Companies filled data centers with servers as fast as they could in 2000, and every inch of rack space cost money. Network Engines, based outside Boston, built thin, dense servers that packed more computing into each rack. They were built for speed, density and reliability. The company went public in July 2000, when data center space was scarce and the companies building websites seemed to have unlimited budgets.

Boxes Sold Under Other Names

Network Engines first bet that web companies would want dense, reliable servers for their growing data centers. When that market fell away, it changed course. It began building ready-to-ship appliances for software makers. They loaded their own programs and sold the boxes under their own names. Security and storage software companies became its main customers, and the shift gave it a steadier business.

A New Engine

Network Engines priced its IPO at $17 a share in July 2000 and listed on Nasdaq. Its shares fell sharply after the dot-com crash, as its web company customers vanished. The appliance business kept the company going for another decade. Through every change, it stayed based outside Boston. In 2012 Unicom Systems acquired Network Engines, and its run as a public company ended.

Cover: Picture of the Steam Engine Railway in Yatsuyama, Tokyo (Tokyo Yatsuyama shita kaigan jokisha tetsudo no zu), Utagawa Hiroshige III. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a steam engine.