Xiotech Taps EMC's Doug O'Shaughnessy for Services VP Slot

Former EMC executive Doug O’Shaughnessy has taken up new digs at storage company Xiotech as the VP of Services. As Xiotech looks to push its Hybrid ISE technology deeper into the marketplace amid high demand for its product, O’Shaughnessy has joined the company to help drive the budding storage company’s future direction. Read on for the quick details …

We’ve been covering Xiotech for a while now, most recently its decision to make its ISE (Intelligent Storage Element) platform into a fully operational Hybrid 3U appliance. Xiotech’s claim to fame is a unique use of existing storage technologies — by blending the best qualities of SSD and HDD, Xiotech provides a high-capacity, super-fast, low-cost storage solution. Instead of an expensive, fully populated SSD solution, the Hybrid ISE appliance uses a small group of SSDs as an ‘on deck’ loading ground for recently used information, while less-frequently used (and fully backed-up) data stays on regular HDDs.

According to Xiotech, as its ISE solutions increase in popularity, the company needs seasoned guidance on expanding its product deeper into the storage space. O’Shaughnessy will be tasked with making sure Xiotech’s growing global ISE community gets “world-class service,” and Xiotech thinks he’s the right man for the job, due in part to his 20 years of experience, including holding the position of VP of Customer Service at EMC, among other high-level positions in the tech sector.

Xiotech’s appointment represents a response to the milieu in the storage channel, amid potential competition from Dell Compellent, and more appropriately, EMC’s latest foray into expanding its entire storage portfolio to VARs. I think we’ll be seeing Xiotech bolstering its channel program soon, especially in light of the company’s recent decisions to support the VDI Coalition and the Open Virtualization Alliance for KVM. We’ll continue to keep a close watch on Xiotech as the year rolls on.

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