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GEEKSPEAKby Aaron Booker

s SMB consultants and channelpartners with an interest intechnology, most of us have heard

of Microsoft’s Windows Home Server(WHS). Some of you may even associatethe words “home” and “Microsoft” withthings like “Bob” or “Windows Me.” Andfor those of you who heard about theissues when WHS first shipped – wherefiles that were opened directly from theserver *could* get corrupted – all of thepreceding have led you to avoid WHS. Oryou may have just been ignoring it,waiting for it to fade away like some ofthe products above.

What you may not know is that WHS hasbeen a very successful product since itslaunch just 18 months ago. WHS has beenadopted by enthusiasts all over the world,and there is a thriving “add-in” softwaremarketplace with both free and low-costsoftware applications to get WHS to dojust about anything you’d like it to. Andbest of all is that, underneath a simplifiedconsole, WHS is just Server 2003. WHS issolid technology that can do just aboutanything, once you use Remote Desktopto connect to it. You may be noticing atrend here – if you like Small BusinessServer (SBS), you’ll probably find WHS agreat operating system as well.

One of the people I interviewed for thisarticle was Steven Leonard, SeniorProduct Manager for the Windows HomeServer group at Microsoft. Steven gave mesome great background stories on howWHS came to be, as well as about howMicrosoft sees it being used currently.Microsoft definitely views WHS as havinga limited role in small business. Stevenwas careful to state that: “Some smallbusinesses may find the features ofWindows Home Server compelling, suchas backup of up to 10 computers,centralized file storage, and remote access.Something to consider is that WindowsHome Server cannot function as a domaincontroller or be joined to any ActiveDirectory domain. For more sophisticatedsmall businesses that plan on growing,Windows Small Business Server 2008 addsadditional business functionality andscales well beyond 10 users.”

A little history: A few years ago, a team atMicrosoft was noticing that home userswere increasing the number of PCs insidethe home. No longer was there just onecomputer in a home; computers weremultiplying – laptops coming home fromwork, kids with computers, Media CenterPCs, kitchen PCs, etc. So the WHS team(much like the Small Business ServerTeam did when SBS started) lookedaround at server bits different teams wereusing and started picking and choosing.The WHS team wanted to build a productthat was simple for home users to use,backed up their data automatically, andhelped them share data among their homecomputers. In the end the WHS teambuilt something that looks a lot like SBS –with features such as file sharing bothlocally and across the Internet (SharePoint“lite” is under the hood) and Remote WebWorkplace (really!) for accessingcomputers from remote locations. Theseremotely accessed computers have to beWindows XP Pro or Vista Business, in thesame way they have to be with SmallBusiness Server. The WHS Team also feltthat backup was critical – so they grabbedbits from the Windows Server 2008image-based backup solution. Thisbuilt-in backup software allows up to 10computers to be automatically backed upon a daily basis. The backup functionalityis pretty amazing – image-based for fastrestores and fast incremental backups.Also this backup solution is “smart” – soif you have five PCs with Vista on yournetwork, you back up all the identical filesonly once (including common Office 2007files). I can honestly say that this backuptechnology is what got our company,Hardlines, fired up about WHS. Thesecond part of our excitement was theprice. Acquiring WHS as a hardwareappliance that will backup 10 PCs(includes software and is legally licensed)at a starting retail of $599 is prettyamazing! This WHS price point is cheaperthan standalone backup softwaresolutions from third-party ISVs.

Some other WHS factoids include: • WHS is also available in an OEM

version from your distributor. Thiswould be an option for system builders

who build their own boxes. • Because WHS is based on Server 2003, it

can do just about anything Server 2003can. For example we’re using a WHS asa DHCP Server with BootP support fora client who needed BootP for its hostedvoice solution. Not only that, but theyget backup for their remote office PCs atno extra cost. All the features of Server2003 are available – you just use theAdd/Remove Programs feature afteryou Remote Desktop to the server toadd what you need.

Intrigued?If my article has you intrigued – I’d like totell you how other SBSers are using WHSin their practices. While writing thisarticle, I used our client base’s experiences(at Hardlines Company), and emaileddozens of Solution Providers/VARs whohave WHS installed. My research alsoincluded internal Microsoft WHS teaminterviews and speaking directly withsmall businesses that use WHS daily. Afew things became very clear – startingwith the name game. Nobody calls thisproduct “WHS” or “Windows HomeServer” when they are positioning it toclients or using it in their business. I’veheard a lot of creative names fromPartners; here are a just few: “WindowsMicro Server” (most common), “WindowsWorkgroup Server” (it supports up to 10PC clients – a Workgroup), “WindowsBackup Server” (the most common use inour SMB consulting space), “HP MediaSmart Server” (the most commonvendor/product name that partners areselling), or just the use of model numbers,e.g., Hewlett Packard EX485 or EX487.The one consistent theme, though, is thelack of the word “Home” in the marketingand sales from Partners. No real surprisethere, but still interesting. What it tells meis that, although Partners love theproduct, they don’t want to taint itsviability by getting that four-letter word“Home” associated with it.

As you might guess (and was validatedby my research) the most common use ofWHS is as a Backup Appliance. AlthoughWHS isn’t a domain controller, it serves asa great appliance in a domain environment.

A

Windows Home Server –Can It Be a Business Solution?

