HP Out of the Windows Home Server Market

In yet another surprising turn of events, in a week full of surprises, HP are out of the Windows Home Server market, effective immediately.

This news comes a week after the shock news about the removal of Drive Extender from Windows Home Server Code Name Vail.

So what does this mean?

Well, HP told me that they have moved their entire MediaSmart division over to work on WebOS. This means that there will not be any more MediaSmart Servers.

This also means that there will not be any more software updates to the existing MediaSmart Server range.

And HP have no plans at all to support Windows Home Server Code Name Vail, so if you have a MediaSemart Server and you were waiting for HP to provide assistance in updating to Vail when it is released, you are on your own.

Looking back, the writing has been on the wall for a while.

Recently people have said that they couldn’t get the Version 3.0 software update because HP said it was discontinued.

There have been a lot of really good deals on HP MediaSmarts recently – although it has been Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but these deals are still going.

HP recently did a deal with Drobo to start selling their products on Drobo’s behalf and even trained up 200 people to do it.

Do I think that this has anything to do with the removal of DE? Honestly, I don’t. Certainly here in the UK and Europe, HP haven’t really had the product to ship and so I assume it just hasn’t been a money maker for them. That is probably the main reason, and they want the team working on something else.

Do I think that you should still consider buying a MediaSmart Server? Yes, I do. They are great boxes and now they are going to be cheaper than ever before, so there are some real bargains to be had.

I wonder if this news will force other OEM’s out of the market as well? After all, HP was Microsoft’s initial, and biggest partner when it came to Windows Home Server.

So what do you think of the news?