Wednesday, December 17, 2008

EMC taps former Microsoft exec Kodesh for new cloud business

By Galen Moore

EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) has appointed Harel Kodesh as president of the company’s cloud infrastructure business, the Hopkinton company reported yesterday. Kodesh, a former Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) vice president of consumer appliances, will also serve as CEO of Decho, EMC’s newly formed cloud-based personal data management subsidiary.

Kodesh will report to CEO Joe Tucci and be tasked with developing EMC’s cloud infrastructure products and expanding its business partner program.

Kodesh, 50, most recently served as chief product officer at Amdocs Ltd. (NYSE: DOX). At Microsoft, he founded the Windows CE operating system, according to EMC officials.

Decho is the result of EMC’s combination in November of two formerly separate businesses — Mozy Inc. and Pi Corp. EMC had purchased the Mozy subscription backup service last October from Utah-based Berkeley Data Systems Inc. The deal was reported to be worth $76 million. In February, EMC bought Pi Corp., a Seattle-based maker of personal information management software.