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You just install it as usual then install theagent software on up to 10 PCs that youwant to back up – and it quietly does thatjob, in the middle of the night, everytwenty-four hours. It has de-duplicationtechnology built in, so the amount ofstorage space used is very efficient. Itdoesn’t back up the same files on everymachine – just one instance of them. If thefiles are different in any way, they bothget backed up. The restore function iswhat is really impressive. If a user deletesa file or overwrites a file, the time neededto recover is literally seconds – just openup the agent (in the System Tray) andrestore it. If the issue is more serious, likea failed hard drive, you just replace theHD and put the restore CD in the PC andboot from it. You then point at the WHSserver you want to restore from (morethan one can be installed in largernetworks – we have up to three in onedomain) and pick the computer and thedate you want to restore from. In aboutan hour, your computer will be imagedand you’ll be back in business. It’s abeautiful thing.

ISV SupportLevel Platforms Incorporated (LPI) isspecifically supporting WHS as “theserver” for monitoring workgroups –including SBS boxes or whatever is there.This is a really nice MSP platform – andit’s cheap hardware. [Editor: See our MSPcover story to learn more about the MSP area.]Many of us are trying to find ways thatsmall workgroups (3-10 users) canbecome profitable. By using tools like LPI,you can nicely support that workgroupand charge them a monthly fee for it.

I interviewed Peter Sandiford, CEO ofLPI, about WHS/LPI and the SOHOmarket. As usual he had a lot of insight inthe MSP space – and the following to sayabout where they’re going with WHS.

“Windows Home Server is the perfectfirst server for the SMB market. Inaddition to providing full serverfunctionality and very easy nativeback up, with Managed Workplaceinstalled, WHS is transformed into afull Managed Services gatewayoffering full asset discovery, remotemonitoring of everything, patchmanagement, remote control, scriptautomation, reporting, and everythingelse MSPs provide to their largercustomers. With our recentlyintroduced monitoring of Hosted

Exchange from Microsoft BusinessProductivity Online Suite (BPOS) andGroupSpark, MSPs can also sell hostedmanaged Exchange providing acomplete and very inexpensive fullymanaged IT environment never beforeavailable to this market segment.Literally overnight, Windows HomeServer has created a great newuntapped market of over 2 millionbusinesses that are now open forbusiness to MSPs and solutionproviders serving the small end of themarket. Every solution providerselling Small Business Server needs toadd this product to their bag of tricks.”

Another way to monetize WHS is to do itthe same way that we used to with SBS –just use RWW or Remote Desktop toremote into the box to maintain andmanage it. I have a story about this tomake my point. As I was writing thisarticle, one of my techs and I were drivingto Seattle to install a WHS for a MicrosoftSBS executive. She and her husbandwanted a way to back up their work andhome PCs – and for their bookkeeper toremote in to do their books. Of course shecould use LogMeIn or the Live Mesh betafor that, but she really wanted theautomatic backup piece as well. Sinceshe’s 100 miles away from our office,we’re going to use RWW to manage theWHS machine remotely, as well as herhome PCs. If she ever gets a Mac at home(competitive research?), the HP MediaSmart WHS appliances have “Apple TimeMachine” support built in for Mac OS X10.5 or newer. We like that, as manyhomes and small offices haveheterogeneous networks.

WHS is vastly cheaper than SBS, bothupfront and ongoing. For the SmallOffice/Home Office, it’s great that there’sno Exchange Server management annuityfee requirement with WHS. In myopinion, that’s the single biggestdifference comparing WHS to SBS 2003 –no Exchange. If you do have a smallworkgroup that wants Exchange-basedemail, this is a great opportunity to startusing a cloud vendor to provide theExchange capability. But keep the hybridapproach of having the data backed uplocally on the WHS box. There are anumber of cloud vendors for Exchangehosting. We personally likeGroupSpark/Seismic from Ingram Micro.Of course, Microsoft has BPOS as well,but we won’t sell something that doesn’t

have our brand attached to it…

Recommended action: Buy an HP MediaSmart 485 or build a WHS with the WHSsoftware from the Action Pack. Back upall the laptops at your office. Save days ofrecovery time when a tech crashes theHD on his laptop. Restore that HD in anhour when that happens – instead ofperforming clean installs for “237”programs/tools/utilities and tweakingof same!

Aaron Booker is the CEO of Hardlinesand Varvid. I lead a technology firm – Hardlines Company– that provides outsourced IT to localbusinesses in Bellingham, Washington. Thebusiness also provides Internet-delivered videoto organizations that run the gamut from theFortune 500 to nonprofits and even down tohigh school graduations and basketball games.If your clients need help delivering video onthe Internet, we love to partner – whetherproviding live streaming services, streamingvideo on demand, or creating viral content forsites like YouTube. We specialize in helpingclients with events and testimonial video.Watch Varvid.com to see the upcoming eventsfor which we’ll be providing coverage.

Aaron Bookeraaronb@hardlines.com360.920.1339

ResourcesLearn more about WHS• We Got Served:

http://www.wegotserved.uk (thecenter of WHS news). This site hasreviews of hundreds of add-ins andcontent that is constantly updated –new vendors selling WHSappliances, etc.

• Windows Home Server Blog (from Microsoft):http://blogs.technet.com/homeserver/

• Microsoft WHS Home Page:https://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/default.mspx

• WHS manufacturers in the UnitedStates

• Hewlett Packard – Media SmartBrand: http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/mediasmart-server/

• Acer – Aspire EasyStore:http://tinyurl.com/pugm5s