact at any one of them, it has to do the same thing. Connect all that with a presence token in personal, team and customer workspaces and then connect that to your communciations system(s) and you have a solid service. Connect all that to real-time business intelligence products and one can do more a lot more quickly and spend a lot more time with one's family.... and Latch always wonders why I have so much time to write here... it is very simple, not only do I work this way, and my team mates do, but most importantly, MY CUSTOMERS also work this way and as such, their stuff works and I don't get hammered by support calls and dead systems and when a system part does die, and because I built it, I know why it died and can have it fixed in a few moments. We also don't have to sell at all - our customers sell for us. As I said, Home Server will only make this that much better and easier to get our hands around all that digital media people crave.
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