Storage Technology Corporation
Encyclopedia
Storage Technology Corporation (StorageTek or STK), aka STC until about 1983, is a data storage
technology
company
. Current StorageTek products focus on tape backup equipment
and software to manage storage systems
. New products include data retention systems, which they call information lifecycle management, or ILM. Competitors include EMC
and Veritas
. Now a subsidiary of Oracle Corporation
and referred to as Oracle StorageTek, StorageTek was headquartered in Louisville, Colorado
, United States with manufacturing facilities in Ponce
, Puerto Rico.
engineers: Jesse Awieda, Juan Rodriguez, Thomas S. Kavanagh, and Zoltan Herger, founded the Storage Technology Corporation, which officially became known as StorageTek in 1983. The company originally challenged IBM
's dominance in tape storage, and expanded to compete in the printer business for more than a dozen years. In the 1970s, StorageTek launched its Disk Products division.
Plagued by a series of missteps that drained the company's cash, including a failed attempt to develop an IBM compatible mainframe, and an optical disk product line, the company filed for Chapter 11 in 1984.
New management invested in an automated tape library system that 'picked' tapes with a robot arm and stored them in a silo-like contraption in 1987. StorageTek emerged as a dominant player in the automated tape library
market.
StorageTek has acquired a number of companies, including Documation (1980), Aspen Peripherals Corporation (1989), Network Systems Corporation
(1995), and Storability (2005). These and other activities allowed StorageTek to expand operations in Ponce
, Puerto Rico and Toulouse
, France.
On June 2, 2005, Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced it would purchase Storage Technology Corporation ("StorageTek") for US$4.1 billion in cash, or $37.00 per share. On August 31, 2005, the acquisition was completed.
On January 27, 2010, Sun Microsystems, Inc. was acquired by Oracle Corporation
for US$7.4 billion, based on an agreement signed on April 20, 2009.
Data storage device
thumb|200px|right|A reel-to-reel tape recorder .The magnetic tape is a data storage medium. The recorder is data storage equipment using a portable medium to store the data....
technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
company
Company
A company is a form of business organization. It is an association or collection of individual real persons and/or other companies, who each provide some form of capital. This group has a common purpose or focus and an aim of gaining profits. This collection, group or association of persons can be...
. Current StorageTek products focus on tape backup equipment
Magnetic tape data storage
Magnetic tape data storage uses digital recording on to magnetic tape to store digital information. Modern magnetic tape is most commonly packaged in cartridges and cassettes. The device that performs actual writing or reading of data is a tape drive...
and software to manage storage systems
Backup software
Backup software are computer programs used to perform backup; they create supplementary exact copies of files, databases or entire computers. These programs may later use the supplementary copies to restore the original contents in the event of data loss....
. New products include data retention systems, which they call information lifecycle management, or ILM. Competitors include EMC
EMC Corporation
EMC Corporation , a Financial Times Global 500, Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company, develops, delivers and supports information infrastructure and virtual infrastructure hardware, software, and services. EMC is headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA.Former Intel executive Richard Egan and his...
and Veritas
VERITAS Software
Veritas Software Corp. was an international software company that was founded in 1983 as Tolerant Systems, renamed Veritas Software Corp. in 1989, and merged with Symantec in 2005. It was headquartered in Mountain View, California...
. Now a subsidiary of Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...
and referred to as Oracle StorageTek, StorageTek was headquartered in Louisville, Colorado
Louisville, Colorado
Louisville is a Home Rule Municipality in Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The population was 18,937 at the 2000 census. Louisville began as a rough mining community in 1877, suffered through a period of extraordinary labor violence early in the 20th century, and then, when the mines...
, United States with manufacturing facilities in Ponce
Ponce, Puerto Rico
Ponce is both a city and a municipality in the southern part of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government.The city of Ponce, the fourth most populated in Puerto Rico, and the most populated outside of the San Juan metropolitan area, is named for Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the...
, Puerto Rico.
Brief history
In 1969 four former IBMIBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
engineers: Jesse Awieda, Juan Rodriguez, Thomas S. Kavanagh, and Zoltan Herger, founded the Storage Technology Corporation, which officially became known as StorageTek in 1983. The company originally challenged IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
's dominance in tape storage, and expanded to compete in the printer business for more than a dozen years. In the 1970s, StorageTek launched its Disk Products division.
Plagued by a series of missteps that drained the company's cash, including a failed attempt to develop an IBM compatible mainframe, and an optical disk product line, the company filed for Chapter 11 in 1984.
New management invested in an automated tape library system that 'picked' tapes with a robot arm and stored them in a silo-like contraption in 1987. StorageTek emerged as a dominant player in the automated tape library
Tape library
In computer storage, a tape library, sometimes called a tape silo, tape robot or tape jukebox, is a storage device which contains one or more tape drives, a number of slots to hold tape cartridges, a barcode reader to identify tape cartridges and an automated method for loading tapes...
market.
