Downtime for Upline – HP starts off with a meltdown…

HP launched it’s online backup and storage solution Upline earlier this month to some fanfare and significant press coverage – it didn’t take long for it to reveal itself as simply not ready for prime time. TechCrunch got the scoop again and reported on the Upline failures.

Upline was the repackaging of the Titanize service, created by Opelin. The repackaging was great – the interface is slick looking and the demo sure seemed cool. That said, HP will have some explaining to do as to why it chose the Opelin technology (it was quietly acquired last year), as it appears to have failed under the first sign of load. Not the most reassuring debut…

Tell us more…

HP Goes Upline

Today HP  announced the availability of Upline, yet another storage platform aimed at consumers and small businesses.  The launch is the fruit of their recent “blink and you missed it” acquisition of tiny Opelin, the company behind the now EOLed service Titanize.

The slick demo on the Upline site shows little of the actual product, but we know that the client app is written in .NET, effectively leaving us Mac users out in the cold.  Not entirely surprising given that HP has long been rumored to be in the business of selling Windows computers.

The feature set is promising.  Sharing and publishing features, sorely missing in the Carbonite and Mozy services, are likely to provide a key differentiator beyond the big, trusted company brand advantage.

We’re left wondering if HP’s appetite for SaaS services has been sated.  A little success in getting Upline adoption makes them a likely candidate to roll up one or more of the leading players in the space.