Category: People on the Move

Industry veteran Karl Meulema has been appointed channel chief at Riverbed Technology (RVBD), the company announced this week. Meulema, whose resume includes executive positions at Cisco Systems (CSCO) and Avaya, replaces former Riverbed channel chief Randy Schirman, who left the company last month for WAN virtualization startup Talari Networks.

In his new role, Meulema will be responsible for helping partners to better understand and sell the Riverbed portfolio and drive the company’s overarching goal of expanding beyond the WAN optimization market and into integrated network solutions.

“We will be making sure that, from a programmatic perspective, we very strongly support the strategic direction Riverbed is taking, where we are really focusing on becoming a much more platform-centric company and driving our total portfolio to the market instead of point products,” Meulema said in an interview with CRN. “So much of our business relies on the channel, so we need to make sure partners are following that same direction and feel supported by our programs.”

Prior to taking on his new role at Riverbed, Meulema was vice president of Global Services and Partners at Avaya. He also served in several executive level positions at Cisco Systems, including tenure as the company’s senior vice president of Global Strategy and Operations.

Meulema marks the second ex-Cisco executive to join the Riverbed team in as many months, with the company recently hiring Paul Mountford to run its sales operation as chief sales officer and senior vice president. In May, the company renamed its entire product portfolio as the Riverbed Application Performance Platform to better reflect value, and achieved VMware Ready-vCloud Air status for several of its solutions.

Earlier this month, Riverbed announced that it would be restructuring its business and working to trim costs in light of pressure from shareholder Elliot Management, according to CRN. The WAN optimization company also lowered its third-quarter financial outlook to reflect its issues, estimating revenue between $276 million and $277 million down from previous forecasts of $285 million and 295 million.

Application networking solution provider A10 Networks (ATEN) has hired Gunter Reiss, a 21-year Ericsson veteran versed in business development, strategic alliances, business partnerships and OEM relationships, to oversee its activities in those areas.

A10 officials said Reiss will be able to capitalize on momentum the company has built for its Thunder portfolio, which features its application delivery controller, carrier-grade networking and new threat protection system, among customers, channel partners and OEMs. In particular, Reiss is tasked with developing relationships with technology partners to support A10’s strategic initiatives.

“Gunter joins A10 Networks at a great time where the interest in the market in working with us is high,” said Ray Smets, A10 Networks global sales vice president. “His vast experience is a perfect fit for A10 Networks at this stage of our growth. The relationships he will develop with key technology partners globally will support our growth strategies in the enterprise, data center, cloud and service provider market.”

In his long tenure at Ericsson, Reiss most recently served as vice president of Business Development and Strategy for IP & Broadband. He previously held senior-level positions in business, partnership, alliances and strategy development at Ericsson offices in Texas and at facilities in Austria and Sweden.

Reiss’ background also includes a three-year stint with Damovo, an IT solutions provider based in Glasgow, Scotland, and IPC. He’s also held a seat on Skorpios Technologies’ board of directors and was a member of the Sun Microsystems customer advisory board.

In late April, A10 kicked off its revamped Affinity Partner program to motivate and reward channel partners selling its application service gateway products.

RSA, storage giant EMC’s (EMC) security unit, has promoted its Products senior vice president Amit Yoran to president and tasked him with delivering a unified customer experience across the division’s products and services and its marketing and sales initiatives.

Art Coviello, RSA’s executive chairman, will collaborate with Yoran to formulate and advance the security division’s strategies, officials said. Yoran, who RSA described as “one of the industry’s foremost authorities on the evolution of the security landscape” is said to have a keen understanding of how enterprises can best defend against threats increasing in sophistication and frequency.

Yoran has some 20 years of cyber security experience under his belt and is credited with driving RSA’s Intelligence Driven Security strategy and tying its product portfolio to meet the new and emerging security challenges facing enterprises today.

“We are excited to have Amit in this role,” said Coviello. “His passion, deep industry expertise, and experience running agile organizations will help enable RSA to enhance the development, delivery and customer experience of the Intelligence Driven Security platforms and services enterprises need to effectively defend themselves in an increasingly complex threat landscape.”

Yoran joined RSA in 2011 when it acquired NetWitness, a company he founded and served as its chief executive. He previously held Riptech’s chief executive post until it was acquired by Symantec in 2002, staying on as Worldwide Managed Security Services vice president. Yoran also has served as the founding director of the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) and as a founding member of the US Department of Defense’s CERT program.

