Binary Research
Encyclopedia
Binary Research Ltd was a company founded in Auckland, New Zealand by Murray Haszard
in 1991 after the sale of his previous company, B32 Software.
Binary Research initially considered developing competitors to the file transfer programs Blast and Laplink. The product to compete with Blast was dropped at an early stage, but a program to transfer files over parallel or serial cables was developed and marketed from 1994 to 1996 under several names, including Beam, UniBeam and LinkWiz. This program was available in DOS
, Windows 3.x
, OS/2
2.0 and SCO Unix versions, and claimed to transfer files more rapidly than Laplink at that time. Later versions of the program could also transfer files using a network cable.
Beam was not a financial success, as Laplink was the dominant product in that marketplace.
Binary Research's next product, arising from the file transfer and parallel port technologies of Beam, was Ghost
, first sold in 1996. Ghost pioneered the field of disk cloning
software. A network of agents was set up around the world, and a branch of Binary Research Ltd, Binary Research International Inc, was established in Glendale, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin as a sales and support centre.
Ghost was a very successful product, but Binary Research was a small company and was unable to drive the global sales force which Ghost needed. In 1998, Murray Haszard looked for a company which could acquire and develop Ghost further. Symantec
expressed an interest, and after a unanimous vote of approval by Binary Research's New Zealand employees, Ghost was purchased by Symantec for US$ 27.5 million in July 1998. Almost all New Zealand employees of Binary Research became Symantec employees, and Ghost is still developed in Auckland.
Binary Research Ltd was closed down after the acquisition, but Binary Research International Inc. continues as a reseller of Ghost, and has expanded into other software products. One of BRI's most significant products is UIU (Universal Imaging Utility) which facilitates the creation of an image
that can be deployed to a vast range of hardware, irrespective of brand, components and drivers.
Murray Haszard
Murray Hayden Haszard is a New Zealand entrepreneur and businessman who founded the companies B32 Software and Binary Research and is presently the chairman of Ilion Technology.Haszard married Kris MacPherson, and they had two children...
in 1991 after the sale of his previous company, B32 Software.
Binary Research initially considered developing competitors to the file transfer programs Blast and Laplink. The product to compete with Blast was dropped at an early stage, but a program to transfer files over parallel or serial cables was developed and marketed from 1994 to 1996 under several names, including Beam, UniBeam and LinkWiz. This program was available in DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
, Windows 3.x
Windows 3.1x
Windows 3.1x is a series of 16-bit operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers. The series began with Windows 3.1, which was first sold during March 1992 as a successor to Windows 3.0...
, OS/2
OS/2
OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 " line of second-generation personal...
2.0 and SCO Unix versions, and claimed to transfer files more rapidly than Laplink at that time. Later versions of the program could also transfer files using a network cable.
Beam was not a financial success, as Laplink was the dominant product in that marketplace.
Binary Research's next product, arising from the file transfer and parallel port technologies of Beam, was Ghost
Ghost (software)
Ghost is a disk cloning program product sold by Symantec. Originally developed by Murray Haszard in 1995 for Binary Research, the technology was acquired in 1998 by Symantec. The name Ghost is an acronym for General Hardware-Oriented System Transfer.- History :Binary Research developed Ghost in...
, first sold in 1996. Ghost pioneered the field of disk cloning
Disk cloning
Disk cloning is the process of copying the contents of one computer hard disk to another disk or to an "image" file. Often, the contents of the first disk are written to an image file as an intermediate step, and the second disk is loaded with the contents of the image...
software. A network of agents was set up around the world, and a branch of Binary Research Ltd, Binary Research International Inc, was established in Glendale, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin as a sales and support centre.
Ghost was a very successful product, but Binary Research was a small company and was unable to drive the global sales force which Ghost needed. In 1998, Murray Haszard looked for a company which could acquire and develop Ghost further. Symantec
Symantec
Symantec Corporation is the largest maker of security software for computers. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and is a Fortune 500 company and a member of the S&P 500 stock market index.-History:...
expressed an interest, and after a unanimous vote of approval by Binary Research's New Zealand employees, Ghost was purchased by Symantec for US$ 27.5 million in July 1998. Almost all New Zealand employees of Binary Research became Symantec employees, and Ghost is still developed in Auckland.
Binary Research Ltd was closed down after the acquisition, but Binary Research International Inc. continues as a reseller of Ghost, and has expanded into other software products. One of BRI's most significant products is UIU (Universal Imaging Utility) which facilitates the creation of an image
Disk cloning
Disk cloning is the process of copying the contents of one computer hard disk to another disk or to an "image" file. Often, the contents of the first disk are written to an image file as an intermediate step, and the second disk is loaded with the contents of the image...
that can be deployed to a vast range of hardware, irrespective of brand, components and drivers.