The two founders of Citrix challenger Provision Networks have walked away from the firm two years after selling up to Quest Software.

In a statement, Quest confirmed UK channel whispers that Paul and Peter Ghostine have left to “pursue other opportunities”.

Since the buyout in November 2007, Provision Networks had been rebranded and is now known as the Desktop Virtualization Group at Quest Software. Paul was general manager of the group while Peter was chief information officer.

Founded in 2004, Provision was an early entrant into the virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) market - which has been earmarked as a growth hotspot by both Gartner and IDC.

Quest has grown into a $735m (£458m)-turnover firm thanks to a spate of acquisitions, including Provision, server virtualisation firm Vizioncore and network administration vendor ScriptLogic.

The NASDAQ-listed firm immediately moved to assuage channel concerns that the Ghostines' exit would leave it without anyone driving its VDI strategy.

“We will miss [Paul and Peter’s] experience and expertise, but we have assembled a talented management team to help us capitalise on the desktop virtualisation market opportunity,” it stated.

Quest revealed that Simon Pearce, who has been with Quest for 12 years and was largely responsible for building its EMEA operation, will assume leadership of its Desktop Virtualization Group.

Jon Rolls, formerly of ScriptLogic, has stepped into the role of vice product of product management. Meanwhile, Keith Graham has been named as director of product management based in the UK.

According to Gartner, the hosted virtual desktop market will boom from 500,000 units in 2009 to 49 million units by 2013.