PHD Technologies continues to renew itself: in August 2008 the company secured an undisclosed sum that is using to acquire technologies and competency as well as to rebuild its leadership.
After appointing Sridhar Murthy as CEO and Igor Saulsky as Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales, now the company appoints Joe Julian as member of the Board of Directors:
Julian formerly worked as Senior Vice President of Americas Sales and Global Accounts for Veritas Software. In this role, Julian managed the sales, pre-sales, and support renewal operations for all products in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. In addition, he was responsible for the launch of Veritas’ Global Accounts Program, which included 20 global accounts worldwide and the National Accounts program in the United States. Julian also served as an active board member and strategic consultant to Avamar Technologies, leading up to Avamar’s acquisition by EMC in 2006.
Interestingly enough, PHD Technologies reports Julian as involved with the Board of Directors of Virtual Iron. It must be a previous job as the current composition doesn’t include him.
In any case, PHD Technologies is already teasing at a future support for Virtual Iron.
After the acquisition of Xtravirt’s software, this is another good achievement for the company, but not enough yet to confirm that it’s moving away from the typical early stage where the founder covers multiple roles, from the engineer to the web designer, passing through the CEO.
The corporate image, in fact, is still a mess, divided between two brands: PHD Consulting and esXpress, the flagship product.
Every query to PHD Technologies directs to esXpress, where the PHD Technologies brand is barely mentioned. Then, an “About PHD” page redirects to PHD Consulting.
Besides a generic address, a phone number and an email contact, there’s no way to obtain structured information about the company profile, its leadership and its operations.
Exactly one year ago the company claimed to have over 1,000 customers, but the only support facility available seems to be a web forum.
With these elements it’s impossible to say how healthy PHD Technologies is, but certainly the new leadership should consider the idea to clarify where the company is today and where it’s going.