Overland Data Inc, the San Diego, California-based automated tape library specialist, looks set to move into the market for optical juke boxes, with the acquisition of assets from an unnamed major CD robotics automation company. Included in the assets are tooling, production equipment, parts, design documentation and software rights. Financial terms were also not disclosed.
Overland’s CEO, Scott McClendon, said the buy would enable the company to leverage our existing investments in DLTtape automated libraries [with] platter-based media, such as DVD. There are enough similarities in the base technologies to enable Overland to easily adapt its existing robotics manufacturing process to build a new platter-based product line. Overland also hinted about the possibilities for next-generation integrated automated storage systems combining the two technologies.
Traditionally in the high-end IBM mainframe space, 20 year-old Overland has spent the last few years reinventing itself. In 1998 it introduced new VR2 tape encoding technology for DLT drives (CI No 3,333), which is now being used on SLR tape drives from Tandberg Data and on Traven NS tape drives from Imation Corp. It also has OEM deals in place with IBM Corp, Siemens AG, Groupe Bull, and most recently Compaq Computer Corp, for it DLTtape libraries.
And earlier this week, the company signed a distribution agreement with Ingram Micro Inc. Ingram will distribute Overland’s DLT LoaderXpress autoload, DLT MinilibraryXpress and tabletop DLT4000 and 7000 drives to its resellers worldwide. The products are aimed at NT and Netware-class server users.
