Ex-HP Exec Rauch Takes Over Americas Channels At VMware

Rauch, former vice president of U.S. channels in HP's Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking division, started Monday as vice president of VMware's Americas partners organization. He reports to Jeff Casale, senior vice president and general manager of VMware's Americas business.

Rauch, a 24-year industry veteran who joined HP in its acquisition of Compaq, is making the jump from hardware to software, but otherwise, his role appears to be similar to the one he had at HP.

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This makes sense: VMware and HP have been symbiotic partners in the data center for more than a decade, and HP claims to have more than 1,100 VMware Certified Professionals working in its services businesses.

"Given VMware's ongoing strategic partnership with HP and the collaboration between the companies across numerous technologies, routes to market and channel relationships, we think Frank is an excellent fit to lead the VMware team and our partner community to help drive cloud solutions deeper into the marketplace," Casale told CRN in an email.

Rauch takes over for Brandon Sweeney, who is taking on the newly created position of vice president of U.S. midmarket and small business sales at VMware. This is a strategic role that focuses on companies with less than 1,000 employees, a VMware spokesperson told CRN.

Already the dominant player in server virtualization, VMware has been vying to spread its influence into end user computing and cloud infrastructure, and Sweeney's appointment would seem to fit with this goal.

HP, meanwhile, is in the process of searching for a new enterprise U.S. channel sales leader to replace Rauch.

PUBLISHED JULY 2, 2012