Virtual Instruments, a provider of storage area network (SAN) and virtual infrastructure optimisation offerings, has appointed John Thompson, board chairman and former CEO of Symantec, as the new CEO of the company.
Mr Thompson replaces Mark Urdahl, who will remain as the director and a large shareholder of Virtual Instruments. Beyound his ten-year tenure at Symantec, Thompson served on the National Infrastructure Advisory Committee (NIAC), making recommendations regarding the security of US infrastructure.
Before joining Symantec, Thompson spent over 25 years at IBM in various senior sales and marketing management positions, most recently as general manager of IBM Americas.
Virtual Instruments, founded in June 2008 via a spin-out from Finisar, offers NetWisdom and VirtualWisdom virtual infrastructure optimisation offerings that provide deep monitoring and analysis of how the virtualised IT infrastructure and the SAN affect application performance.
The company recently introduced the SANInsight TAP Patch Panel System, a pre-tapped fiber-optic patch panel system that simplifies the deployment of network TAPs into fiber channel SANs and virtualised infrastructure.
Jim Davidson, co-CEO of Silver Lake Partners and Virtual Instruments board member, said: With over 100% year-over-year growth in 2009, Virtual Instruments’ is very fortunate to be able to leverage John’s proven leadership, tremendous industry experience and deep understanding of the needs of enterprise customers.
