Key Sun exec leaves for start-up
John MacFarlane, a top executive in charge of one of the company's most important business segments, becomes chief executive of a start-up called Nexsi doing similar work.
- Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
MacFarlane led Sun's business selling products to "service providers"--outfits such as Exodus or Loudcloud that would set up Web sites, data storage facilities and other Internet operations they would run for other companies. Sun believes service providers will be increasingly important as more and more companies outsource computer operations such as e-mail to outside specialists.
Nexsi, a 170-person company founded in 1999, provides high-speed networking equipment designed to improve service providers' computing operations.
At Sun, MacFarlane was instrumental in introducing products such as the Netra series of servers designed for telecommunications companies and service providers who need to stack up hundreds of computers. MacFarlane spent 17 years at Nortel Networks before joining Sun.