5 People To Watch

RAY OZZIE, MICROSOFT

The creator of Lotus Notes was appointed one of three chief technology officers when Microsoft acquired Groove Networks last March and has already ascended to superstar status in the corporation.

In November, Ozzie and Gates–once fierce rivals in the e-mail and groupware market—stood on stage together in San Francisco to launch the first two offerings of Microsoft&'s next-generation services platform: Windows Live and Office Live.

His ascension is no surprise. Observers believe that Gates, who once called Ozzie the best programmer in the universe, acquired Groove more for its founder than for its collaboration software.

With the full backing of Gates, Ozzie is staging a coup based on the same strategy Microsoft used to unseat Netscape and, ironically, Lotus Notes: integration with widely deployed Microsoft software such as Windows and Office.

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One former Microsofter who oversees open-source strategy for a consulting firm says Ozzie has the vision and talent to outsmart rivals and that his biggest challenge will come from within the gates of Microsoft.

“Microsoft has a history of bringing in executives from the outside world because they want the DNA but within two to three years, the executive turns to the outside world in frustration,” said Stephen Walli, a vice president at Optaros, Cambridge, Mass. “As much as Microsoft wants that DNA, they aren&'t able to change the culture and the executive leaves to do new things.”
-- Paula Rooney

MARC BENIOFF, SALESFORCE.COM
The gregarious Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com, promises to provide more than just high entertainment this year.

Yes, the San Francisco native grooms a mystique as a swim-with-dolphins corporate philanthropist while poking and provoking the industry&'s software sultans, as he did last November with a missive that gloated over Siebel Systems taking up residence at “software&'s Shady Pines Rest Home, also known as Oracle.”

But Benioff&'s boastful claims about his on-demand CRM company are no longer dismissed as so much bluster. Salesforce.com sales jumped an eye-popping 78 percent to $82.7 million in the third quarter. And it is gaining traction in the enterprise with the help of solution providers such as Bluewolf Group.

“I think you&'ll see them become almost standard in the Fortune 500 level,” said Eric Berridge, a founding principal at Bluewolf, New York. He anticipates engaging in 200 Salesforce.com implementations this year and has developed several applications for Salesforce.com&'s Multiforce environment, including one that brought in $500,000 in subscriptions last year.

When Salesforce.com goes live in February with AppExchange—billed as a kind of eBay for third-party apps—Bluewolf could be rolling in recurring revenue and leads. That&'s the vision, anyway. If Benioff can develop an ecosystem, he will be happy selling high-margin subscriptions and be welcoming toward service, consulting and solutions partners.

But VARs will still likely only eat what they can kill. “You will be protected and compensated only so far that you can add value to [Salesforce.com&'s] customers,” Berridge said. “And adding value is not getting them to sign a piece of paper.”
-- John Longwell JOHN SWAINSON, CA
If John Swainson, president and CEO of CA, moves as quickly in 2006 as he did in 2005, his legacy could be that of the man who finally changed the company from mostly a mainframe software vendor to a force in distributed enterprise network management. Since joining the company in November 2004, Swainson has simplified CA&'s business unit structure, streamlined its distribution channels, taken a run at the SMB market and revamped its enterprise products into a comprehensive Service Availability solution. What&'s more, under Swainson, CA has come into favor with an increasing number of solution providers who were once skeptical of its ability to play nice with the channel. “They&'ve gone from mostly talking to mostly listening,” said Jose Albino, principal at Attain Technologies, Englewood, Calif.

Swainson—a 26-year IBM veteran who drove the success of WebSphere—has coupled innovation with strategic acquisitions such as Concord Communications to expand into key markets. And Swainson seems to be willing to sacrifice existing revenue streams from legacy applications in favor of pushing new products.

“We are taking ourselves to the next level, and now we&'re going to earn the right to be your IT management partner,” he said at CA&'s partner conference in November.
-- Dan Neel IAN PRATT, XENSOURCE
Ian Pratt is fast becoming the Linus Torvalds of the virtualization world.

The leader of the Xen open-source project has emerged from obscurity to top billing as XenMaster and a co-founder of startup XenSource. Xen, which gained early backing from Hewlett-Packard and Intel, in the past 18 months also has amassed broad support from IBM, Red Hat, Novell, Advanced Micro Devices and Sun Microsystems. With the completion of Xen 3.0 in December, Pratt and Co. officially launched XenSource and its first commercial product, XenOptimizer.

Pratt&'s philosophy—that the virtualization engine should be a core service of the underlying platform—threatens to disrupt the economics of the market. Red Hat and Novell will integrate Xen into their next Linux distributions in 2006. Sun announced plans to integrate it into Solaris in 2006. And Microsoft plans to build a hypervisor into Windows Server after 2007. One partner said while he is sticking with commercial offerings from VMware and Microsoft Virtual Server for now, he thinks Xen is going to be a contender. “Clients think it&'s good for experimental work, niche applications or low-budget projects,” said John Dodge, a solutions architect at Foedus, New York. “But they like the big company names supporting it and its future potential.”
-- Paula Rooney MATT MEDEIROS, SONICWALL
Just two years ago, SonicWall was on its way to becoming an also-ran in the small-business security space with a frustrated channel and an aging product line that had been usurped by upstart competitors.

But the company is entering 2006 with a reinvigorated channel, a fresh and innovative product line and significant prospects for growth. The company posted earnings of $2.6 million on revenue of $34 million in its most recent quarter, up from a loss of $605,000 on revenue of $29.3 million in the same quarter a year ago.

Solution providers credit President and CEO Matt Medeiros with the turnaround. “Before Medeiros, it was hard to differentiate SonicWall from any other firewall on the market,” said Koji Mori, general manager of network services at Calsoft Systems, a Torrance, Calif., solution provider. “His first year was all about refreshing the product line and now SonicWall is one of the most innovative, with IPS, deep packet inspection and gateway antivirus in one box.”

Now in his third year as CEO, Medeiros is still innovating. SonicWall in November beefed up its nascent SSL VPN line with the purchase of enKoo and expanded into backup and recovery with the acquisition of Lasso Logic. With momentum in his favor, Medeiros is set for a banner year.
-- Larry Hooper