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Jim McCluney, CEO, Emulex

Former Vixel CEO Jim McCluney took the reins of Emulex in September, and within less than two months had outlined a new strategy for the firm. (See McCluney Takes Reins and Emulex Claims HBA Spot.) The exec is now re-focusing the HBA vendor's energies on host server products, embedded storage, and networking. (See Emulex 'Re-Positions'.)

Initially, at least, this strategy appears to be working. "We needed to get into some customers that hadnt bought from us before, and we did that," McCluney told Byte & Switch.

The Scot took the Emulex helm at a time of consolidation in the switching and HBA markets. Rival QLogic, for example, thanks to its Silverstorm acquisition, has strengthened its links with Cisco. (See QLogic Inches Closer to Cisco.) And Brocade's $713 million acquisition of McData is seen as further consolidating the lower-end switch market. (See Brocade Bags McData For $713M, Brocade's Costly Victory, and McData Hops on QLogic Blades.)

Brandishing a new logo to emphasize its refreshed profile, Emulex has waded into the fray. It's chased partnerships, recently teaming up with VMware to offer its LightPulse Virtual HBA technology within the virtualization giant's Infrastructure software. (See Emulex Teams With VMware, Tales From the Virtual Crypt, and Emulex Beefs Up Virtualization.)

The vendor has also been busy with M&A, buying Sierra Logic, which makes Fibre Channel-to-SATA bridge routers, for $180 million, and also grabbing chip virtualization specialist Aarohi for an undisclosed fee back in April. (See Emulex Gets Sierra Logic and Storage Do-Si-Do.)

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