As a digital native (meaning I live and breathe online), I have not been very conscious of all my data that is uploaded to various websites and all the cloud-based applications out there. There have been a lot of horror stories about people whose identity have been hacked or compromised because of their data on the cloud but so far, I have been lucky enough to not experience any of this. But if you’re the type of person that is very careful about these kinds of things, this new product may be something worth having.

Designers: Wenkai Li and Yu Dan

ZimaBlade is a x86 personal server that will let you have control over most things even while you’re connected to the world wide web. It will basically remove your files from the cloud and let you have control over things like file sharing, media playback, key management, and even encrypted P2P transmission. It also has a lot of expansion ports and slots including for storage, high-speed networking, PCIe slots, a USB port, and other ports that you may need as you use this server.

The design of the server is more old-school Sony Walkman than actual server or it may also look like a small robot that will transform anytime. It is around the same size as the Raspberry Pi devices but it does not have the usual GPIO pins found in devices like this. It seems to not be that heavy so it can be portable and is made with low-power and modularity in mind. It has an aluminum alloy heatsink so it will not overheat in case you’re a heavy user.

It is pre-installed with the open source CasaOS operating system that has more than 50 Docker apps. The early reviews seem to be positive for those who are in need of portable, personal servers. I don’t have any need for it right now because I am still basically unconcerned with clouds but if one day I do realize that everything I send to the Internet is a risk, then this is something that can be useful for someone like me.