Canepa reigned as executive vice president of Sun Microsystems Inc’s storage business from 2001 until May this year. He was replaced by a former Sun server EVP, David Yen, who was given the post in a shake-up inspired by the then newly-appointed Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz.
When Canepa took control of Sun’s storage business, the company had a far smaller share of the storage market than its server-making rivals such as IBM and HP. Under Canepa’s care, Sun’s portfolio of storage products improved, but its storage market share continued to slide. Last year Sun splashed out $4bn cash to buy Storage Technology Corp in an attempt to reverse the trend.
Extreme sells carrier Ethernet, IP telephony, security and wireless networking gear. For each of its last three fiscal quarters the company has seen its revenue fall year-on-year. The company’s co-founder Gordon Stitt announced in May that was to retire from the CEO position and become chairman of the board of directors.
