Features

We've seen a surprising level of enthusiast and manufacturer support for Windows Home Server, and if that spreads to consumers it's certainly one to watch in 2008. By offering all the features of NAS (networked attached storage), as well as a sophisticated system backup feature for all of your networked PCs, it ticks all the boxes for what any multi-PC household needs.

With an image of every PC backed up overnight, individual files or whole installations can quickly be recovered, and there's clever technology packed in that slashes

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the size of backups to an absolute minimum, by storing each file only once. Storage space is also dynamic, so you can add or remove hard disks from the pool quickly and easily.

In addition, there's a remote access option for both the server and attached PCs and a flexible add-in architecture that makes adding new features extremely simple. Tranquil PC already sells a unit (web ID: 121499), and the software-only original equipment manufacturer (OEM) version is already available to buy online.

With offerings from HP, LaCie, Iomega, LG, Medion and Fujitsu Siemens also available before the end of the year or early in 2008, there'll be a range of capacities and form factors. Again, price will be critical, but we can see this being very popular in some circles.

Next: 9 - 10 gigabit Ethernet

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