One of the big news items out of CES is the addition of Windows Home Server to be released by Microsoft this year. This will provide a central place for storing files, printer management, backing up, and accessing your media. According to the release, Windows Home Server will integrate into Windows Live for access via the Internet.

Windows Home Server is a major step towards device and media centralization. Microsoft puts out so many devices like the UMPC, Xbox, Zune, Vista, Media Center, and Windows Mobile, but all of these are somehow seen and marketed separately. Many people like myself, are corporate users of Microsoft technologies, but in addition, we have Media Center PCs, or an Xbox at home and would like to see more centralization of our home technologies as we have in our corporate applications. There is no technological restriction that prevents you from being able sync your media from a centralized Media Center to your phone, Zune, or send it to your Xbox. All devices should be able to share contact information, or other resources that available on your home network.

More and more homes have more than on PC and getting them to work together seamlessly usually takes an effort. However, Redmond has been trending toward centralization of media and resources for the home the past couple years. With Windows Home Server, I hope we'll see a major effort to get every device to work together.

More information on Windows Home Server can be found in the official press release.

UPDATE: Mary Jo Foley has several pictures of prototypes and design concepts of the Windows Home Servers.