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Virtual Iron Hires Sales Hot-Shots To Run the Company

VMware's often forgotten rival, has hired a couple of ex-EMC guys of all people to run the company
By Maureen O'Gara
Article Rating:
November 7, 2007 04:15 PM EST
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 7,457
Virtual Iron Software, VMware's often forgotten rival, has hired a couple of ex-EMC guys of all people to run the company.

Ed Walsh, who ran EMC's Information Management Software Group after EMC acquired him along with Avamar Technology Inc late last year, is now president and CEO of Virtual Iron.

John McCarthy, who started at EMC and was president of StorageApps before HP bought it, is going to run Virtual Iron's sales.

Walsh is replacing John Thibault, who remains as executive chairman, responsible for the company's strategic direction and thinks Virtual Iron's market opportunity is "almost limitless."

The company wants its fair share of what promises to be a $7 billion market in 2011 while current penetration is only estimated at 6%. It combines the open source Xen hypervisor with features like policy-based automation.

Walsh was CEO of Avamar and reportedly grew revenues 700% in 18 months, which might explain why EMC bought it.

He tied up with McCathy at CNT, the publicly traded storage networking outfit before McData bought it in 2005. McCarthy stayed on at McData and was instrumental in creating the McData/CNT sales organization in North America.

Published November 7, 2007 – Reads 7,457
Copyright © 2007 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
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More Stories By Maureen O'Gara

Maureen O'Gara the most read technology reporter for the past 20 years, is the Cloud Computing and Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected technology reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025.

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Virtual Iron News Desk 11/02/07 01:45:01 PM EDT

Virtual Iron Software, VMware's often forgotten rival, has hired a couple of ex-EMC guys of all people to run the company. Ed Walsh, who ran EMC's Information Management Software Group after EMC acquired him along with Avamar Technology Inc late last year, is now president and CEO of Virtual Iron. John McCarthy, who started at EMC and was president of StorageApps before HP bought it, is going to run Virtual Iron's sales.