“In the face of dramatic technology change and rapidly evolving threats, today’s security market is in need of a radical transformation,” said Yoran. “RSA is in a unique position to lead this change,” he said.

“We have the vision, the products and services, and the talent to deliver the Intelligence Driven Security that helps enable enterprises to communicate, collaborate, and innovate securely,” said Yoran. “I am excited to focus all of RSA’s resources on solving these challenges and ensuring our customers have the security and peace of mind they need and deserve.”

Sundar Pichai, head of Google’s (GOOG) Android, Apps and Chrome business, now is boss of all the company’s core products, including commerce and ads, Google+, infrastructure, maps, research and search, in an executive reorganization spearheaded by chief executive Larry Page.

According to Re/code, which first reported the shakeup, the six Google executives heading product groups newly under Pichai’s domain—Alan Eustace in research; Amit Singhal in search; Dave Besbris in social; Jen Fitzpatrick in maps; Sridhar Ramaswamy in ads and commerce; and, Urs Hölzle in technical infrastructure—no longer report to Page but instead to Pichai.

All except for Besbris, who joined Google in 2008, have been with the company for more than 10 years, Re/code reported, and are not expected to balk at the management change.

As the new de-facto Google product guru, Pichai will report to Page, but his Android and Chrome senior vice president title won’t change for now, the report said.

Left out of the management reorganization is Google’s YouTube group, whose chief executive Susan Wojcicki will continue to report to Page, according to the Re/code account.

In a company memo to employees, Page said he believes shuffling product unit oversight to Pichai will free him to focus on the 35,000-foot view as well as existing and new products, Re/code reported. He will continue to manage business and operations, and maintain responsibility for Nest, Calico, Google X, corporate development, legal, finance and ad sales, along with overseeing access and energy, a new unit run by Craig Barratt, the former Qualcomm (QCOM) Atheros head.

Google recently appointed Hiroshi Lockheimer, its mobile OS Android Engineering vice president, to oversee the desktop and notebook-focused Chrome OS engineering team, putting him in charge of engineering for both products and renewing speculation the vendor will coordinate or perhaps even merge the two operating systems at some point in the near future.

Pichai has maintained that Google has no plans to merge Android and the Chrome OS. “We view them as building blocks,” he said in March. “By investing in both, we believe that over time we will be able to meet almost all use cases.”

While Sundar Pichai’s star at Google (GOOG) rises, Andy Rubin’s is falling, as the former Android founder and guru is leaving the company to launch an incubator for hardware product startups.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Rubin’s exit, which subsequently was confirmed by chief executive Larry Page.

“I want to wish Andy all the best with what’s next,” said Page in a statement. “With Android he created something truly remarkable—with a billion-plus happy users. Thank you.”

Google bought Android in 2005 along with founder Rubin and he helped the mobile OS to become the world’s most popular smartphone platform, as evidenced by its current 85 percent market share.

Rubin, who stepped down as Android boss in March 2013 in a move that saw Pichai add the mobile OS to his Chrome OS and Google Apps responsibilities, had been leading Google’s robotics effort, which included a number of related acquisitions such as Boston Dynamics in December 2013, Schaft, Meka Robotics and five others.

His exit appears to have caught Google somewhat by surprise, considering his robotics work at the company was ongoing and had yet to come to fruition. However, a Journal source said Rubin’s entrepreneurial spirit may have gotten the best of him, noting he was dealing with some constraints on his activities at the company.

Google hasn’t said publicly why Rubin left and he hasn’t said anything either.

A Google spokesperson told the Journal that the vendor will continue to invest in robotics despite Rubin’s departure. James Kuffner, a Google research scientist and current member of its robotics team, will take Rubin’s place running the unit, the Journal reported. Kuffner is said to be well-versed in robotics, previously working on human-like robot technology for some 20 years, including five years on Google’s self-driving car project.

In a new reorganization spearheaded by Page, Pichai now is boss of all the company’s core products, including commerce and ads, Google+, infrastructure, maps, research and search.

Enterprise data security provider Vormetric has joined the McAfee Security Innovation Alliance (SIA) Program as a Sales Teaming Partner, the company announced during the McAfee FOCUS 2014 conference in Las Vegas. The addition of Vormetric’s solutions to the McAfee security portfolio aims to improve organizational compliance and regulatory issues while creating an added layer of protection against potential data breaches.

