CloudFlare ropes in ex-VMware CTO Ben Fathi as Engineering Head

Ex-VMware CTO Ben Fathi has joined CloudFlare as head of engineering. Fathi left VMware in August after three and a half years with the company.

He gave his reasons for taking up the role at CloudFlare, on the company’s blog post:

“I’m sure some of you are scratching your head right about now wondering why I would join an Internet security and optimization company. But, Ben, this is not even close to your passion: operating systems.

“If you know me, you know that I’m a sucker for distributed systems. I fall for a hard computer science problem every time…

“As I look forward to the opportunity in front of us, there is only one phrase that comes to mind: awe inspiring. We have an opportunity to build a fully distributed and resilient always-on Internet Operating System at the edge of the network — where it matters most — as far as end user experience is concerned.”

Prior to working with VMware, Fathi has worked for Cisco Systems, where he was the Senior Vice President, Network Operating Systems. Before that he spent about 11 years with Microsoft, moving up the ladder from General Manager, Storage, File Systems, and Availability; to Corporate Vice President, Security; and finally as the Corporate Vice President, Windows Core Development. Cumulatively, Fathi has over more than 33 years of experience.

He holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from University of Massachusetts Boston. He also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the same University.

Fathi claims that CloudFlare has four million customers. Last month CloudFlare announced a $110 million round of funding and collaboration with Google, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Baidu — led by Fidelity.