Top Women in Storage: Page 13 of 17

Now in her fifth VP-level post at Cisco, Ullal is the driving force behind Cisco’s recently announced Data Center 3.0 strategy, which features shared pools of virtualized server storage and network resources, optimizing application performance and service levels.

Yes, it's a big vendor's grand scheme, but it's also got support at the top. And it's up to Ullal to make it happen as she oversees a portfolio responsible for $8 billion in direct sales and $15 billion in indirect revenue.

Ullal’s division is battling fiercely to become a more relevant competitor to players like HP, Microsoft, and IBM that were much quicker to infiltrate the data center. So far, there's notable progress, particularly in storage: Cisco CEO John Chambers has highlighted storage performance in earnings calls in the past three quarters, and some analysts estimate storage figures are hovering in the range of $230 million quarterly.

Ullal’s data center campaign involves much strategic acquisition as well as internal design and execution. In recent months, Cisco bought Neopath Networks, which develops virtualization technology designed to improve performance of file storage. Cisco also threw its weight behind the Fibre Channel-over-Ethernet specification and acquired packet processing startup SpansLogic. And Cisco made a $150 million investment in VMWare, acquiring a 1.6 percent ownership of the virtualization software company.

That Ullal would be the driving force behind the diversification of Cisco’s data center offering is no surprise. She's always excelled not only in the basics of technology but in applying them to specific commercial needs and hitting the mark. In her time at Cisco, Ullal is credited in part with leading the vendor into optical networking, storage, and security.