Tandberg Data

Tandberg Data GmbH is a company focused on data storage products, especially streamers, headquartered in Dortmund, Germany. They are the only company still selling drives that use the QIC (also known as SLR) and VXA formats, but also produce LTO along with autoloaders, tape libraries, NAS devices, RDX Removable Disk Drives, Media and Virtual Tape Libraries.

Tandberg Data
Typewas public, since 2014 subsidiary of Overland Storage
IndustryComputer data storage
Founded1979
HeadquartersDortmund, Germany
Number of employees
350 (Jan 2012)
Websitewww.tandbergdata.com

Tandberg Data used to manufacture computer terminals (e.g. TDV 2200), keyboards, and other hardware.

They have offices in Dortmund, Germany; Tokyo, Japan; Singapore; Guangzhou, China and Westminster, Colorado, USA.

History
  • Tandberg radio factory was founded in Oslo on January 25, 1933 by Vebjørn Tandberg.
  • In 1970 Tandberg produces its first data tape drives.
  • In December 1978 Tandbergs Radiofabrikk goes bankrupt.
  • In January 1979, Siemens and the state of Norway establish Tandberg Data, rescuing the data storage and display divisions from the ashes. Siemens holds 51% of the new company and controls it. The other divisions of Tandberg go to Norsk Data.
  • In 1981 Tandberg becomes a founding member of QIC committee for standardising interfaces and recording formats, and produces its first streaming linear tape drive.
  • In 1984 Tandberg Data goes public.
  • In 1990 Siemens sells most of its shares when merging its computer business with Nixdorf.
  • In 1991 The terminal business is split off as Tandberg Data Display, which ends up in the Swedish company MultiQ.
  • In 2003 Tandberg Storage and its subsidiary O-Mass split and became separate companies, also listed on Oslo Stock Exchange. Tandberg Data is the largest owner of Tandberg Storage with a 33.48% stake.
  • On August 30, 2006, Tandberg Data purchased the assets of Exabyte. Combined revenue is expected to be USD 215 Million for 2006.
  • On May 15, 2007, Tandberg Data sold all remaining Tandberg Storage shares.
  • On January 9, 2008, Pat Clarke was promoted CEO of Tandberg Data.
  • On September 12, 2008, Tandberg Data announced the reacquisition of Tandberg Storage.
  • On April 24, 2009, Tandberg Data ASA and Tandberg Storage ASA filed for bankruptcy.[1]
  • On May 19, 2009, Tandberg Data announced that the new holding company, TAD Holding AS, was established, owning all global Tandberg Data subsidiaries, including Tandberg Storage ASA. Cyrus Capital is the majority shareholder and owner of the newly established company.[2] Operations in Norway continue in the newly formed company Tandberg Data Norge AS.[3]
  • On January 22, 2014 Tandberg Data was acquired by Overland Storage.[4]

Tandberg Storage
Tandberg Storage ASA
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryComputer data storage
FateBankruptcy
FoundedMay 22, 2003 (2003-05-22)
DefunctApril 24, 2009 (2009-04-24)
HeadquartersLysaker, Norway
Key people
Kevin Devlin (CEO)
Øivind Lund (Chair)
Revenue236 million kr[5]
NOK −23 million[5]
Number of employees
54
ParentTandberg Data
Websitewww.tandbergstorage.com

Tandberg Storage ASA was a magnetic tape data storage company based in Lysaker, Norway. The company was a subsidiary of Tandberg Data. The company was spun off from Tandberg Data in 2003 to focus exclusively on tape drives.[6] It was purchased by the same company in 2008.[7] Tandberg Storage developed four drive series, all based on Linear Tape-Open (LTO) specifications. Manufacturing was outsourced to the Chinese-based Lafè Peripherals International. Tandberg Storage also owned 93.5% of O-Mass AS. The company was declared bankrupt together with Tandberg Data in 2009.[8]

History

Tandberg Storage was established as a spin-off of Tandberg Data on 22 May 2003. Tandberg Storage had previously been an integrated part of Tandberg Data, but management wanted the two companies to follow separate research and development strategies. While Tandberg Data retained responsibility on complete storage and automation systems, Tandberg Storage would focus on advanced tape-drive technologies. Tandberg Storage was established with 37 research and development employees, plus a 93.5% ownership of O-Mass.[9] The company was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange on 2 October 2003, with the owners of Tandberg Data receiving all the shares in Tandberg Storage.[6]

