The History of LinMin

The History of LinMin:

Established in 2007 under the leadership of Laurent Gharda, LinMin carved a niche in IT infrastructure software, gaining widespread adoption across data centers and IT organizations globally.

Following the success of its original flagship product, LinMin Bare Metal Provisioning, introduced in 2008 and later rebranded by Cisco as Cisco Server Provisioner, LinMin unveiled the LinMin Snapshot Manager (LSM). This cutting-edge solution empowered users to manage physical systems as seamlessly as virtual machines, providing deployment, cloning, rollback, and discovery functionalities for various x86 operating systems and hypervisors, including Windows, Linux, and BSD, across servers, blades, virtual machines, IT appliances, and PCs.

LinMin's Bare Metal Provisioning (LBMP) and LinMin Snapshot Manager (LSM) stood out for their remarkable versatility and capability. These powerful tools were adept at servicing a comprehensive range of Linux distributions, including major versions such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Open Enterprise Linux, Oracle Linux, CentOS, Rocky Linux, Alma Linux, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), among others. Their prowess extended to all versions of Windows Server and the PC versions of Windows. With LBMP and LSM, users could effortlessly provision and install systems, roll back changes, recover from disasters, and clone setups, ensuring seamless and robust management of IT infrastructure across diverse platforms. These capabilities made LBMP and LSM indispensable tools in the realm of systems management, offering unparalleled flexibility and reliability in handling a wide array of operating systems.

In its commitment to excellence, LinMin worked closely with its customers to refine and evolve its offerings. The company's extensive QA labs, equipped with essential physical systems and virtual machines, played a crucial role in the rigorous testing of LinMin products. These products were adept at deploying and recovering an extensive array of more than 100 combinations of operating systems and architectures.

Steered by seasoned systems management professionals, LinMin was headquartered in Menlo Park, with engineering facilities in San Rafael, led by VP of R&D Rick Mansfield, and in San Jose, under the direction of VP of Quality Assurance Allan Tajii. All these locations were strategically positioned within California, USA.

In a significant development in 2022, LinMin was acquired, leading to the seamless transition of its customers to a product from the acquiring company that incorporated LinMin’s intellectual property. In line with the terms of the acquisition agreement, the identity of the buyer remains confidential. Additionally, LinMin’s employees were presented with the opportunity to join the acquiring company, should they opt to do so. Notably, as part of the non-exclusive deal, Laurent Gharda retains personal rights to LinMin’s intellectual property and continues to hold the rights to the LinMin trademark.