Buffalo, Netgear, and others offer Linux-based NAS devices that insulate you from the down-and-dirty system administration tasks associated with the Linux roll-your-own solutions. This gets around the stability issue. But you're still faced with two problems: (1) you've got centralized storage, but it's still in your home data center, so you have no disaster recovery protection; and (2) home NAS devices are significantly more expensive than typical external storage. I'm not sure I understand why -- after all, consumer wireless routers are also special purpose Linux devices, but they're dirt cheap. Why should marrying an external drive with a custom Linux distro cost five times what a wireless router costs?

So here's my modest proposal for an offering to solve all of these problems: a NAS device that is delivered at a low price point, with a monthly fee built in to provide remote (e.g., Mozy-like) backup bundled in. The vendor would buy down the initial price based on the monthly fees provided for in the contract. In essence, this product would replicate the typical mobile phone arrangement—and we've seen how this has powered mobile phone adoption.

This product would solve the isolated pools of storage issue: each home computer could use the NAS device either as primary storage or could back up local storage to the central storage server. It would solve the issue of central storage not providing offsite backup. It would come with a low enough initial price point to make it an attractive alternative to potential users, thereby leveraging price elasticity to increase volume; this would enable the vendor to increase market share, perhaps enough to dominate the segment. Moreover, once someone is tied into a particular system, they're likely to stay loyal. I mean, once you've got a secure place for your vital personal data, you're not likely to move it somewhere else: the switching cost would be prohibitive. And from the point of view of the vendor, this long-term commitment through high switching costs would be a bonanza. In effect, the machine would represent an alluring entrance into an extended annuity subscription stream.

So there you have my modest proposal to solve the home data center problem—a problem that is only to become more acute in the future. It's a problem waiting for the right creative solution.

Bernard Golden is CEO of consulting firm HyperStratus, which specializes in virtualization, cloud computing and related issues. He is also the author of "Virtualization for Dummies," the best-selling book on virtualization to date.