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Industry Moves: Sun Microsystems Desktop Virtualization Expert Jefferi Holland Joins Systems Alliance

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Systems Alliance, a regional systems integrator providing high-value IT and business consulting services, today announced Jefferi V. Holland, formerly a senior desktop virtualization specialist and senior pre-sales engineer with Sun Microsystems, has joined the company as a senior technical architect.

With nearly 25 years of experience, Holland will lead the expansion of Systems Alliance’s consulting practice focused on desktop virtualization and thin-client computing.

Before joining Systems Alliance, Holland was an 11-year employee of Sun Microsystems, where for the past five years he was a senior technical specialist for the US Software Practice, responsible for architecting, recommending and deploying Sun’s virtual desktop technology. In this role, Holland developed virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions for commercial and public-sector clients including United Airlines, Detroit Water and Sewage and the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital.

Prior to Sun, Holland was manager of engineering computer services at the University of Michigan-Dearborn College of Engineering, a systems engineer for Bundy Corporation, and an engineer at General Dynamics Land Systems Division Vehicle Systems Laboratory. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Detroit Mercy.

Ex-Microsoft Exec Richard McAniff Appointed Chief Development Officer, Executive VP At VMware

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VMware today announced that Richard McAniff has been named Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer. McAniff will report directly to President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Maritz. In his new role, McAniff will be responsible for research and development across VMware’s Server and Desktop Business Units.

“I am pleased to welcome Richard to VMware at a time when the company is poised to expand its technology leadership even farther ahead with its upcoming VMware vSphere generation of products,” said Paul Maritz, president and chief executive officer, VMware. “As the new leader of our R&D organization, Richard brings deep experience in developing industry-leading software. He will play a crucial role in driving product engineering efforts that will help drive and grow our business.”

McAniff, 59, brings more than 28 years of software development leadership experience to VMware. Most recently, he spent 21 years at Microsoft. As corporate vice president for Microsoft Office, McAniff was responsible for several major software tools including Excel and Access. He also oversaw the Business Intelligence effort within Office and development of Web components for the SharePoint Portal Server. In addition, McAniff helped guide the development of Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003 and Office 2007. Before serving as corporate vice president, McAniff served as general manager of the Visual Basic development system. Prior to joining Microsoft in 1987, McAniff was a member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. During his seven years there, he worked on numerous projects including probability analyses for alternative fuels.

McAniff holds a master’s degree in systems and industrial engineering from the University of Arizona, a master’s degree in resource economics from the University of Massachusetts, and a bachelor of science degree in economics from the University of Massachusetts.

Oh yeah, he also seems to be spending quite some time on Twitter.

Dennis Hoffman Joins Neocleus’ Board of Directors

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Neocleus today announced that Dennis Hoffman has joined the Neocleus Board of Directors.

Hoffman has worked in both entrepreneurial and general management capacities at numerous information technology companies and is an executive at EMC Corporation where he leads the company’s global sales engineering organization.

Hoffman’s leadership experience spans more than 20 years in the high technology industry. He boasts a strong track record of building and growing companies and motivating teams. He has successfully cultivated strong client and investor relationships. In his most recent role he was responsible for the strategy development, execution and financial performance of RSA’s Data Security business unit, as well as strategic planning, strategic partnerships and business development for the greater RSA Division.

“The client computing environment has become increasingly complex to manage and secure,” said Dennis Hoffman, vice president and general manager, EMC. “Neocleus’ innovative approach in applying client-hosted virtualization to address IT hassles is at the forefront of the software industry. I look forward to working with the company to help them expand their industry leadership.”

Before starting his role at RSA, Hoffman led the team at EMC that developed and initiated the execution of the company’s information security strategy. In his prior position at the company he led product marketing for EMC Software Group. Previously, he served as CEO and co-founder of Storigen Systems, a pioneering developer of distributed storage networking software that was acquired by EMC in October 2003. Hoffman also spent six years at Avid Technology, where he was responsible for the marketing and business development of its storage and networking products. He has held strategy consulting and engineering roles at companies including Marakon Associates, Eastman Kodak and Polaroid Corporation. Hoffman received an MBA from Harvard University and holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.

Industry Moves: Bill Corrigan Goes From Softricity / Microsoft To Neocleus

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Bill Corrigan, former Vice President of Product Management & Marketing in Softricity before the Microsoft acquisition, and most recently Director of Product Management in the Windows and Enterprise Management Division, has joined Neocleus as Chief Marketing Officer.

Evolve Technologies CEO Dave Sobel Releases Book On Virtualization

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Evolve Technologies today announced that CEO, Dave Sobel, will release his first book on virtualization at Reiter’s Books in Washington D.C. on Thursday, January 22 at 6:00 p.m.

Sobel’s book entitled, “Virtualization: Defined. A Primer for the SMB Consultant,” explores, in depth, the basics of this technology for small to medium-sized business (SMB) solution providers and IT professionals alike.

Sobel’s first book positions virtualization as a valuable, time and money saving asset for businesses in hopes of eliminating the recent hype surrounding the emerging technology. “Virtualization: Defined” is the essential guide for SMB consultants looking to better understand and utilize virtualization technology to grow their business and increase efficiency and productivity.

Industry Moves: Former Red Hat COO Tim Buckley Joins rPath Board As Executive Chairman

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rPath today announced that Tim Buckley, principal of Buckley Investments and former chief operating officer of Red Hat, has joined the rPath board of directors as the executive chairman. From his newly created post, Buckley will help rPath accelerate its push into the enterprise market with solutions for reducing the cost and complexity of delivering applications to traditional, virtualized, and cloud-based environments.

Buckley brings more than 20 years of experience in sales and marketing leadership for high-growth technology start-ups. Prior to founding Buckley Investments LLC, a Raleigh, NC-based consulting company, he was COO for Red Hat, where he was part of the executive team that transformed the company from a start-up to the dominant provider of open source operating systems to the enterprise market. Red Hat has publicly credited Buckley with its worldwide growth and transformation into an enterprise sales organization.

Prior to Red Hat, Buckley was senior vice president of worldwide sales for Seattle-based Visio Corp., where he was instrumental in growing the company from start-up to IPO and ultimately through a $1.5 billion acquisition by Microsoft. Earlier, Buckley was an executive with Aldus, the developers of PageMaker; and Approach, which he helped launch from its early stages through a major acquisition by Lotus Development Corp