New Option for Online Backup Offers USB Ease Without the Fear of Data Loss iTwin combines the strengths of web-based data storage with flash drives.

Web-based data storage services such as Dropbox, Box.net and other cloud options are starting to replace the trusty--but easily misplaced--portable, solid-state flash drive. But limits on the amount of data that can be stored online, the cost of such storage and nagging security issues limit how small firms tend to use these backup services.

Boston-based iTwin is attempting to ease the pain of the online backup process by combining the strengths of web-based data storage with (now) old-fashioned flash drives. The company's new USB-based file-sharing tool lets users pass data between two internet-connected computers without using a dedicated web storage service or remote access software.

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The iTwin is clever, but not completely intuitive: Users plug the $99, two-part device--which looks like a normal USB flash that can be snapped in half--into a computer. The software launches from the iTwin automatically, and users designate which files or folders should be shared. Next, users detach one half of the iTwin, leaving the other half plugged into the main computer. Then they just plug the detached half into the USB port of any other web-connected Mac or PC, and voilà: the remote PC has direct access to shared files back at the office.