Looks like the long-awaited and much-delayed Power Pack 1 (PP1) update for Windows Home Server has gotten a a bit less interesting. However, I'm concerned by headlines like Microsoft cuts backup from Windows Home Server Power Pack, because that's not what's happening at all. We Got Served explains it better, and even has an accurate headline ("Database Backup Shelved"):
A post from Microsoft today over on the Windows Home Server forums confirmed that a key feature of Windows Home Server Power Pack 1, scheduled to be released in the first half of 2008, has now been cut from the pack.
Users have been eagerly awaiting new Home Server Backup capabilities in the forthcoming update, include the ability to perform a full backup of your home server, including your shared folders and your backup database.
Unfortunately, due to interplay issues with the Windows Home Server Connector install, and to prevent the risk of users encountering a corrupted backup database, the ability to create a backup of your backup database has now been removed from the latest builds. The good news is that shared folder backup is unaffected.
Windows Home Server Product Planner, Todd Headrick, admitted “A feature isn’t a feature until it ships. And sometimes marketing gets things wrong ... by pre-announcing stuff at CES that ends up getting cut before it ships.” The plan is to look at re-introducing this feature in a future release of Windows Home Server.
Just to be clear, "server backup" has not been cut from WHS PP1. What's been cut is the ability to backup the server's backup database. "Server backup"--the ability to backup shared folders on the server--is still very much a part of PP1 and is the feature that WHS users will be more concerned about.