Auspex was founded in 1987 by Larry Boucher, CEO of Adaptec, as a provider of network attached storage devices, a product category they invented. They became a leading provider of enterprise storage in the mid-1990s but fell behind Network Appliance in the field. The company was liquidated in 2003, with the patent portfolio going to Network Appliance and the services business to GlassHouse Technologies.Defunct computer companies of the United States