Cisco man to take reins at VCE

Praveen Akkiraju appointed as CEO of 1,200-strong Cisco and EMC joint venture

Converged infrastructure pioneer VCE has appointed a chief executive in the form of 19-year Cisco veteran Praveen Akkiraju.

Formed in 2009 by Cisco and EMC – with support from VMware and Intel – VCE has rapidly amassed an annual order runrate approaching $1bn (£638m) and has 1,200 staff.

Akkiraju will join president Frank Hauck in the firm's management team.

He was most recently senior vice president of Cisco Services Routing Technology Group and Cisco chief executive John Chambers labelled him an "outstanding choice" for the VCE top job.

VCE chairman Michael Capellas added: "As the company continues to accelerate its business, product and market expansion, Praveen brings an ideal combination of business and technical experience that will enable VCE to meet growing customer demand for its products and solutions."

Akkiraju said: "VCE's growth and the market acceptance of its Vblock Systems have been remarkable. With a projected $50bn market opportunity over the next few years, VCE has the right technologies, partners, people and products to transform the economics, agility and profitability of our customers as they transition to cloud-enabled business models."