StorageTek has acquired a number of companies, including Documation (1980), Aspen Peripherals Corporation (1989), Network Systems Corporation
Network Systems Corporation
Network Systems Corporation was an early manufacturer of high-performance computer networking products. Founded in 1974, NSC produced hardware products that connected IBM and Control Data Corporation mainframe computers to peripherals at remote locations...
(1995), and Storability (2005). These and other activities allowed StorageTek to expand operations in Ponce
Ponce, Puerto Rico
Ponce is both a city and a municipality in the southern part of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government.The city of Ponce, the fourth most populated in Puerto Rico, and the most populated outside of the San Juan metropolitan area, is named for Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the...
, Puerto Rico and Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
, France.
On June 2, 2005, Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced it would purchase Storage Technology Corporation ("StorageTek") for US$4.1 billion in cash, or $37.00 per share. On August 31, 2005, the acquisition was completed.
On January 27, 2010, Sun Microsystems, Inc. was acquired by Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...
for US$7.4 billion, based on an agreement signed on April 20, 2009.
Technology milestones for StorageTek
- 1970 - StorageTek releases its first product, the 2450/2470 tape drive.
- 1971 - StorageTek introduces the 3400 tape storage device.
- 1973 - StorageTek’s disk division is founded.
- 1974 - StorageTek’s first 3600 tape drive ships.
- 1975 - StorageTek ships the first 8000 Super Disk and announces the 8350 disk subsystem.
- 1978 - StorageTek develops a solid-state disk.
- 1984 - StorageTek files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and focuses R&D on automated tape.
- 1986 - StorageTek develops the first cached disk.
- 1987 - StorageTek develops tape automation and emerges from Chapter 11Chapter 11, Title 11, United States CodeChapter 11 is a chapter of the United States Bankruptcy Code, which permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Chapter 11 bankruptcy is available to every business, whether organized as a corporation or sole proprietorship, and to individuals, although it is most...
. - 1994 - StorageTek introduces virtual disk.
- 1998 - StorageTek introduces Flexline disk arrays.
- 2001 - StorageTek introduces virtual networking.
- 2002 - StorageTek introduces BladeStore, a disk array based on ATA disk technology.
- 2003 - StorageTek introduces the EchoView data protection appliance, a disk-based appliance that eliminates the backup window.
- 2003 - StorageTek introduces the StreamLine SL8500 modular library system..
Products
- Disk arrayDisk arrayA disk array is a disk storage system which contains multiple disk drives. It is differentiated from a disk enclosure, in that an array has cache memory and advanced functionality, like RAID and virtualization.Components of a typical disk array include:...
: ST9990, ST9985, ST6540, ST6140 - Fibre ChannelFibre ChannelFibre Channel, or FC, is a gigabit-speed network technology primarily used for storage networking. Fibre Channel is standardized in the T11 Technical Committee of the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards , an American National Standards Institute –accredited standards...
, SAS, RAID and SCSI HBAHBAHBA can refer to:* Health and beauty aids, a term used for cosmetics and toiletry items* Honours Bachelor of Arts* Hobart International Airport * Hewa Bora Airways...
s. - Tape drives: StorageTek 9940, 9840C, T9840D, T10000A, T10000BStorageTek tape formatsStorage Technology Corporation, or StorageTek, has created several magnetic tape data storage formats. These are commonly used with large computer systems, typically in conjunction with a robotic tape library. The most recent format is the T10000...
- Tape drives (rebranded): LTOLinear Tape-OpenLinear Tape-Open is a magnetic tape data storage technology originally developed in the late 1990s as an open standards alternative to the proprietary magnetic tape formats that were available at the time. Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Seagate initiated the LTO Consortium, which directs development...
, SDLTDigital Linear TapeDigital Linear Tape is a magnetic tape data storage technology developed by Digital Equipment Corporation from 1984 onwards. In 1994 the technology was purchased by Quantum Corporation, who currently manufactures drives and licenses the technology and trademark. A variant with higher capacity...
, DLTDigital Linear TapeDigital Linear Tape is a magnetic tape data storage technology developed by Digital Equipment Corporation from 1984 onwards. In 1994 the technology was purchased by Quantum Corporation, who currently manufactures drives and licenses the technology and trademark. A variant with higher capacity... - Tape librariesTape libraryIn computer storage, a tape library, sometimes called a tape silo, tape robot or tape jukebox, is a storage device which contains one or more tape drives, a number of slots to hold tape cartridges, a barcode reader to identify tape cartridges and an automated method for loading tapes...
: L700, L700e, L180, L5500, SL500, SL3000, SL8500