Fabrik on Monday launched an unlimited backup service for consumers for just $5 per month and a line of external hard drives for professional uses. It is part of an initiative it calls "Storage 2.0."

This young company has an interesting business model which combines physical data storage with data storage in the cloud plus a nifty user interface that is rapidly becoming a simple way for users to manage their media wherever it sits, at the office, at home, or on online services.

This online/offline approach is also reflected in its "bricks and clicks" strategy. Earlier this year it acquired the consumer products business of SimpleTech to give it access to physical distribution channels in large retailers such as Best Buy.

Mike Cordano, the CEO and Founder is assembling an interesting team. He comes from the hard drive industry, he used to be a senior exec at Maxtor. His team also includes ex-Apple people and developers creating online services.

Fabrik is up against giants such as Seagate but it is able to source its components from many drive and component suppliers, plus it has hired top designers for its consumer external drives. It has been operating MyFabrik, an online service for managing media.

"MyFabrik was set up as an experiment so that we could find out what consumers want in terms of manging their media and now we are applyng those lessons in services such as Fabrik Ultimate Backup," said Mike Cordano. He added that over the next few months Fabrik will release additional online services and also hard drives to move the company into the top end of the hard drive business.

Foremski's Take: Fabrik has a bold strategy and it is one that it has little choice in following. If it is to be successful in the data storage business it has to do it offline and online.

If it can build out its online services so that it offers users one-screen for managing all their media content assetts, such as photos, videos and music, it'll be in a very strong position. Others are also heading in that direction such as the big drive makers.

Fabrik has agility on its side and if it can convert its external drive users into online users, it stands a good chance of building a valuable business. I have a video interview with Mike Cordano which will be posted later.

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Please See:

From Fabrik:

Online Backup Service Press Release

SimpleTech Pro Drive Press Release

SVW:

Fabrik's Innovative Web 2.0 Business Model: Media Storage in the Cloud or on Your Desk

Web 2.0 heads offline: Fabrik acquires much larger SimpleTech group in $43m cash deal

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