Microsoft announced Monday that it has completed its Windows domestic Server (WHS) software and released the cipher to its OEM partners, including HP and Gateway, just six months after unveiling the project.

New products based on the Windows domestic Server software will enable PC users to store, backup, and share composition among their networked machines, including those running Apple and Linux operating systems, as well as Windows.

“They’ve done a really good job with Windows domestic Server,” said Michael Gartenberg, who covers Microsoft for Jupiter Research, adding that it “couldn’t come at a better day.”

“Fifty percent of U.S. households have increasingly than one PC,” he said, and “more and increasingly households need a way to share and protect their documents.”

Vision and Execution

Given that it generally takes several years to move a major software project from vision to shipping cipher, some might say that WHS demonstrates Microsoft foresight to see the opportunity created by

the ever-expanding volume of digital goods on domestic PCs. But the problem at Microsoft in recent years — most obviously with the delays in shipping Vista — has not been vision but execution, said Gartenberg.

At Friday’s team party to celebrate hitting their RTM (release to manufacturing) goal, Charlie Kindel, general manager for WHS, emphasized the work it took to ship on duration and the importance of involving customers in the development process.

“We had a spirit of getting it done, no matter what. We broke some rules but never any laws,” he toasted in a blog post. “We took a few risks… and they paid off.”

To Serve and Protect

WHS is a major product, Gartenberg said, considering it addresses both what consumers want to do — sharing personal collections of digital photos, movies, and music around different machines at domestic — with what they need to do — protecting…

Original post by Brandon Hall