I found out a few weeks ago how general managers are made.
When I worked for HP, from the summer after my sophomore year in college to 1997, general managers were a big deal. They ran HP’s business units. Lew Platt was a GM (and later CEO of HP), and now part of highway 87 is named for him. In fact, the closest I ever got to an HP GM was flipping burgers next to Lew at one of HP’s legendary beer busts.
Well, my boss and the CEO got together a few weeks ago and decided that Infoblox should have an IPv6 Center of Excellence, and they made me its GM. I expect this went down something like the old Life cereal commercial: “Let’s give it to Cricket–he’ll do anything!” But I’m actually very pleased, for a number of reasons (besides getting a snazzy new title).
Infoblox has recognized that IPv6 is key to its success. We are, after all, an IP address management vendor, and what could represent a bigger change in the world of IP address management than the transition to a new version of IP? For that matter, what could be a bigger opportunity?
We’ve invested significantly in IPv6 over the past few releases, adding support for DHCPv6 and DNS64, an IPv4-to-IPv6 transition technology. The CoE will help guide further investment, into more advanced IPv6 IPAM functionality, for example.
In addition to championing IPv6 internally, the CoE will have a community-facing role, too. We’ll maintain Infoblox’s IPv6 Resource Center, record instructional videos on IPv6, and host periodic webinars on IPv6 topics.
And I’ll have the opportunity to work with some great people. In addition to the folks working for the CoE, we’ve formed an IPv6 Technical Advisory Board. The first member is Owen DeLong, one of Hurricane Electric’s IPv6 Evangelists. Owen and I recorded a webinar on IPv6 together; it’s been a pleasure learning from him. We’ll continue filling out the board’s ranks with more IPv6 experts, too.
And while I don’t expect anyone will name a highway after me, I do expect it to be an exciting ride.
