Microsoft Veteran to Head Server and Tools Unit

Just a month after Microsoft announced the pending departure of 23-year veteran Bob Muglia, president of the company’s Server and Tools Business, the company has already named a replacement to run the $15 billion business.

In an all-employee email on Wednesday, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer announced that Satya Nadella, a senior vice president of research and development with the company’s Online Services Business, has been appointed to the job, effective immediately. Nadella has been with the company since 1992.

“Today our Server and Tools Business is in a position of strength due to our leadership in the cloud, significant product advances such as Windows Azure, and the proven ability to excel and grow in the face some of the toughest competition we’ve ever seen,” Ballmer said.

“We wanted someone with the right mix of leadership, vision and hard-core engineering chops … someone who could define the future of business computing and further expand our ability to bring the cloud to business customers and developers in game-changing ways,” Ballmer added.

In fact, Nadella’s “hard-core engineering chops” fit the mold of what Ballmer is looking for in terms of senior leadership in a rumored company reorganization that could occur as soon as this month.

In his previous job, Nadella was responsible for the Bing search engine, the company’s MSN portal and Microsoft’s advertising platforms, according to his
biography on Microsoft’s site.

“In that role, Nadella was responsible for the technical vision and engineering of some of the largest Web services and cloud infrastructure on the planet,” the bio said.

Prior to that, Nadella headed up the Microsoft Business Solutions group with responsibility for the company’s CRM and ERP products, and before that he led engineering on several of Microsoft’s servers.

Muglia will stay through the summer in order to help Nadella make the transition, Ballmer said.

Meanwhile, Ballmer also announced that Amitabh Srivastava, senior vice president of the Server and Cloud Division with responsibilities for Windows Azure and Windows Server, is also leaving the company.

Another Microsoft veteran, Srivastava joined the company in 1997.

“Windows Azure is in a great place, and Amitabh is ready to move to a new phase in his career,” Ballmer said.

Stuart J. Johnston is a contributing writer at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals. Follow him on Twitter @stuartj1000.