As those of you that follow me on Twitter already know, last Friday (11/7) was my last day at Alfresco. Although my time there was very short, it was one of the most valuable experiences of my almost 20 year career. I learned more about the state of enterprise Java applications, the importance of ECM to almost every business, and the great advantage that open source has in the enterprise software market. Not bad for just short of six months. The company and its product are both incredible, and I owe a lot to the amazing field team at Alfresco, especially Matt Asay, Scott Davis, Luis Sala and Peter Monks.
Why am I moving on so soon, then? Well, I'm happy to say that I'm taking on the role of Marketing Manager/Technology Evangelist for Data Center Virtualization at Cisco Systems, Inc. (including Cloud Computing and Cisco's Data Center 3.0 strategy, at least as it relates to virtualization). This is a dream job in many ways, as Cisco is still in the formative stages of its cloud computing strategy (for both service providers and end users), and I have the chance to be part of what will most likely be the most important producer of cloud and virtualization enabled networking software, services and equipment.
This is also an opportunity in which both my passion for blogging and my passion for cloud computing come directly into play. I am excited to work with both Doug Gourlay and Peter Linkin, who are incredibly smart people with a vision I can really get my head around.
Lest you fret that I'm going to go "all Cisco" here on The Wisdom of Clouds, let me assure you that this was pretty much the first point of negotiation when they approached me about the position. The Wisdom of Clouds (or whatever it morphs into--more on that later in the week) will remain my independent blog, in which I will endeavor to provide the same humble insight into the state of the cloud market and technology that I always have. Cisco specific posts will largely be confined to the Data Center group's excellent blog, where I will become a regular contributor.
In the end, what sold me on joining Cisco was the excellent opportunity to explore the "uncharted territory" that is the network's role in cloud computing. More on that in my next post.