Vormetric also completed integration with McAfee Database Activity Monitoring and McAfee Enterprise Security Manager as part of its new relationship with the company. The Vormetric solution is expected to extend the protection offered by the McAfee Data Center Security Suite for Databases and increase visibility, threat protection and audit reporting of McAfee Enterprise Security Manager, according to the company. Similarly, the Vormetric Transparent Encryption solution will enable data-at-rest encryption and additional user access controls to create an audit trail of authorized and unauthorized file access.

“This relationship and integration provides our joint customers with a more complete solution for protecting sensitive information within their databases and file systems by adding data-at-rest encryption, key management, privileged user access controls and enhancing the information available for analysis by McAfee Enterprise Security Manager,” said Ed Barry, vice president, Global Technology Alliances at McAfee, part of Intel Security, in a statement.

Vormetric’s compatibility with the McAfee SIA is another step in fulfilling the promise made by Intel President Renée James during FOCUS to provide customers with more integrated solutions. McAfee recently released its Threat Intelligence Exchange solution, a new framework that collects threats and acts as a unified defense system for enterprises, according to the company. The new solution also integrates with McAfee’s Security Information and Event Management solution to increase security intelligence and reduce response time.

“We are excited by this new relationship with McAfee, and honored to be selected as a Sales Teaming Partner,” said Alan Kessler, CEO of Vormetric. “With McAfee Compatibility status ensuring interoperability, and the ease of doing business provided by the Sales Teaming Partner program, this is a big win for our joint customers.”

Ex-Cisco Systems (CSCO) executive Chris Young has made the leap to Intel Security, where he has taken on the role of senior vice president and general manager. Young took to the stage at last week’s McAfee FOCUS 2014 conference in Las Vegas to discuss his plans to change the state of enterprise security.

Young said he is looking to tackle three big challenges in the security industry—namely, the changing of the IT landscape, the changing attack landscape and the increasing fragmentation of the industry as a whole. He addressed some of the complexities that continue to plague the security provider market despite continually improving solutions to potential breaches. In what he calls the “industrialization of hacking,” the rapid growth in malware and other malicious software continues to outstrip the pace of security providers such as McAfee as hackers become more skilled in their craft. This, in turn, is changing the established trust abilities we take for granted, including our methods of protecting personal information and establishing secure connections.

“I do believe we’ve reached a point where complexity and fragmentation has become our enemy,” Young said. “Our attackers are innovating even faster than anyone in our industry.”

As one of the main ways to fix our current security problem, Young emphasized the importance of shrinking the attack surface, so security software can more easily pinpoint and eliminate potential threats. This, in turn, will require a simpler security model with which companies such as McAfee can focus their attention on. He also stressed Intel and McAfee’s goal of driving more unified solutions across the IT infrastructure and developing more connected architectures to make security a vital aspect of the entire ecosystem.

“I fundamentally believe that we can empower the connected world,” said Young. “This is our higher cause.”

Young is the second Cisco exec to move to Intel Security, just weeks after the former Cisco Global Vice President of Security Sales Scott Lovett also transferred to his new position as executive vice president of Worldwide Sales.

While all of these are fairly lofty goals, Young said the best way to deal with the increasing danger of cyberattacks in both the public and private sectors is to develop more of a dialogue between customers and their security companies. He also pointed out that recent high-profile breaches came not from a lack of security, but a general lack of coordination between security companies and their end users. By looking to the mistakes of past security failures, Young said, companies can learn from their mistakes and begin building a more secure strategy for dealing with the inevitability of a cyberattack—with McAfee and Intel Security leading the charge, of course.

Storage provider Diablo Technologies has appointed former IBM veteran Alex Yost as its new president, the company announced Nov. 10. Yost will report to CEO and co-founder Riccardo Badalone, and will be tasked with managing the company’s product portfolio and marketing as Diablo looks to strengthen its management team.

“Memory channel storage is gaining wide adoption in the enterprise,” said Badalone in a statement. “Adding a prominent industry veteran such as Alex will expand the organizational capabilities of the leadership team and better position us for future growth.”

Diablo Technologies is an Ottowa-based storage provider best known for its memory channel storage (MCS) platform, which allows enterprises to virtualize and store low latency workloads using software and hardware architectures with non-volatile memory, according to the company. In August, Diablo announced the upcoming release of Carbon₂, its second-generation MCS platform, and the subsequent release of its NanoCommit technology.

