HP MediaSmart Server powered by Windows Home Server

Bill Gates just wrapped up his keynote at CES, and for me the most interesting announcement was that of Windows Home Server.

The idea is that you install WHS on a relatively low-end PC (the minimum specs are a 1GHz CPU and 512MB of RAM), and plonk it in a cupboard at home. It doesn't need a monitor or keyboard - it's a "headless" OS.

You then install some client software on every PC on your network, and ... forget about it.

Every night, WHS will seek out the PCs connected to your home network, and back them up. It takes complete image backups of every PC, and gives you the ability to browse for individual files, or to do an image-based restore if you simply want to put a PC back the way it was at a given time. Backups are mirrored across disks, so if you lose a drive in your server you won't lose any files.

It also supports access to media from your Xbox 360, so you can stream pictures, music and video directly from it.

On top of that, it enables you to get access to your files securely from anywhere on the Internet. Obviously making use of the technology Microsoft acquired from FolderShare a while back. FolderShare is a great little product for synchronizing folders between multiple PCs, and accessing files over an encrypted Internet connection.

Considering you can build up a 1.5TB (yes, TB) machine for around AU$1200 nowadays ... this is a pretty compelling solution. Never have to worry about backups again. Ever.

Further reading:

ps. I wonder if this can actually back up your Xbox 360's hard drive? That would certainly solve the problem of migrating save games from one drive to another etc!