IBM and Tech Parks ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ marked the 40th year since Big Blue came to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ with an event Friday that showcased some of the company’s latest technologies.
In 1978, IBM broke ground on a new home for its storage-solutions division on 1,345 acres of land it purchased in southeast ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.
By the mid-1980s, about 5,000 IBM workers were developing and manufacturing tape and other computer storage products.
In the mid-1980s, IBM employed about 5,000 workers at its site at 9000 S. Rita Road. The site was later acquired by the University of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.
In 1998, IBM moved the manufacturing part of the operation to San Jose, California, leaving design and development operations in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.
The University of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ acquired the property at 9000 S. Rita Road in 1994 and named it the UA Science and Technology Park.
IBM remains a major high-tech employer in Southern ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.
Though the company doesn’t release employee counts, IBM reported about 1,050 employees in 2015, down from more than 1,700 in 2005, as part of a travel-reduction survey conducted by the Pima Association of Governments.
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As part of Friday’s commemoration at the Tech Park, Calline Sanchez, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ site leader for IBM, provided an overview and update of IBM’s local operation.
Though IBM’s local workforce has shrunk considerably, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ remains one of the company’s major innovation hubs for areas including data storage and retrieval, cloud computing, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.
Calline Sanchez, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ site leader for IBM
