Cisco's Ullal Is Leaving

An icon of the storage market and one of the Byte and Switch Top Women in Storage, is leaving her job.

After 15 years at Cisco, Jayshree Ullal, SVP of Cisco's Data Center, Switching, and Security Technology Group, is heading out.

"With mixed feelings and much introspection I have come to my decision to leave Cisco after 15 great and memorable years," wrote Ullal in her blog Friday. "My loyalty and affection to Cisco, CEO John Chambers and my teams made this a very difficult and lengthy decision process."

Ullal's not going anywhere right away: "As for the inevitable question of what I plan to do next, I hope to re-kindle passions for my 'next new gig' this summer and make an informed decision later this year," Ullal states.

Who could blame her? Five years into her fifth VP-level job at Cisco, Jayshree Ullal has surely proven her ability to succeed. And there's no apparent danger of things falling down in her absence."Our checks indicate the move allows a new cadre of managers to take the helm of Cisco's critical data center and switching businesses," writes Inder Singh of Lehman Brothers in a note today. "We therefore view the transition as a net positive for Cisco, and feel Cisco has solid bench strength to more than adequately fill the role."

We'll be watching not only for Jayshree to surface somewhere interesting later this year, but for some interesting moves in the storage/data center arena at Cisco in the wake of her departure.Have a comment on this story? Please click "Discuss" below. If you'd like to contact Byte and Switch's editors directly, send us a message.