The Snap Server is a

network attached storage Network-attached storage (NAS) is a file-level computer data storage server connected to a computer network providing data access to a heterogeneous group of clients. In this context, the term "NAS" can refer to both the technology and systems ...

computer appliance A computer appliance is a computer system with a combination of Computer hardware, hardware, software, or firmware that is specifically designed to provide a particular computing resource. Such devices became known as ''appliances'' because of ...

sold since 2008 by Overland Storage. From 2002 to 2004 it was sold by a company called Snap Appliance.

Description

All modern Snap Servers include an embedded operating system called GuardianOS. The GuardianOS is a UNIX-like operating system based on the mainstream Linux kernel, and is used on the Snap Server line of network-attached storage devices. Older models used the SnapOS, which is a heavily customized BSD flavor. The SnapOS was originally created by Meridian Data for the Meridian Data Snap! Server, and shipped on products from May 1998 through February 2006. Quantum had shipped more than 90,000 Snap Servers as of December 31, 2001. , an estimated 150,000 Snap Servers had been sold. Many Snap Servers are visible operating on the open Internet, although it is generally more common for them to be deployed inside corporate intranets.

History

The ownership of the Snap Appliance product family went through several corporate mergers. Meridian Data (founded in 1994 as Parallan Computer, based in

Scotts Valley, California Scotts Valley is a small city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States, about south of downtown San Jose and north of the city of Santa Cruz, in the upland slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains. As of the 2020 census, the city populati ...

) had been shipping

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

servers, which was a shrinking market in the late 1990s. In 1996 it started development of a network file server which it announced at the DEMO conference in February 1998. In May 1998 Meridian Data began shipping the Meridian Data Snap! Server. On May 10, 1999, Meridian agreed to be acquired by

Quantum Corp. 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 life cycle. Their products are used by enterprises, media ...

in a stock swap. In December 1999 the deal closed, worth an estimated $85 million. *In October 2002 Quantum's Snap division was purchased by private investors for about $11 million, forming Snap Appliance. *In July 2004 Snap Appliance was purchased by

Adaptec Adaptec, Inc., was a computer storage company and remains a brand for computer storage products. The company was an independent firm from 1981 to 2010, at which point it was acquired by PMC-Sierra, which itself was later acquired by Microsemi, ...

for about $100 million. * In July 2008 Overland Storage acquired the Snap server product line from Adaptec for $3.6 million.

References

{{reflist

External links

Snap Server web page

Overland Snap Server Product Specifications

Snap OS defined
Server appliance Computer-related introductions in 1998