SanDisk Previews Cruzer Titanium Plus

By synchronizing flash storage with online storage, SanDisk hopes to offer an end-all solution to mobile backups.

For on-the-go backups and file transfers, consumers typically get two options –use a portable medium like a thumb drive that offers the fastest speed, or an online option that offers the most accessibility. SanDisk caught wind of this dichotomy and will introduce a new drive at CES that attempts to offer the best of both worlds, the Cruzer Titanium Plus.

Although physically similar to other drives in the Cruzer line, the Titanium Plus comes with software that synchronizes simultaneous backups to both the drive and an online account with SanDisk. When the drive is present, files will be pulled directly from it for maximum speed. When it’s not, they will still be available online.

The online aspect of the service will be powered by BeInSync, which has already implemented its own online backup service independent of SanDisk’s new offerings. Data can be encrypted both on the drive and in transit to storage, to make storing sensitive data possible.

A 4GB version of the drive will be released in March with a suggested retail price of $59.99. Six months of online storage will be provided as a free trial with purchase, and cost $29.99 per year afterwards.