When former Microsoft CIO Tony Scott left in May, Microsoft said he'd be focusing on "personal projects." As it turns out, one of these side endeavors is running VMware's global IT organization.
Scott, who was introduced as VMware's new CIO Monday, joins the Palo Alto, Calif.-based vendor at a time of profound transition. VMware rode server virtualization to a dominant position in the data center, and now it's trying to do the same in storage and networking.
As head of VMware's global IT organization, Scott will be responsible for managing the $4.6 billion company's technology systems, and he reports to CEO Pat Gelsinger. He fills a role that had been vacant since last December when former CIO Mark Egan left the company.
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"Tony will have responsibility for advancing and protecting VMware information assets, leading a team that is helping VMware meet the IT needs of more than 500,000 customers worldwide," Gelsinger said in a statement.
At VMworld, VMware is talking about the benefits of its software-defined data center vision, where storage and networking are virtualized in the same way as servers. But, the vendor hasn't said much about how -- or if -- it's using these technologies internally yet.
In a Q&A Tuesday at VMworld, Gelsinger said VMware's entry to public cloud, called vCloud Hybrid Service, will be a "showcase" for how the software defined data center can drive down the costs of technology. Presumably, Scott will be using the same approach to lower the costs of VMware's internal operations.
Scott spent five years at Microsoft and had a big role there.
Reporting to COO Kevin Turner, he was responsible for the software giant's security, infrastructure, messaging and business applications. He also oversaw support for Microsoft's product groups, corporate business groups, and global sales and marketing organization.
Prior to joining Microsoft in 2008, Scott was CIO at Disney, CTO at General Motors and vice president of operations at Bristol-Meyers Squibb.
PUBLISHED AUG. 28, 2013
