Microsoft isn't the first to look at Atoms for servers. Last May, Tranquil PC Ltd., a Manchester, England-based PC maker, .

SingleHop Inc., a Chicago hosting provider, to customers in October. According to a post at SingleHop's blog, the Atom server is "faster than a Pentium 4" and uses 75% less power.

While Microsoft is looking at Atom servers for its own massive data centers, Ohara says Atom servers would be potentially more useful for small to medium-size businesses that prefer retaining security and control of their own servers over storing their data and using the applications of a cloud-based service such as Salesforce.com or Amazon.com Inc.'s S3.

"If you have a low-load situation, like most SMB servers are, an Atom can work fine," he said.