Longtime EMC Exec Leaves To Head Barracuda Networks

Longtime EMC executive B.J. Jenkins has left the storage vendor to take over as president and CEO of Barracuda Networks

Channel sources told CRN that Jenkins, who until recently was president of EMC's Backup and Recovery Systems (BRS) Division, has moved to take the top position at Campbell, Calif.-based Barracuda, which has been without a president and CEO since the July resignation of Dean Drako from that position. An EMC spokesperson confirmed that Jenkins left EMC, while Barracuda sources confirmed that he has joined that company.

Barracuda develops appliances that provide email and Web security, application delivery and data protection functionality.

[Related: Barracuda CEO Resigns]

An EMC spokesperson said that Guy Churchward, a relative newcomer to EMC who about six months ago moved to EMC after serving as president and CEO of LogLogic, will take over as head of the BRS Division.

Churchward, who has been serving as senior vice president of engineering at EMC BRS, also spent time at EMC rival NetApp.

EMC channel partners said Jenkins' move to Barracuda could be good news for that company in a couple of ways.

One solution provider, who requested to remain anonymous, said Jenkins will bring amazing channel strength to Barracuda.

"He's an incredible channel person," the solution provider said. "He has a Harvard MBA. He ran his own business in the past."

The solution provider said Jenkins came into the channel with EMC at time when EMC was not at all channel-friendly. "But, he got himself involved with acquisitions there," the solution provider said. "When EMC acquired Data Domain and made it part of BURA, he moved to that organization."

BURA, or Backup, Recovery, and Archiving, was how BRS used to be known several years ago.

Greg Knieriemen, vice president of marketing at Chi Corp., a Cleveland, Ohio-based solution provider, said the Jenkins' move could actually be a prelude to EMC acquiring Barracuda, given EMC's leadership in the security and storage markets and its active acquisition strategy.

There has been talk about a Barracuda IPO for quite some time, and an acquisition of Barracuda by EMC would be an interesting fit given recent big acquisitions of companies similar to Barracuda, Knieriemen said.

"Think of Dell's acquisition of SonicWall, or Cisco buying IronPort," he said. "So it's not completely crazy. It's a great fit, especially with someone like B.J. there."

PUBLISHED OCT. 17, 2012