Memex Technology Limited is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

company delivering

mission-critical A mission critical factor of a system is any factor (component, equipment, personnel, process, procedure, software, etc.) that is essential to business operation or to an organization. Failure or disruption of mission critical factors will resu ...

information systems An information system (IS) is a formal, sociotechnical, organizational system designed to collect, process, information storage, store, and information distribution, distribute information. From a sociotechnical perspective, information systems a ...

and services for the

Law Enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term en ...

and

Security Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted coercive change) caused by others, by restraining the freedom of others to act. Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be of persons and social ...

markets. It is headquartered in Peel Park in

East Kilbride East Kilbride (; gd, Cille Bhrìghde an Ear ) is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. It was also designated Scotland's first new town on 6 May 1947. The area lies on a rais ...

. In July 2010 it was acquired by

SAS Institute Inc. SAS Institute (or SAS, pronounced "sass") is an American multinational corporation, multinational developer of analytics software based in Cary, North Carolina. SAS develops and markets a suite of analytics software (SAS (software), also calle ...

with the aim of expanding SAS' presence in the law enforcement market.

Areas of business

Memex has developed a number of software

databases In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases spa ...

and analysis

applications Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a c ...

used by UK and US Police Forces. Approximately 25% of the United Kingdoms Police Forces make use of Memex's software, and a number of United States federal agencies use Memex in

counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or el ...

. The company has a global presence, operating through a network of commercial partners. The United States is the country where Memex has the strongest presence outside the UK, and the company has a dedicated office in

Vienna, Virginia Vienna () is a town in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. census, Vienna has a population of 16,473. Significantly more people live in ZIP codes with the Vienna postal addresses (22180, 22181, and 22182), bordered approx ...

History

The company is named after the concept of

Memex Memex is a hypothetical electromechanical device for interacting with microform documents and described in Vannevar Bush's 1945 article "As We May Think". Bush envisioned the memex as a device in which individuals would compress and store all of ...

, a machine that could act as an extension to the human memory, into which vast amounts of varied information could be deposited and later retrieved. In 1972, as technology progressed, two academics in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

set out to realise Dr. Bush's vision. Professor Fred Heath, then Dean of Computing at

Heriot-Watt University Heriot-Watt University ( gd, Oilthigh Heriot-Watt) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and subsequently granted univ ...

, and Dr. Graham Woyka designed the state diagrams and circuitry necessary to implement Bush's Memex concept. During this process, Woyka and Heath founded the Research and Development firm Memex Group Limited. In 1984, Memex released the first of its hardware database solutions - the Memex Intelligence Engine, which remained at the core of the company's software products for many years. In its early years, Memex experienced steady growth, primarily selling into

Military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

markets. The software version of the Memex Intelligence Engine was developed in 1988 and three markets emerged for the software:

Defence Intelligence Defence Intelligence (DI) is an organisation within the United Kingdom intelligence community which focuses on gathering and analysing military intelligence. It differs from the UK's intelligence agencies (MI6, GCHQ and MI5) in that it is an ...

and Commercial

Fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

. The company was subject to a management buy-out in 2001 and merged with SAS in 2010 and became SAS Public Security.

References

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External links

Memex Technology Limited website
Software companies of Scotland Companies based in Vienna, Virginia Data companies

Areas of business

History

See also

References

External links