LenovoEMC

LenovoEMC (formerly Iomega)
Joint venture between Lenovo Group Limited and EMC Corporation
Traded as NYSE: IOM (1983-2008)
Industry Computer
Founded 1980 (as Iomega)
Headquarters San Diego, California, USA
Products Computer storage
Number of employees
 450[1]
Parent Lenovo Group Limited and EMC Corporation
Website lenovoemc.com

LenovoEMC (formerly Iomega), sometimes styled lenovo EMC², is a producer of external, portable, and networked storage solutions. Established in the 1980s as Iomega, LenovoEMC has sold more than 410 million digital storage drives and disks. It was a public company, trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol IOM beginning in 1983.[2] The ZIP Drive was Iomega's most notable product.[3]

Products

Iomega designed and manufactured a range of products to compete with and ultimately replace the 3.5" floppy disk, notably the Zip drive. Initial Iomega products connected to a computer via SCSI or parallel port; later models used USB and FireWire (1394).

LenovoEMC's current product portfolio includes network-attached storage products, external hard drives, multimedia drives, and removable storage technology.[4]

PX4-400d

The 400d is a multi-bay network attached storage (NAS) device. The 400d is powered by an Intel Atom processor running at 2.13 gigahertz, has 2 gigabytes of RAM, and has a SATA3 controller capable of moving data at 6 gigabits per second. HDMI and USB ports are included. The HDMI-out function enables monitoring live feeds from surveillance cameras. The unit can be set up and managed without a PC using an external display, keyboard, and mouse. The 400d is LenovoEMC's first product sold with its LifeLine 4.1 software, which adds functions such as a domain mode, enhanced Active Directory support and a more robust SDK. McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator is included for centralised security management. All THINK-branded systems from Lenovo pre-installed with Windows 8.1 are pre-loaded with LenovoEMC Storage Connector in order make discovery and set-up of the 400d and other LenovoEMC NAS devices smoother. [5]

Lenovo Beacon Home Cloud Centre

At the 2014 International CES, LenovoEMC announced the Lenovo Beacon Home Cloud Centre. The Beacon is a storage device that allows remote sharing of data such as music, pictures, and video. The Beacon allows music and video streaming to multiple devices. Android phones and tablets can be used to control the Beacon. It also has an HDMI port to allow connection to a television or monitor. Up to 6 terabytes of storage, RAID 0 and 1, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth are all supported.[6]

Operations

Lenovo announced construction of a research and development facility near São Paulo, Brazil, in November 2013. This facility will be dedicated to enterprise software and supporting LenovoEMC's development of high-end servers and cloud storage. Construction will cost $100 million and about 100 jobs will be created. It will be located in the University of Campinas Science and Technology Park, about 60 miles from São Paulo.[7]

History

Iomega logo

Iomega was founded in 1980. For many years the firm was a significant name in the data storage industry. Iomega's most famous product, the Zip Drive, was revolutionary as it offered relatively large amounts of storage on easily portable compact cartridges. The original Zip disk's 100MB capacity was a huge improvement over the 1.44MB limitation of floppy disks. The Zip Drive became a common internal and external peripheral for IBM-compatible computers and Macs. However, Zip disk cartridges sometimes failed after a short period of time, (commonly referred to as the "click of death"). This problem, combined with competition from CD-RW drives, caused Zip Drive sales to decline dramatically, despite later efforts to introduce larger 250MB and 750MB disk versions. Iomega eventually launched its own CD-RW drive.[8]

Without the revenue from sales of its proprietary cartridges, Iomega's sales and profits declined considerably. Iomega's stock price, which was over $100 at its high in the '90s, dipped to around $2 in the mid-2000s. Trying to find a niche for itself, Iomega released devices such as the HipZip MP3 player, the FotoShow Digital Image Center, and numerous external hard drives, optical drives, and NAS products. None of these products was successful.[8]

Acquisition by EMC

The signing ceremony that created LenovoEMC joint venture

On April 8, 2008, EMC Corporation announced plans to acquire Iomega for a consideration of US $213M.[9] The acquisition was completed in June 2008,[10] making Iomega the SOHO/SMB arm of the world’s largest storage company. EMC kept the Iomega brand name alive with products such as the StorCenter NAS line, ScreenPlay TV Link adapter, and v.Clone virtualization software.[8]

In 2012, a news report by Vincent Verweij for Dutch broadcaster Katholieke Radio Omroep revealed that the contents of at least 16,000 Iomega hard drives were publicly available on the internet, due to the drives being sold with their password security systems disabled by default. Among those affected were KLM, ING Group and Ballast Nedam, who all had sensitive and confidential material leaked in this manner. Parent company EMC Corporation refused to comment, but Brian Gruttadauria, a spokesman for Iomega USA, acknowledged the failure and said future models (starting February 2013) would come with password security enabled by default, and clearer instruction to users about the risks of unsecured data.[11]

Joint venture with Lenovo

In 2013, EMC formed a joint venture with Lenovo, named LenovoEMC, that took over Iomega's business. All of Iomega's products were rebranded as LenovoEMC. LenovoEMC's products are designed for small and medium-sized businesses that do not have the budgets for enterprise-class data storage. LenovoEMC is part of a broader partnership between the two companies announced in August 2012.[12] This partnership also includes an effort to develop x86-based servers and allowing Lenovo to act as an OEM for some EMC hardware. Lenovo is expected to benefit from the relatively high profit margins of the NAS market. LenovoEMC is part of Lenovo's Enterprise Products Group.[13][14]

1980–1999

2000–present

See also

References

  1. ↑ Iomega Corporation (2005). "Iomega:25 Years of Storage Technology Leadership". Today Iomega has approximately 450 employees
  2. ↑ http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company.../iomega-corporation-history/
  3. ↑ International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 21. St. James Press, 1998.
  4. ↑ iomega - Products
  5. ↑
  6. ↑ Lynn, Samara (9 January 2014). "LenovoEMC Reveals NAS Boxes for Home and Business". PC Magazine (United States). Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  7. ↑
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2
  9. ↑ Press release EMC To Acquire Iomega. Accessed 2008-04-09
  10. ↑ http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2213837/emc-agrees-iomega-deal EMC secures Iomega acquisition. Accessed 2008-10-08
  11. ↑ "A Gift for the Hackers", produced by Katholieke Radio Omroep, distributed on YouTube by Journeyman Pictures
  12. ↑ http://www.pcworld.com/article/2025141/lenovo-and-emc-partner-on-storage-for-smbs.html
  13. ↑ http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/01/storage-giant-emc-unites-with-pc-oem-lenovo-on-new-joint-venture/
  14. ↑ http://blog.laptopmag.com/lenovoemc-forms-to-bring-nas-solutions-to-businesses-of-all-sizes
  15. ↑ Iomega Corporation. 30 years of unstoppable innovation

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Iomega.