All modern Snap Servers include an embedded operating system called GuardianOS.
[1] The GuardianOS is a UNIX-like operating system based on the mainstream Linux kernel, and is used on the Snap Server line of network-attached storage devices.
[citation needed] Many Snap Servers are visible operating on the open Internet, although it is generally more common for them to be deployed inside corporate intranets.
Meridian Data (founded in 1994 as Parallan Computer, based in Scotts Valley, California) had been shipping CD-ROM servers, which was a shrinking market in the late 1990s.
In 1996 it started development of a network file server which it announced at the DEMO conference in February 1998.