We Got Served

HP have announced that the HP MediaSmart Server will ship in Germany next month, the eighth European country to receive the product (others being UK, France, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway).

The announcement, made at HP’s “Connecting Your World Event” in Berlin, confirms Germany as hotbed of competition for Windows Home Server hardware, with a variety of solutions on offer from manufacturers including Fujitsu-Siemens, Medion HP and Belinea, as well as smaller niche solutions from Hush Technologies and other system builders. Online retailers in Germany are set to receive MediaSmart hardware in the next few weeks, with other retail channels to follow.

Carlos Montalvo, VP Marketing & Services for HP’s Managed Home business confirmed that HP had no plans in place to extend the MediaSmart Server into other countries at this point, but that Italy could be an option in the future. “It’s something we’re looking at - there’s no decision but we believe there’s an opportunity there”.

Germany, however, has been a target for some time – “We’re working to identify those markets we think have a critical mass of multi-PC households with Internet and we’re also working with Microsoft to see where there is strong demand for the initial beta, and Germany had one of the highest number of downloads and beta users”.

I spent a little time with Carlos yesterday afternoon and talked through what the team had learned about the home server business this year -both the successes and the areas of focus for the future. Certainly the problems experienced around the data corruption bug have been a big concern, despite HP’s assertion that a very small minority of customers have been affected, “All the data we have from our support center suggests it’s very small – we’ve had quite a few people calling who are worried about the issue though .”

With the forthcoming release of Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 (and data corruption bug fix), HP will be running a series of web-based seminars (Webinars) with Microsoft in late June to re-engage the home server community around the product and bring new users to the platform. Webinars will focus on enthusiast subjects such as Photography and Video, as well as Community Add-Ins. (Catch me on June 25th talking with Microsoft and HP at the add-ins webinar).

Whilst HP have been pleasantly surprised by the number of users who would recommend the MediaSmart Server to friends and family (over 91%), the number of users using the MediaSmart Server to backup, share and stream video came as a shock. “A higher percentage of users are using the MediaSmart Server to stream video than we anticipated. We knew it would be a great product for music and photos, but a very high percentage are streaming and storing video, and you’ll see us extend that usage area.”

Over at the WGS forums, we’ve seen a lot of discussion (and some frustration) around media sharing, and clearly, improving the MediaSmart Server’s DLNA compliance with the provision of TwonkyMedia in HP’s recent update is a nod to improving the media experience. Certainly more work is required (and possibly planned) in the future, however.

HP also have statistics to suggest that over 40% of users are actively using remote access, which, given the pain a lot of users have experienced configuring their routers, is not to be sniffed at. That said, “The number one reason for users not having an easy install experience was router configuration and you’ve seen we’ve gone to extra effort in certifying certain routers as offering a plug and play, or near plug and play experience. We didn’t realise how much variability, even within brand, is out there. Going forward, you’ll see with all of our MediaSmart products we’ll be recommending specific router brands and models that work best, and we’ll be validating that early in our labs environment in beta with specific models.”

Whilst other areas on the installation experience have worked well, with positive customer feedback, certainly the view from HP is that there’s still room for improvement. “We’ve asked Microsoft for access to certain APIs that will allow us to simplify, reduce the number of steps and screens necessary to get the server configured and up and running.” Whether Microsoft have permitted access to those APIs is unclear at this point.

Continuing our look to the future, whilst there were no details shared about any new version of the MediaSmart Server, it’s clear that HP have been thinking carefully about where to take the product in the future. “We’d love to have a server that is easier to operate. Certainly we did a great job allowing users to swap out and upgrade their storage, but we can do a much better job at allowing users to upgrade their memory”. HP are also keeping a close eye on processor roadmaps from both AMD and Intel for potential future versions – the power management message is clearly front of mind, “We’d like to take advantage of the improved price performance of silicon… both AMD and Intel have aggressive roadmaps with increased price performance and low power. Power and power management is an area we can continue to improve, with elegant software to improve our ability to spin up and spin down and improve user-driven power management modes.”

When it comes to software, the focus may well be on how you share and connect to people around you through the the media stored on your home server, “The real excitement around Server is sharing – to share your content in various communities, in a way that’s relevant to that community. The way content is shared in Facebook is different to the way it’s shared in Flickr. Both of those are very media rich communities, and I think having a very personal and easy way to publish and share media in those various communities is a scenario that lends itself to the MediaSmart Server. So you’ll see us get into lots of granularity, getting content outside your home, whether it’s in the cloud with virtual or physical communities – that’s key to not only growing the category, but furthermore extending the delivery of our promise of Connected Entertainment. Making it multi-device, multi-community, yet centrally managed so you’re always in control.”

Before joining the Managed Home team at HP, Carlos worked at Apple for a few years and I was interested in understanding his views on the lack of Macintosh compatibility in Windows Home Server. “There’s a big community that’s still looking for a shared storage device, and that’s the Macintosh community. Our charter is to look at homes that have multiple PCs, we recognise in many of those homes that Mac is an alternative, so to be able to have a Mac solution is very important.” With regard to the Apple Time Machine, “I don’t think we’ve seen the same outpouring of enthusiasm for that product in the Mac community – the buzz and general discourse in the user community that we’ve seen around Home Server” was his contention, and certainly Windows Home Server’s lack of Mac compatibility is seen as a big opportunity for the future of the platform.

With regard to HP’s recent aborted update for the MediaSmart Server, Carlos mentioned that HP had discovered a number of issues in the installation routine for the update which caused the server element to fail - they’re in the process of testing a fixed version of the update that should be released in the next few weeks, and are discussing ways to avoid this issue occurring in the future - certainly a beta testing community would pick these kind of problems up quickly, “We absolutely need to see how we can do a public beta - it’s not a capability that we have right now. It goes beyond the server infrastructure - it’s more about how HP releases new software“.

As our time was drawing to an end, I asked Carlos what his one wish for Windows Home Server would be this year, “I would love to see the industry coming together around managed copies. If I could wave a magic wand it would stretch from Hollywood to Seattle to Pinewood! The CE industry, the IT industry and the content industry would come together to support managed copies from server to devices. I think that would be truly exciting.”

So, with that, our time was over and it was back to the show floor to check out HP’s new product range. It’s great to see a large manufacturer like HP leaning in and sharing their learnings with the community, and also hear about early thinking on the next wave of home server solutions. Clearly, there are a lot of challenges and indeed opportunities ahead, both on the hardware and software capabilities of the MediaSmart Server, but I get the sense that we’ve only scratched the surface of what the platform can do for the safety and enjoyment of our digital media. I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to see what’s around the corner.

I’d like to extend a big thank you to Carlos and the Managed Home team at HP for their time this week and for the invite to the event in Berlin this week. Stay tuned for details on the new products announced.