Top Microsoft Infrastructure Exec Chrapaty Heads to Cisco
by Kara Swisher
Posted on September 20, 2009 at 10:39 PM PT
One of Microsoft’s top execs, Debra Chrapaty (pictured here), who heads its infrastructure business, is leaving the software giant to take a top job at Cisco (CSCO), sources said.
Chrapaty–whose title is corporate VP of Global Foundation Services–is also one of increasingly few top women tech execs at Microsoft (MSFT), where she has worked for seven years.
The job put her in charge of, as a Microsoft site notes, “strategy and delivery of the foundational platform for Microsoft Live, Cloud and Online Services worldwide including physical infrastructure, security, operational management, global delivery and environmental considerations. Her organization supports over 200 online services and web portals from Microsoft for consumers and businesses.”
In other words: A lot of plumbing.
She was featured onstage with other key execs at Microsoft’s Financial Analysts Meeting earlier this summer.
Sources said Chrapaty will now shift to products at Cisco, running the collaboration software group.
That unit’s former exec, Doug Dennerline, recently moved to Salesforce.com (CRM) to take a job as its EVP of sales for the Americas.
At Cisco, as had Dennerline, Chrapaty is likely to play a large role in forming the networking giant’s cloud computing and software-as-a-service strategies.
Chrapaty has worked at a lot of tech companies, including Organic, AllBusiness and Etrade Technologies. She was also CTO of the National Basketball Association.
