Looking Back: A Brief History in Pictures
 
In 1969,
Juan Rodriguez, Jesse Aweida, and Zoltan Herger (pictured left to
right), along with Tom Kavanagh, founded Storage Technology
Corporation.
Top
photo: Artist's rendering of StorageTek's first building.
Second from top: Building 1, circa 1971.
Second from bottom: Aerial view of the growing campus, showing
Bldgs. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6, plus the duck pond.
Bottom photo: The completed parking lot, circa 1975.
Our
first product, the 2470 tape drive,
September
1970.
A fireworks
celebration commemorating the successful emergence from Chapter 11
proceedings. Also pictured: the check representing the final
settlement of StorageTek's obligations to its creditors under
Chapter 11 from proceeds to two successful equity financing
transactions completed during
1990.
The StorageTek logo flies
high as a kite over the Great Wall of China as part of the Kite
Festival of Weifang City in
1990.
On the tenth anniversary of the
release of the Nearline Automated
Tape Library, Gary Francis,
general manager of the Enterprise
Nearline business group,
Charlie Farel, vice president of
Enterprise Nearline development,
and Ron Korngiebel,
Advanced Market Planning, look through a copy
of the StorageTek News from 1987.
StorageTek employees have
celebrated a number of holiday festivities over the years. For the
Halloween 1988 costume contest, the Risk Management team of Sharon
Bolsinger, Sherry Pixler, and Connie Burkhard dressed as sheep and
danced to the tune of "Wooly Bully".
 
StorageTek
in Hollywood: (left) The PowderHorn makes an appearance in the 1996
film Eraser; (right) Senior engineering technician Hung Hoang
stands next to a PowderHorn specifically modified with extra windows
for use in the 1994 film Clear and Present
Danger.
With the
addition of a fifth 4400 Automated Cartridge System into the data
center for Reader's Digest Association Inc., StorageTek reached its
milestone of one thousand 4400 systems
installed.
From 1985 until 1996,
Ryal Poppa served as chairman, president and CEO of StorageTek.
Under Poppa's leadership, the company saw the introduction of
groundbreaking products such as the Iceberg 9200 disk array
subsystem and the 4400 Nearline
ACS.
Vice President
Al Gore paid a visit to the Louisville Headquarters in 1993 to speak
on the benefits of the North American Free Trade Agreement, as well
as to tour the Iceberg manufacturing
facilities.
In 1996,
Dave Weiss became the third person to serve as chief executive
officer of StorageTek. That same year, StorageTek broke the $2
billion mark in total revenue. Weiss's time as CEO brought the
release of the Virtual Storage Manager (VSM) and the widespread
availability of the 9840 tape
drive.
 
In honoring
the cultural diversity of its employees, StorageTek has sponsored
numerous events such as Latino Awareness Month and the annual Dragon
Boat Race.
 
Giving
back to the community has long been a StorageTek priority, with
employees volunteering their time and energy to support local
programs like Habitat For Humanity and the American Red
Cross.
StorageTek Japan celebrated
25 years of production in 2003 with a traditional Kagamiwari
ceremony. Pictured, from left to right, are Ikuo Watabe, Fuji
Television, Chairman of Japan User Group, Sam Kidder, representative
of United States Ambassador, Angel Garcia, Corporate Vice President,
Global Services & International Operations, Storage Technology
Corporation, and John Scroppo, President of StorageTek
Japan.
For
years, FORUM has been the premier users conference for StorageTek
customers, partners and employees.
In May, 2005, StorageTek
chairman, president, and CEO Pat Martin made his second trip to
the Republic of China to discuss the future of StorageTek's
Asia-Pacific interests with Jiang En Zhu of the National People's
Congress.
The
release of the StreamLine SL8500 modular library system represented
a vast leap in automated tape library technology and performance,
reaching its milestone 500th shipment within only twelve
months.
In 2004, the
manufacturing facility in Ponce, Puerto Rico, commemorated its 25
years of award-winning manufacturing
operations.
An integral part of
StorageTek’s European strategy, the Toulouse, France facility
celebrated ten years of global research and development,
manufacturing services, and regional sales and marketing in
2005.
2004
marked the 35th anniversary of StorageTek. More than 700 employees
gathered at headquarters to celebrate. Special guests included
Congressman Mark Udall, Congressman Bob Beauprez, and Lieutenant
Governor Jane Norton.
Top left: Amy Redfern, chief spokesperson,
Corporate Public Affairs, Congressman Mark Udall, Lt. Governor Jane
Norton, Congressman Bob Beauprez, and Bobby Kocol, chief financial
officer.
Bottom left: Employees looking at old products in
the product museum.
Bottom center: Pat Martin showing off the SL8500
to Congressman Udall.
Bottom right: Employees admiring the
SL8500.
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