My cloud concerns

I'm worried about all this excitement about cloud computing. It seems to be returning to the bad old days of the IT industry when dumb terminals were connected to a big mainframe computer. This held all your data and there were strict rules on how you accesses it and used it.

I agree connectivity is different now but still some issues remain:

- Who owns your data? What happens when the cloud wants to increase their charges for data storage and application use.
- The software companies want to charge a monthly subscription which eases their cash flow problems, but costs you a lot more in the long run.
- Web browsers and applications seem unreliable, inconsistent and downright fallible.
- Uploads speeds are often a large factor slower than download speeds. Try backing up a single Gigabyte to the cloud on a typical domestic broadband connection.
- Extra levels of data vulnerability and security. Another password/PIN/memorable phrase to remember.

I'm typing this in a Chrome browser window because with Internet Explorer the Publish button does not work. It used to and I've reset the browser but it is still broken. And what if I'd been two hours typing this document or creating a killer presentation. Giving control away is not always the answer.

A neat and affordable Home Server

I recently bought a Fujitsu Primergy MX130 small server. It only cost £250 from serversdirect.co.uk that came already loaded with an AMD Athlon II dual core CPU, 2Gb of ECC memory and two 250Gb hard disk drives. With disk drive prices as they are now if I don't sell the unit shortly, I could always use the hard disk drives as spares. I tried loading a cheap (£35) copy of Microsoft's Windows Home Server 2011 to see what it looked like. Installation went well and I configured the two disk drives as RAID 1 (mirror) without any problems.

Microsoft has really 'thrown the baby out with the bath water' with this latest version of WHS. Not only do you have no Drive Extender but also shared folders cannot be replicated like they used to. This is what saved me earlier in the year when one of the drives failed on my own DELL Home Server. I suppose for just £35, it is good value in software terms as it basically includes Windows Server 2008 R2 with client PC and server backup.

The Fujitsu server hardware is superb for the price. It is small and quiet yet surprisingly powerful. Also worth noting is the 85% efficient power supply unit. There is not much expansion room for more disk drives though. So, if I do sell the 250Gb drives separately, I will replace them with much bigger ones when the prices become more reasonable again.

Anyway, if you want a neat and proper Windows Home or Small Business Essentials Server for under £300, I'd recommend this configuration.