IBM Corp.’s management team appears to have quietly undergone some major changes this month. According to the Next Platform, the reorganization was initiated late last week after the retirement of Robert LeBlanc, a 36-year veteran of the company who most recently headed its cloud division. There was no advance warning of his departure, but SiliconANGLE Media co-founder and longtime analyst Dave Vellante doesn’t view the changing of the guard as particularly unexpected. “It’s no surprise that LeBlanc retires after 36 years,” Vellante said. “People were surprised when a IBM veteran was put in charge of cloud in the first place, but it was expected to be short-lived.” LeBlanc’s retirement was quickly followed by the merger of IBM’s cloud operation with its cross-division analytics business, which had in turn been headed by fellow company veteran Bob Picciano. Unlike his former colleague, however, the executive isn’t retiring but instead taking over the Power Systems family. The hardware line is being rebranded to Cognitive Systems in the process to reflect the fact that it’s been updated to focus on data processing. “The logic is that they’re renaming Power into Cognitive Systems as they go all-in on cognitive,” Vellante explained. “They’re saying that the applications that are running on top of that platform are cognitive and we need someone who understands them.” The time Picciano spent heading its analytics business gives him a unique insight into those workloads, particularly IBM’s Watson artificial intelligence. As for the divisions that Picciano and LeBlanc are leaving behind, they’ll move under the responsibility of long-term IBM Research director Arvind Krishna. It’s a big promotion even for an executive who has until now managed some 3,000 scientists across six continents. “The move to put analytics and cloud together gives Arvind Krishna a huge piece of IBM’s business, at least a $30 billion business,” Vellante said. Krishna will report to John Kelly, who is now the now senior vice president of Cognitive Solutions and IBM Research. Over on the hardware side, meanwhile, Picciano will work under IBM Systems Senior Vice President Tom Rosamilia. Sponsored Content: Conquering Enterprise Cloud Are you an enterprise that wants to move to the cloud? Learn more about how to Conquer the Cloud on 2/2: Free with registration to join the digital event: https://cube365.net/oracle/conqueringcloud Show your support for our mission with our one-click subscription to our YouTube channel (below). The more subscribers we have, the more YouTube will suggest relevant enterprise and emerging technology content to you. Thanks! Support our mission: >>>>>> SUBSCRIBE NOW >>>>>> to our YouTube channel. … We’d also like to tell you about our mission and how you can help us fulfill it. SiliconANGLE Media Inc.’s business model is based on the intrinsic value of the content, not advertising. Unlike many online publications, we don’t have a paywall or run banner advertising, because we want to keep our journalism open, without influence or the need to chase traffic.The journalism, reporting and commentary on SiliconANGLE — along with live, unscripted video from our Silicon Valley studio and globe-trotting video teams at theCUBE — take a lot of hard work, time and money. Keeping the quality high requires the support of sponsors who are aligned with our vision of ad-free journalism content. If you like the reporting, video interviews and other ad-free content here, please take a moment to check out a sample of the video content supported by our sponsors, tweet your support, and keep coming back to SiliconANGLE.
The retirement of IBM's Robert LeBlanc, a 36-year veteran of the company and head of the cloud division, has sparked a reshuffle in the management team. LeBlanc's departure prompted a swift merger of the cloud unit with the cross-division analytics business, while the latter's former head Arvind Krishna moves to the Power Systems family. It, in turn, is being rebranded as Cognitive Systems to reflect the new focus on data processing. IBM research director Bob Picciano will take the reins of the departments vacated by LeBlanc and Picciano.