"What sold me on joining Cisco was the excellent opportunity to explore the 'uncharted territory' that is the network's role in cloud computing." With those words the tireless and insightful Cloud blogger James Urquhart (pictured) this week revealed that he's taking on the role of Marketing Manager/Technology Evangelist for Data Center Virtualization at Cisco Systems, Inc. (including Cloud Computing and Cisco's Data Center 3.0 strategy, at least as it relates to virtualization). "I have the chance to be part of what will most likely be the most important producer of cloud and virtualization enabled networking software, services and equipment," Urquhart adds.

For those unfamiliar with Urquhart's relentless coverage of All Things Cloud, be sure to bookmark his blog - focused on utility computing, cloud computing and their effect in enteprises and individuals

He started his career programming a manufacturing job tracking system on the Macintosh (circa 1991), and slowly expanded his experience to include distributed systems architectures, online community and identity systems, and most recently utility computing and cloud computing architectures.

The move to Cisco ignites his considerable enthusiasm:

"I am excited to work with both Doug Gourlay and Peter Linkin, who are incredibly smart people with a vision I can really get my head around," he writes.

For the past two years, Urquhart had been Director of Solutions Engineering, Alliances at Alfresco.