Sandial Systems developed optical networking hardware for backbones and other carrier networks. It was founded as Malachite Technology in 2000 and dissolved in 2004. With the collapse of the telecommunications market the company was reorganized, renamed Sandial Systems and refocused as a maker of Fibre Channel director class switches. The main differentiator of the Shadow 14000 switch was use of Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM) to introduce Quality of Service (QoS) into Storage Area Networks (SANs).
The name Sandial originated before the company was founded and became of interest when the company explored the Storage Area Networking automation business and purchased sandial.com from an independent party.
The original sandial.com was a venture to create computer and other high technology furniture that looked nice in expensive New York apartments. The inspiration came from LIMN (furniture for artists and architects) and a William Gibson book that replaced computer monitors with fashionable sunglasses.
When the operators of what would be Sandial systems inquired about purchasing the name, a negotiation started with one party asking for $50,000 and the other offering $1000. They settled in between those two figures.
What's left of the original sandial.com can be found at sanice.com as Nice really is a nice place.
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