HP Joins the Online Backup and Collaboration Parade

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Stepping into the burgeoning ranks of online backup services such as Carbonite, EMC’s Mozy and Dell’s DataSafe, HP has announced Upline, an online data storage service that the company says provides secure backup, file sharing and remote access capabilities from any Internet connection.

Like other online data backup, the Upline service stores data in a secure, offsite location, which gives customers peace of mind knowing they can access their vital data in the event that their notebooks or desktops are lost, stolen, damaged or destroyed by fire or other natural disaster.

“With increasingly more personal and business content being housed on PCs, HP Upline offers users an easy-to-use, affordable solution for protecting and sharing everything from memories in digital photos to business-critical documents,” Ulf Claesson, vice president and general manager of HP’s personal systems group, said in a written statement.

HP offers this service through its recent acquisition of a company called Opelin, which developed Upline. The service uses a variety of encryption methods to protect your data “before, during and after transmission.”

Those methods include 448-bit Blowfish, an algorithm that encrypts data before it’s sent; 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption, the same technology banks use to protect data while it’s in transit and finally, a patent-pending technology HP says secures your files at the data center.

Upline backs up data automatically based on customer choice – pick the time, frequency and files you want backed up. HP says that Upline does the rest. The service also includes the following tools and features:

File Sharing: Share files of any size by e-mailing a password protected and time-limited link instead of an attachment
Remote Access: Open, edit, share and publish files from any Internet-connected PC using a secured login and password
File Publishing: Generate a URL to publish content to a Web site or blog; automatically refresh files published to multiple locations to keep public data current
Search: Add keywords and definitions to your files to simplify finding them, or search by file type or creation date
Local Archiving: Create archive copies of files and save them to a CD, DVD, NAS, USB drive or a second partition on the hard drive
Data Migration: Easily move files to a new PC
Multi-User Dashboard: Setup, manage and track employee account usage within a small business

Designed for both small business and consumer use, Upline is a subscription-based service with three plans, plus a fourth that offers free, limited service for one year.

Home and Home Office
Designed for a home with up to three PCs that can manage their access using a single login and password. Cost: $59 per year.

Family
Designed for families that want up to three independent subscriptions to allow for file privacy between family account logins. Cost: $149 per year.

Professional
Recommended for small businesses with up to 100 PCs. Also includes a multi-user administrative dashboard, advanced technical support and a lifeline number for emergency file recovery. Cost: $299 per year.

Limited Starter Plan
This is a plan for one PC that includes one gigabyte of storage with limited file sharing and basic support. Cost: Free for one year.

Lauren Simonds is the managing editor of SmallBusinessComputing.com

This article was first published on SmallBusinessComputing.com.