Auspex Systems
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer data storage |
| Founded | 1987 |
| Founder | Larry Boucher |
| Defunct | 2003 |
| Headquarters | Santa Clara, California , United States |
Key people | Larry Boucher (founder), Bruce N. Moore (president and CEO from 1995), Gary J. Sbona (interim CEO from 2000) |
| Products | Network-attached storage (NAS) solutions, including 4Front/NS2000 and NSc3000 models |
Auspex Systems was a company specializing in computer data storage, established in 1987 by Larry Boucher, the former CEO of Adaptec, with its main office located in Santa Clara, California.
The company was a trailblazer in developing the initial network-attached storage (NAS) solutions. After going public in 1993, its stock was listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol ASPX. Auspex's systems incorporated features such as seamless volume mirroring and disk migration, utilizing Functional Multiprocessing—an Asymmetric multiprocessing technique—that enabled separate scaling of networking, file handling, and storage operations. A Unix-based Host Processor controlled the system, allowing reboots without disrupting file services. During the mid-1990s, Auspex established itself as a prominent provider of storage solutions for data center environments but eventually ceded market position to competitors including NetApp.
The company’s early hardware configurations included cabinet racks housing disks with capacities of 3-4GB. In 1995, Bruce N. Moore was appointed president and CEO, while founder Boucher exited in 1997 to launch Alacritech.
In 1999, Auspex released the 4Front/NS2000 model, a modular system featuring stackable disk drawers; however, it encountered reliability problems related to Mylex RAID controllers that played a role in the company’s bankruptcy filing in June 2003. Their last offering, the NSc3000, represented the first multi-vendor SAN-NAS gateway device, combining NAS front-end functionality with connectivity to any SAN disk array through Fibre Channel.
Following the collapse of the dot-com market, Regent Pacific facilitated the appointment of Gary J. Sbona as interim CEO in February 2000. Upon Auspex’s dissolution in 2003, its patent portfolio was acquired by NetApp, while GlassHouse Technologies purchased its services division for roughly $280,000.