News
Microsoft Reorg Continues
Microsoft continued its management reorganization this week as it moved to
realign responsibilities within its operating systems group to reflect newly
minted Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie's growing influence.
Brian Valentine, currently senior vice president of the Windows Core Operating
System Division (COSD), will begin to transition to a new, as-yet-unannounced,
role elsewhere in the company once Windows Vista ships. Valentine, a 17-year
company veteran, has been in charge of Windows for the past eight years, according
to his Microsoft biography.
Moving into that spot, and for the transition period designated as co-head
of COSD, is another company lifer, Jon DeVaan. Currently senior vice president
of Engineering Excellence, DeVaan has been in charge of engineering standards
for the company's products. COSD is one of eight organizations within
Microsoft's Platform and Services Division (PSD).
"Jon will drive Windows operating system development, cross platform integration
and work closely with Steven Sinofsky [named
in March as senior vice president of the Windows and Windows Live Group]
on the products and services coming on the heels of Windows Vista," read
a statement released by the company.
That will include "Vienna,"
previously code-named "Blackcomb." Although the company has not
said what Vienna will include, it has said that the follow-up OS to Vista will
ship sometime after Windows Longhorn Server.
DeVaan's new job title is senior vice president of engineering. He and
Valentine report to Kevin Johnson, co-president of PSD.
Meanwhile, also after Vista ships, two other Redmond long-timers will begin
reporting directly to Ozzie. Dave Cutler (currently a senior technical fellow)
and Amitabh Srivastava (corporate vice president of COSD) will work directly
with Ozzie on initiatives focused on Live products and services, according to
the statement.
Cutler, a nearly legendary operating systems designer, is credited with having
lead Microsoft's efforts to create Windows NT -- without which the company
would not have been able to make the move into enterprise products.
Srivastava first joined Microsoft in 1997 to work in the Microsoft Research
organization, and later founded the company's Programmer Productivity
Research Center, now called the Center for Software Excellence. The organization
works on technologies and products meant to help Microsoft's own developers
create more reliable code.
Finally, in this round of reorg, Gary Flake and the Live Labs team will immediately
report to Ozzie with the aim of broadening their work in online services creation
and research projects oriented towards the company's services initiatives.
About the Author
Stuart J. Johnston has covered technology, especially Microsoft, since February 1988 for InfoWorld, Computerworld, Information Week, and PC World, as well as for Enterprise Developer, XML & Web Services, and .NET magazines.