Obama pinches VMware's CIO for same gig at White House

Appointment revealed on same day vCloud for government goes live

VMware's senior veep and CIO Tony Scott has been made an offer he couldn't refuse: to take the latter job in the US Government.

The White House announced the appointment Thursday, with the canned statement saying he's the right person to meet the gig's goals of "driving value in Federal IT investments ... delivering world-class digital services, and ... protecting Federal IT assets and information."

Scott joined VMware in 2013.

Thew CIO appointment comes a week after the Obama administration's new US Digital Service started advertising for staff.

The Thursday timing of the appointment is ironic, because VMware chose that day to announce that its vCloud Government Service has passed all the necessary security tests and is now generally available. Virtzilla has plenty of US government customers and now, through partner Carpathia, also has a way to get them bursting into the cloud or doing the hybrid thing.

At least VMware gets a friend with the president's ear, should it need it.

Scott's previous gigs include a stint as Microsoft CIO, so Redmondians may also be rifling through Rolodexes to offer congratulations.

Scott is the USA's third CIO, succeeding Vivek Kundra and Steve VanRoekel. ®