Startup Memora is attempting to create a new product category--the "personal server." A name reminiscent of "personal computer," the term "personal server" is meant to convey the idea of an appliance-like device that performs a range of useful services and can be easily installed and operated by nontechnical users in their homes. Accordingly, the company is billing its initial product offering, the Servio Personal Server, as "the first 'personal server' for the home."
The Linux-based device integrates a combination of services increasingly desired in many of today's well-connected homes, including a residential gateway, firewall, a wired or wireless network server, email services, and multimedia and other file storage and sharing. Plus, it offers secure external access via the Internet to email, Web pages, and designated files.
Memora co-founder Antonio Rodriguez contends that "personal servers" are needed because "the PC platform is incapable of effectively managing the growing flow of digital content from the many devices, file formats, and channels that consumers use today." For that reason, Memora's founders set out to develop an easy-to-use home appliance that could fill that gap by "providing consumers with a single point of presence for organising, accessing, and sharing their digital information when, where, and with whomever they choose."
With personal servers, "we are able to offer high-speed access to your content anywhere, not only on your own local network but on the Internet at large," Rodriguez says.