Prior to his appointment at Diablo, Yost led IBM’s high-end x86 server business (which was recently acquired by Lenovo) and helped to build the product line, according to the press release. Yost also has served as vice president of Strategy and Alliances at IBM and held various sales and channel management roles at Xerox.

“Earlier this year, I saw the value of Diablo’s products when I had the chance to announce a system that delivers 99x faster analytics using memory channel storage technology,” said Yost. “I look forward to broadening the leadership skillset and delivering Diablo-based products to a wider market.”

Juniper Networks (JNPR) has dumped its second chief executive in a year’s time as Shaygan Kheradpir, who replaced Kevin Johnson almost exactly a year ago, resigned his post and his board seat in a disagreement over how he handled negotiations with an undisclosed customer.

The networking equipment maker quickly ascended Rami Rahim, a 17-year company veteran, to its helm, effective immediately, and also granted him a seat on its board.

Kheradpir’s “resignation follows a review by the board of directors of his leadership and his conduct in connection with a particular negotiation with a customer,” the company said in a statement. Juniper said its board and Kheradpir “have different perspectives regarding these matters,” but declined to elaborate.

Rahim previously served as executive vice president and general manager of Juniper’s Development and Innovation unit, overseeing research and development programs, strategy, development and business growth across its portfolio of routing, switching and security products. Rahim worked as an engineer on Juniper’s first product, the M40 core router, and was one of the original architects of its MX flagship routing platform.

Juniper officials said the change at the top will not cause the company to deviate from its strategy or financial targets. The company didn’t say if Rahim will keep his schedule to present at the UBS Global Technology Conference in Sausalito, California, Nov. 19, one of two investor conferences the vendor is slated to participate in this month.

“Rami is the right chief executive officer to lead Juniper,” said Scott Kriens, Juniper chairman. “He is a talented leader who brings deep instincts about the networking industry, and enormous support from our employees and our customers.”

Kheradpir, who replaced Johnson in January, joined the company from Barclays, where he served as chief operations and technology officer. At the time of his appointment, Kriens said Kheradpir’s “values and vision for the company align very tightly with our own.”

On Kheradpir’s watch, Juniper cut costs to increase profits but sales remained flat. Through the September quarter, Juniper’s net income jumped some 51 percent while its revenue grew by less than 4 percent, confounded by changes in the networking market.

Activist investor Elliott Management nipped at Kheradpir’s heels throughout his tenure, demanding cost reductions and stock buybacks until the company yielded with a plan to return some $3 billion to shareholders and to cut $160 million in expenses.

Symantec (SYMC) has axed chief operating officer (COO) Stephen Gillett and eliminated his former position altogether, in a move suggesting the company already is taking initial steps to split itself into separate security and storage operations.

In an 8-K Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing on Nov. 13, Symantec said Gillett would remain with the company in a non-executive role during a transitional period and will receive “certain cash severance and equity acceleration benefits for involuntary termination.”

ormer Symantec boss Steve Bennett appointed Gillett as COO in December 2012 as part of his overhaul of the company’s executive suite. Gillett, a former Best Buy (BBY) Digital Global Marketing and Strategy executive vice president and president, handled marketing, communications and IT functions. At Best Buy, Gillett oversaw the retailers’ digital, e-commerce, marketing, information technology, customer insights, enterprise strategy, corporate development, new business ventures, enterprise customer care and channel design.

He also previously served as Starbucks CIO and as Digital Ventures executive vice president.

Gillett is known as a serious gamer, regarded as one of the most innovative Guild Masters in World of Warcraft.

In October, Symantec disclosed its plans to split into two publicly traded companies, a process the company’s top brass said would take more than a year to accomplish. The security vendor has said the split will include organizational changes and layoffs.

According to its most recent 10-Q SEC filing dated Nov. 7, as of Oct. 3 Symantec already had incurred $17 million in charges related to the breakup plan and as of Nov. 3 anticipated another $100 million to $120 in severance and facilities costs, with total restructuring and separation costs expected to rise to $180 million to $220 million.

Symantec’s breakup plans followed word of a similar move by Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) to split into separate PC/printer and enterprise organizations. In a VAR Guy poll following both companies’ disclosures, 45 percent of readers considered both divisions as beneficial to the channel. Some 24 percent believed the separations wouldn’t much matter and 21 percent thought no substantive changes were likely to occur in the short term. About 10 percent were unaware that both companies had divided their operations into two parts.