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Private company

Certance

Logo: Certance LLC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

Computer tape drive designer and manufacturer

Certance, LLC, was a privately held company engaged in design and manufacture of computer tape drives. Based in Costa Mesa, California, Certance designed and manufactured drives using a variety of tape formats, including Travan, DDS, and Linear Tape-Open computer tape drives. Certance was one of the three original technology partners — Certance, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard — that created the Linear Tape-Open technology.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1996Founded1

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Certance, LLC, was a privately held company engaged in design and manufacture of computer tape drives.2

The story

The company began in 1996 as the removable storage systems division of Seagate Technology. This division was formed when Seagate acquired Conner Peripherals, further consolidating the tape technology market. Connor had previously acquired Archive Corporation, including the assets of Irwin Magnetic Systems, Cipher Data Products, Maynard Electronics, and Kennedy Company. Software from this consolidation, notably including Backup Exec, was made part of the Seagate Software division.

In a 2000 restructuring, involving Seagate Technology and Veritas Software, the division was spun off into the independent company Seagate Removable Storage Systems. The company was the worldwide unit volume shipment leader in 2001, 2002, and 2003.

The company name was changed to "Certance" in 2003. Shortly after, in 2005, Quantum Corporation acquired Certance.

From Wikipedia’s article on Certance, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Timeline

  1. 1996Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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