The initial goal of the company was to develop a LTO-2 linear tape-open drive within a half-height form factor. While the underlying technology had been developed, the main components needed to be developed, in particular the drive mechanism. A working system was demonstrated in December 2003, and in June 2004 the first complete prototype could be tested. In October, the test program started, and from December verification was initiated with the LTO Committee. The drive was approved on 11 March 2005. In the second half of 2005, Tandberg Storage developed Serial Attached SCSI and application and data integration. These were both launched in 2006. In 2005, the company also started development of a half-height LTO-3 drive. The product was launched in 2007. The following year, a no-encryption LTO-4 was launched.[9]

In November 2008, Tandberg Storage merged with Tandberg Data, with the latter paying the former's owners in shares. Both companies had been having financial problems, and the cooperation between the two had been difficult during 2008. Tandberg Storage was at the time the largest supplier to Tandberg Data. By merging, the managements hoped to gain synergy effects between the two companies. Until the announcement of the merger in September, Tandberg Storage's share price had fallen 89% since the start of the year. Following the announcement, the share price fell a further 35%. The take-over involved a refinancing of the debt in Tandberg Storage. Tandberg Storage remained a subsidiary.[7]

Operations

The company was based at Lysaker in Bærum, just outside Oslo, Norway. Of the 54 employees in 2007, 45 worked within research and development.[10] The main competitors offering LTO drives were Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Quantum.[11]

Products

Tandberg Storage produced a full range of Linear Tape-Open drives, between 100 and 800 gigabytes.[12] Manufactured by Lafè Peripherals International of China,[9] there are four models available. All drives were built around a common half-height aluminum casting. All drives, except the TS200, have variable transfer rate systems to match host transfer speeds. All drives have the lowest power consumption in the industry, and do not require external fans.[12] In 2006, Tandberg Storage held a 26% worldwide market share.[10]

Tape drives[12]
SpecificationTS1600TS800TS400TS200
StandardLTO-4LTO-3LTO-2LTO-1
Transfer rate80 MB/s60 MB/s24 MB/s16 MB/s
InterfaceSCSI Ultra-160
SAS 1.1		SCSI Ultra-160
SAS 1.1		SCSI Ultra-160SCSI Ultra-160
Memory buffer128 MB128 MB64 MB64 MB
Tape speed4.37 m/s4.21 m/s4.21 m/s4.37 m/s
Hard read error rate10−1710−1710−1710−17

Other Tandberg companies
For other Tandberg companies see Tandberg (disambiguation)#Companies
  • Tandbergs Radiofabrikk – The original Tandberg company.
  • Tandberg – The parent company that spun off Tandberg Data. It now focuses on video conferencing.
  • Tandberg Storage – The storage research and development company spun off from Tandberg Data and later reacquired.
  • O-Mass – O-Mass AS was a research and development subsidiary responsible for the development of a new read-write head technology, that could allow tape sizes to reach 10 terabytes. A conceptual 2 TB demonstration was produced. Tandberg Storage owned 93.5%, while Imation of the United States held 6.5% of the company.[10][13] Three people worked for O-Mass.[14]

References
  1. "Konkursåpning". Brønnøysundsregistrene. Retrieved April 25, 2009.
  2. "Tandberg Data Completes Restructuring". IT Wire. Archived from the original on May 23, 2009. Retrieved May 22, 2009.
  3. "Nøkkelopplysninger fra Enhetsregisteret: Tandberg Data Norge AS". Brønnøysundsregistrene. Retrieved July 24, 2009.
  4. Overland Storage Completes Acquisition of Tandberg Data Archived August 10, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  5. Annual Report, 2007: 8
  6. Haraldsen, Christian H. (October 3, 2003). "Snart kommer fasiten". Aftenposten (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved April 25, 2009.
  7. Backen, Jonas Blich (September 12, 2008). "Tandberg Data kjøper Storage". Dagens IT (in Norwegian). Retrieved April 25, 2009.
  8. "Tandberg Data er konkurs". Computerworld Norway (in Norwegian). April 24, 2009. Retrieved July 15, 2009.
  9. Tandberg Storage. "History". Archived from the original on February 2, 2009. Retrieved April 25, 2009.
  10. Tandberg Storage. "Operations". Archived from the original on February 3, 2009. Retrieved April 25, 2009.
  11. Tandberg Storage. "LTO Manufacturers". Retrieved April 25, 2009.
  12. Tandberg Storage. "Products". Archived from the original on April 13, 2009. Retrieved April 25, 2009.
  13. Halvorsen, Finn (June 13, 2006). "Tenker i terabytes". Teknisk Ukeblad (in Norwegian). Retrieved April 25, 2009.
  14. Annual Report 2007: 5
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