Certance, LLC, was a privately held company engaged in design and manufacture of computer

tape drive A tape drive is a data storage device that reads and writes data on a magnetic tape. Magnetic tape data storage is typically used for offline, archival data storage. Tape media generally has a favorable unit cost and a long archival stability. ...

s. Based in Costa Mesa, California, Certance designed and manufactured drives using a variety of tape formats, including

Travan Travan is an 8 mm magnetic tape cartridge design developed by the 3M company, used for the storage of data in computer backups and mass storage. Over time, subsequent versions of Travan cartridges and drives have been developed that provide gr ...

, DDS, and Linear Tape-Open computer tape drives. Certance was one of the three original technology partners, (Certance, IBM, and Hewlett Packard), that created the Linear Tape-Open technology. In 2005, Certance was acquired by

Quantum Corporation Quantum Corporation is a data storage, management, and protection company that provides technology to store, manage, archive, and protect video and unstructured data throughout the data lifecycle. Their products are used by enterprises, media and ...

History

The company began as the removable storage systems division of Seagate Technology. The division was formed in 1996 from storage companies Archive Corporation,

Irwin Magnetic Systems Irwin Magnetic Systems was a computer storage manufacturer founded in 1979 and based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. At its height, the company employed 600 people in Ann Arbor. The company's primary product line was magnetic tape data storage systems, ...

, Cipher Data Products, and

Maynard Electronics Maynard Electronics was an American company based in Lake Mary, Florida that produced magnetic tape data storage related products. The company was founded by Kim and Alison Knapp in 1982. It was acquired by Archive Corp. in 1989, but the brand ...

. In a restructuring involving Seagate Technology and

Veritas Software Veritas Technologies LLC. is an American international data management company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The company has its origins in Tolerant Systems, founded in 1983 and later renamed Veritas Software. It specializes in stor ...

, the division was spun off in 2000 into the independent company Seagate Removable Storage Systems. The company was the worldwide unit volume shipment leader in 2001, 2002, and 2003. The company name was changed to "Certance" in 2003. In 2004, Quantum Corporation announced plans to acquire Certance. The acquisition was completed in 2005, whereupon Certance ceased to exist as an independent company.

References

Computer storage companies Companies based in Costa Mesa, California Defunct technology companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies 1996 establishments in California 2005 establishments in California 2005 mergers and acquisitions Technology companies established in 1996 Technology companies disestablished in 2005 {{tech-company-stub