The Windows Home Server product is finally available at some outlets in the USA and Canada. The supply chain players differ by geography. With a version 1 product in a new product category, it takes awhile for System Builders to get it on their radar and order the product. Once an order is placed through a distributor, then the distributor has to get the part number in their systems and place an order with an Authorized Replicator (AR). The discs are manufactured by an Authorized Disk Duplicator. And the manuals get printed by yet another company.
In smaller countries, these companies may be one in the same or in very close proximity to one another. In larger geographies, there are many companies involved and there is transit time. For example, for North American orders - the manuals usually get printed in Canada, the disks usually get imaged in Mexico and the whole assembly is put together in Puerto Rico. And getting back to the first point, it all starts by a System Builder placing an order.
We have been following the excitement around the world as the Windows Home Server beta testers discover that the product is available for them from a local system builder. We have also been following the anticipation and angst. The product is now being ordered and inventoried by system builders in multiple countries around the world that is the key first step in the process. If you have a favorite outlet that you like to buy stuff from, then you should ask them to stock Windows Home Server since it has been on the Microsoft price list since August 1.
Here is a listing of the key part numbers for the Windows Home Server System Builder SKU:
Not all languages are available in all geographies, as I can't easily get a German version in the US.
t.
Yesterday here on campus we hosted a fun event to select the Code2Fame Challenge winners. The three finalists presented their Add-In wares to a panel of esteemed judges, who in turn determined the first, second and third prizes…each with an associated award of cold, hard cash. Without further ado, the winners are (drumroll, please):
First prize: Andrew Grant for Whiist. Whiist is a very cool (and free) Add-In that allows users to easily host multiple web pages and photo albums on Windows Home Server. With Whiist it’s a snap to make an Office document – or anything that can publish to HTML – into a web page on your homeserver.com site. Simply drag photos into a website folder, and you can post albums of your favorite pictures to share with friends and family.
Second prize: David Wright for Jungle Disk. Jungle Disk provides inexpensive online backup and storage of Home Server content, using Amazon’s S3 infrastructure. A really nice solution for “personal disaster recovery” and assured protection of your most important content. It will be available for purchase this fall.
Third prize: Prakash Gautam for Community Feeds for Windows Home Server. This free Add-In pulls text, audio or video down to Home Server via RSS, so it’s viewable from an Xbox or any Windows Media Connect device. Very interesting possibilities here for creating personalized media libraries, accessible to the whole family at home or away.
Many thanks to all of our Code2Fame contestants for their great submissions. It was hard to choose the finalists, let alone the winners. One of the coolest things about the contest was the variety of applications….and Windows Home Server isn't even widely available yet!
Thanks as well to our esteemed judges (back row in picture below, left to right): longtime tech journalist Paul Thurrott, analyst/industry pundit Rob Enderle, Steve VanRoekel, director of product management for Windows Server Solutions, Home Server engineering GM Charlie Kindel, and author and blogger Ed Bott. Prakash, Andrew and David are pictured in front, left to right.
I'm writing this post from the Kodiak auditorium on the Microsoft campus while waiting for the Code2Fame judging to begin. Code2Fame is all about software innovation, but what about hardware?
When we started this whole thing we hoped this kind of thing would happen, and we tried hard to drive it the best we could with things like the Hockey Puck concept design, evangelism, and partner programs. But we know it's not really possible to dictate how innovation in a new category ecosystem will develop.
All you can do is try to light a fire and see how it burns... And it appears to be burning very nicely! I don't know if we'll be able to have a post on a cool new piece of hardware every week, but between all of our current hardware partners, new ones we don't know about yet, and enthusiasts throwing their own boxes together I can't see the end.
Terry over at We Got Served has a detailed review of the Tranquil PC T7-HSA Harmony Home Server running Windows Home Server, so I'm not going to bother re-hashing all the details. Here are some of the things that are interesting about the T7-HSA:
One of the most fascinating things about the Tranquil PC home server is the fact that we had no idea they were developing it until they announced it. To me this means a couple of things: we did a pretty good job of starting the fire and the folks at Tranquil are pretty savvy.
-cek