Xiotech Swaps Out CEO

Xiotech Corp. has replaced CEO Alain Andreoli with former StoneFly Networks Inc. CEO Casey Powell (see Xiotech Replaces CEO).

"I've decided to leave for personal reasons," says Andreoli. "There are no hard feelings."

Andreoli declined to discuss his future plans. When asked whether he was leaving for another company, he replied, "I would rather not comment on that."

A Xiotech spokeswoman similarly comments that Andreoli left to "pursue other interests" but did not give any more detail on his plans.

However, the stage had been set for some time. Powell says he was in talks with Xiotech's board for three weeks and decided to join the company over the weekend. He is now at Xiotech's Eden Prairie, Minn. headquarters making the rounds with employees.Andreoli joined Xiotech only about a year ago, leaving a high-profile sales post at McData Corp. (Nasdaq: MCDTA) to take the reins at the up-and-coming SAN storage vendor. Under Andreoli's watch, Xiotech launched significant new products, boosted its revenues to $100 million, and set its sights on an IPO. In an interview with Byte and Switch last December, Andreoli touted these accomplishments and seemed excited about his new digs, save for the arctic climes of Minnesota (see Alain Andreoli, CEO, Xiotech).

The prospect of cold winters was also daunting to Powell, but not enough to deter him from the challenge of taking Xiotech to the next level, namely an IPO.

"I had to dig pretty deep in deciding to leave [StoneFly headquarters in] San Diego to come to Minneapolis," he says. "But [Xiotech] made a very compelling argument. It's a great opportunity."

Powell will draw on his experience at early-stage system vendor from his days at Sequent Computer Systems, which he founded and eventually sold to IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) for $810 million.

Powell inherits not only a warm executive chair, but also a serious challenge in unseating heavyweight SAN competition (see Ministry Converts to Xiotech). While anecdotal evidence suggests continued customer wins for Xiotech, EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) and others have targeted the startup's bread-and-butter SMBs."We'll have to be very careful about where we take them on," says Powell. "We'll have to get back to the [industry's] old way of doing things -- build a company that's profitable and looks like an institution."

The CEO seat at StoneFly will not get cold either, as former Astute Networks Inc. chief William R. Atkinson was named StoneFly's CEO and president prior to today's Xiotech announcement (see New CEO at StoneFly Networks).

As Atkinson steps in for Powell, StoneFly also finds itself duking it out with several players in a competitive, albeit emerging, space: IP SANs. To that end, StoneFly has bolstered its management team with a new VP of engineering, Darrell Smith.

Powell isn't completely out of the picture at StoneFly, either. As part of Atkinson's appointment, Powell will "now take a more active role as a member of the companys board of directors," according to the statement issued by StoneFly earlier this week. Powell says he intends to stay in that position.

These moves come amid a flurry of recent executive changes in the storage industry, as companies rejigger their ranks to goose momentum (see Brocade Switches CEOs, Restates , StorageTek Sales VP Scoots, CreekPath Seeks New CEO, Maranti's Minus a CEO, and BlueArc's Barrall Says Bye Bye).— Brett Mendel, Senior Analyst, Byte and Switch Insider