Earlier this year I met with the Maxtor/Seagate data storage folks plus their partner Fabrik, Inc. And got a very early look at a new online service that blurs the line between storing your digital assets out in the cloud, or on local storage.

MyFabrik is a cool application that manages consumer media online or offline. In fact, the data storage costs online are very close to your data storage costs off-line--if you were to buy a Seagate drive.

That's an interesting revenue model. And by offering a nifty media management application, it allows a hard drive maker to add value and pull some revenues from above the (brutal) commodity marketplace of that sector.

This strategy also plays to all types of storage customers: from the hard drive huggers who need the assurance of a physical entity, to the ones that are comfortable with having their stuff in the cloud, and the ones that don't care or even want to know.

Those interested in trying out the new myfabrik online storage and sharing service can register for access to the final public beta release beginning on Monday, August 28. Following the public launch of the final service in September, access to the new myfabrik service is priced beginning at 99 cents/month, which includes 1GB of online storage space. Additional storage space may be purchased incrementally for 49 cents per GB.

Link to Fabrik