There are no religious wars in my home office regarding whether Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac OS X reigns supreme. I run them both, but the crown goes to Solaris (x86 and SPARC). But just so you don’t think I’m a snob, I also run Linux just to keep up with the latest fad and, of course, there is BSD for nostalgic (and routing) reasons. With those admissions, back to the post.
HP aims to enter the home with its new HP MediaSmart Server running Microsoft Windows Home Server platform. My ears usually perk up when I hear these things. Because for computer electronics and networking, what is good for the home is equally good for the home office in functionality and price. One just has to translate home-speak with legal-office speak.
The MediaSmart server aims to automatically back up and organize files across all home computers and streams media across the intranet and Internet.
On backup, the Windows Home Server edition includes a feature to back up your networked Windows PCs. The MediaSmart Server also includes Apple Time Machine Software to back up Macs running OS X Leopard. This is pretty straightforward – everyone needs a backup.
The HP home server also boasts that it can remotely stream photos and music to any Internet-connected PC or Mac. Translate the “music” piece to digital dictation files and you have a second justification for the MediaSmart Server in the home office. Thirdly, translate photos into trial exhibits. Lastly, HP’s MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price) for the HP MediaSmart Server model ex485 with 750 GB of hard disk storage is $599; the model ex487 with 1.5 TB is $749. Need I say more? Of course.
The server scales to 9 TB of data storage in the event it does double-duty with your teenagers’ file-sharing needs. Especially since it supports uploading photos to Facebook, Picasa Web Albums and Snapfish. But do make sure your trial exhibits stay close to the cuff.
About the only “gotcha” I see in the mix is that HP is using an Intel Celeron processor (2.0 GHz 64-bit) for the MediaServer. Since it is mainly a file server, that should not be a problem. I just have a natural aversion to Celerons, so don’t mind me. It does come with two GB of RAM, standard. With the low price, the MediaSmart Server is certainly something to check out if you are looking to centralize storage in the home office.
I preferred to use a mac and windows in my home office rather than linux.
Margarette Smith
Posted by: temporary office space with services | August 27, 2009 at 11:28 PM