Binary Research Ltd was a company founded in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, New Zealand by

Murray Haszard Murray Hayden Haszard (born 11 May 1954) is a New Zealand entrepreneur and businessman who founded the companies B32 Software and Binary Research and is the chairman of Ilion Technology. B32 Software In 1983 he was contracted to convert Kiwi ...

in 1991 after the sale of his previous company, B32 Software. Binary Research initially considered developing competitors to the file transfer programs

Blast Blast or The Blast may refer to: * Explosion, a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner *Detonation, an exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives a shock front Film * ''Blast'' (1997 film) ...

and

Laplink Laplink (stylized as ''LapLink'') was a proprietary piece of software developed by Mark Eppley and sold by Traveling Software, which is now LapLink Software, Inc. First available in 1983, LapLink was used to synchronize, copy, or move, files bet ...

. The product to compete with Blast was dropped at an early stage, but a program to transfer files over parallel or serial cables was developed and marketed from 1994 to 1996 under several names, including ''Beam'', ''UniBeam'' and ''LinkWiz''. This program was available in

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicatio ...

Windows 3.x Windows 3.x means either of, or all of the following versions of Microsoft Windows: * Windows 3.0 * Windows 3.1x Windows 3.1 is a major release of Microsoft Windows. It was released to manufacturing on April 6, 1992, as a successor to Windo ...

OS/2 OS/2 (Operating System/2) is a series of computer operating systems, initially created by Microsoft and IBM under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci. As a result of a feud between the two companies over how to position OS/2 ...

2.0 and

SCO Unix Xinuos OpenServer, previously SCO UNIX and SCO Open Desktop (SCO ODT), is a closed source computer operating system developed by Santa Cruz Operation (SCO), later acquired by SCO Group, and now owned by Xinuos. Early versions of OpenServer were ...

versions, and claimed to transfer files more rapidly than Laplink at that time. Later versions of the program could also transfer files using a network cable. Beam was not a financial success, as Laplink was the dominant product in that marketplace. Binary Research's next product, arising from the file transfer and parallel port technologies of Beam, was

Ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

, first sold in 1996. Ghost pioneered the field of

disk cloning Disk cloning is the process of creating a 1-to-1 copy of a hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD), not just its files. Disk cloning may be used for upgrading a disk or replacing an aging disk with a fresh one. In this case, the clone can r ...

software. A network of agents was set up around the world, and a branch of Binary Research Ltd, Binary Research International Inc, was established in

Glendale, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin Glendale is a city in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. It is a suburb of the neighboring Milwaukee. The population was 13,357 at the 2020 census. Geography Glendale is located at (43.130060, −87.927719). According to the United ...

as a sales and support centre. Ghost was a very successful product, but Binary Research was a small company and was unable to drive the global sales force which Ghost needed. In 1998, Murray Haszard looked for a company which could acquire and develop Ghost further. Symantec expressed an interest, and after a unanimous vote of approval by Binary Research's New Zealand employees, Ghost was purchased by Symantec for US$27.5 million in July 1998.

InfoWorld ''InfoWorld'' (abbreviated IW) is an information technology media business. Founded in 1978, it began as a monthly magazine. In 2007, it transitioned to a web-only publication. Its parent company today is International Data Group, and its siste ...

magazine, 16 november 1998, page 112 Almost all New Zealand employees of Binary Research became Symantec employees, and Ghost continued to be developed in Auckland for over ten years. Binary Research Ltd was closed down after the acquisition, but Binary Research International Inc. continues as a reseller of Ghost, and has expanded into other software products. One of the most significant products BRI distributed was the UI

(Universal Imaging Utility) which facilitates the creation of an Disk cloning, image that can be deployed to a vast range of hardware, irrespective of brand, components and drivers.

References

External links

Binary Research International Inc
{{Symantec Defunct software companies of New Zealand Gen Digital acquisitions