SoftLayer's Lance Crosby Calls It Quits With IBM

Lance Crosby built SoftLayer into the powerhouse that IBM has leveraged to position itself as one of the world's leading public cloud companies, and one of the most serious competitors to AWS.

But it seems being overlooked to lead IBM's cloud division didn't sit well with the executive, as IBM recently confirmed to eWeek that Crosby has tendered his resignation.

Crosby, a licensed attorney who also holds an MBA, is seen as a visionary in positioning, packaging and selling cloud services. He came to SoftLayer after the company merged in 2010 with The Planet, another Texas-based infrastructure hosting provider, where he served as COO.

[Related: IBM SoftLayer CEO: Cloud Pricing Not Going To Zero, Enterprise Clouds Will Eventually Win]

IBM did not respond to CRN's request for a comment on Crosby's resignation.

Crosby remained busy in 2014, evangelizing IBM's developing cloud offerings and integrating SoftLayer's infrastructure into that of the larger company.

In July it will be two years since IBM acquired SoftLayer, and while Big Blue has struggled in some sectors, its public cloud has seen good growth and represents one of its strongest lines of business.

IBM recently named veteran manager Robert LeBlanc as senior vice president of Cloud. That move, which in effect bypassed Crosby as the company's top cloud guy, prompted his resignation before the culmination of the two-year period in which executives brought in through acquisition typically stay on with their new company, according to insiders.

PUBLISHED JAN. 28, 2015