We Do Windows (Home Server)

"I don't think it will have mass market appeal because it's somewhat difficult to educate consumers on a product like this, just as it has been difficult to educate customers on Windows Media Center PCs," Stinner said.

However, he added, "It's something I'd like to market to the business clients I serve because they can easily appreciate the value and they can afford the hardware that's needed to run it."

Said Swank: "Many partners are excited about selling Windows Home Server to business because they can get services revenue. The typical reseller is going to go after that business instead of home users."

Chris Rue, CEO of Black Warrior Technology, a Northport, Ala.-based solution provider, says that most of the interest he's seen in Windows Home Server has been from people who run home-based businesses.

"Rather than going with a full-blown Small Business Server with Exchange and management, people see this as a simpler and better-integrated alternative," he said.

Windows Home Server's remote access capabilities allow users to set up a page through Windows Live and access Home Server content that's protected with strong authentication, according to Sider.

"The ability to stream the media remotely is a fantastic feature. Many people have a lot of digital media in the home that's not adequately backed up or centralized, and this gives them a framework for utilizing that," Rue said.

Remote storage and backup would work well as an in-the-cloud service, to allow for disaster recovery if a home were to suffer a catastrophic data-loss scenario such as a fire, Rue added.

Given the priceless nature of the digital content that many families create, and the need for home businesses to safeguard their data, the best practices that are used in business are beginning to have a place in the home, said Neil Pearlstein, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Oakland, Calif.-based solution provider PC Professional.

That's one of the main reasons why Pearlstein said he expects Windows Home Server to quickly gain traction in the market.

"If you're doing business in the home, or even if you're not, you still have to consider best practices. As storage and backup technologies become more affordable, more individual users are going to have to start considering having fall-back and fail-safe positions," Pearlstein said.

But despite its potential, Windows Home Server could eventually face a threat from network-attached storage and wireless router vendors, according to Patrick DeRosier, CTO of Hanson, Mass.-based solution provider CPU Guys.

"Linksys is making routers with USB ports right now that would allow you to add on a hard drive. If they came up with advanced streaming capability through the routers, that's a product that could easily derail some of the value of Windows Home Server," DeRosier said.

It's not clear at this point where Windows Home Server would fit into Microsoft's software plus services strategy, the vendor's response to the threat posed by Software-as-a-Service vendors.

But last month at Microsoft's annual financial analyst meeting, the normally effusive Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer described Windows Home Server in lukewarm terms, calling it "an interesting product" with "a reasonable amount of potential."

Ballmer also said he expects there will be an equal number of users seeking to store their data locally and "in the cloud" as a service.

"I have a pretty positive outlook—a very positive outlook for Home Server—and yet I think it's too early to give any kind of wild-eyed projections," Ballmer said.