Back in April of last year HP decided to reinvent the online storage wheel by introducing their own backup service, named HP Upline. It came. It never quite got off the ground. And now, it’s officially joining the deadpool.

Just in case there is anyone out there who actually put data on Upline and didn’t get the email from HP announcing its departure, it says in part:

HP continually evaluates product lines and has decided to discontinue the HP Upline service on March 31, 2009.

HP will no longer be backing up your files to the HP Upline servers as of Feb 26, 2009 at 8 am Pacific time. HP will keep the file restore feature of the Upline service operational through March 31, 2009 Pacific time in order for you to download any files you have backed up to Upline.

If you have a paid subscription to HP Upline, you will be refunded the full amount of the fees you paid for the service. That refund will be credited to the credit card account or PayPal account that you used to subscribe to the Upline service. If you do not receive the refund prior to March 31, 2009, please contact our customer service team at http://www.upline.com/support/email.aspx.

HP looks forward to offering you additional technology products and services in the future.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• What Google’s Honeycomb Means for Apple and Microsoft
• A 2011 Green IT Forecast

Online storage has its advantages.  Your files are available remotely from any computer you have HP’s software installed on.  If you migrate computers, you just download your files onto the new machine.  Also, Upline will grant you a URL to easily share files with co-workers and friends/family.

To kick things off, HP is offering businesses and consumers a free 1 year subscription to their limited service.

These free accounts grant users 1GB of storage.  For unlimited storage, HP is charging between $59-299 per year, depending on how many users/PCs will have access.

Unfortunately, the software only works on Windows PCs.  If you’re seeking a service like this for use between Mac and Windows computers, take a look at DropBox.  Their free service provides 5GB of disk space.  However, having the HP brand behind your online storage solution is an attractive trait.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Communications, Platforms, Privacy Ruled NewNet in Q4
• Infrastructure Overview, Q2 2010
• In Q4, Data Centers, Not the Cloud, Were the Big Story