Kriens will remain at Juniper as chairman of the board working with “leadership and strategy” — you know, now that he’s no longer really a leader.

While most of the press is talking about the stunner at Microsoft, the seismic shift may really be occurring at Juniper. (more…)

Insiders think Satya Nadella, king of Microsoft search, will be featured.

Johnson, the former president of Microsoft’s Platforms and Services Group, is now famously leaving to become CEO of Juniper Networks. Scott Kriens is still technically CEO there, btw, so Juniper’s got a big PR problem on their hands.

 If KJ is a no-show today, as most surmise, does that mean he’s finished managing the transition Microsoft talked about in its press release? Ummm, smart money is the answer is yes. Meanwhile, like the Kremlin after a purge, traces of KJ are already disappearing.

Kevin Johnson, the Microsoft exec in charge of Windows and the company’s huge online services push, is leaving to head Juniper Networks, The Wall Street Journal reports Wednesday night.

(Note: Microsoft just posted the official news.)

Johnson was much involved in Microsoft’s thus-far-abortive attempt to buy Yahoo for its Web search and ad expertise. He was also the point man in Microsoft’s big buy of aQuantive.  Both acquisitions were aimed at Google’s dominance.

Oh, and “KJ” was also at CEO Steve Ballmer’s side on the Microsoft campus today for a company “town hall” meeting. No mention of his impending exit was made.

The news hit the day before Microsoft’s annual financial analysts’ meeting in Redmond, Wash.  Johnson was on the agenda. It’ll be interesting to see who fills that slot.

The paper reports that Johnson’s group, which includes the company’s past-and-present Windows warhorse as well as its nascent (and very expensive)  online services push, will be split with Ballmer taking on Windows and associated Windows Live services with Steve Sinofsky, John Devaan, and Bill Veghte reporting to him. The other group will take on search, online advertising and MSN, the Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.

Microsoft earlier this year hired Stephen Elop to head its profitable business division out of Juniper Networks.

Reaction to the ad has been negative so far, and Microsoft even reportedly pulled the ad from its site. But if it does give a glimpse into Microsoft’s pro-Vista campaign, here are some ideas for follow-up ads:

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Foundry has a heavy and well-respected arsenal of enterprise networking infrastructure, including routers, switches and more. Brocade said teaming up with Foundry would quickly enable “next generation” technology development for the data center and provide a full networking portfolio. In fact, the acquisition puts Brocade in a position to offer equipment for wide and local area networks, as well as for data center and storage networks.

Brocade’s storage switches are often connected to Foundry’s data networking switches, so combining the two companies would likely beef up sales channels from both companies, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue told Reuters Monday. He also said, both companies “share a common foe” in Cisco. (more…)

Shareholders say the current acquisition agreement stalls the price of EDS shares at $25 and prohibits EDS from seeking higher bids from other companies. They say EDS is worth more, considering it has seen increased revenue in the past year and its 2008 revenue projections are on target.

“Why is EDS accepting what many experts consider to be an undervalued share price,” asked Randall Baron, an attorney with Baron & Budd, one of the law firms representing the shareholders. (more…)

Here’s what percolated to the top of mind after some R&R: (more…)

Ask Brocade, a major Fibre Channel switch rival, and they’ll tell you to hold your horses — the enterprise is not ready to re-jigger entire data centers and the technology won’t take off until 2012. In fact, Brocade spent its Technology Day at the end of June warning that it would take its time with FCoE, not even doing customer testing until 2009. Brocade also said it would continue developing straight Fibre Channel equipment since that would be the dominant protocol for enterprise storage until at least 2014 . Cisco was happy to quickly counter Brocade in the press. (more…)

The mini data center, called Performance Optimized Data Center or POD, is a 40-foot shipping container that houses more than 3,500 computer nodes, or 12,000 large-hard drives, and delivers the equivalent of more than 4,000 square feet of typical data center capacity.

But partners need to keep an eye on HP as it rolls out this package. Initially there will be no channel partner play, though the company promises that eventually there will be. The data centers in a box — which are custom built according to user needs and ship in about six weeks from the time of order — are expected to be out in the U.S. in October and will be available worldwide shortly after.

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Published statements from Belden still don’t make clear how, or even if, Trapeze’s 200 partners will be worked into Belden’s much larger channel. In fact, a published quote from Trapeze president Jim Vogt avoids any mention of the company’s channel, but does laud Belden’s sales and marketing organization. (more…)