Nutanix today said it hired former VMware COO Rajiv Ramaswami as its new CEO effective Dec. 14. Ramaswami will succeed co-founder Dheeraj Pandey, who announced his plans to retire as CEO of Nutanix upon the appointment of a successor, earlier this year.

“Rajiv is the right leader at the right time,” Pandey said in a statement. “With a future-proof business model, a loyal and expanding customer base, and a strong technology portfolio, I look forward to seeing Rajiv take the helm to lead this incredible team.”

As COO of products and cloud services at VMware, Ramaswami played a key role in transitioning VMware toward a subscription and software-as-a-service model. Prior to this role, Ramaswami led VMware’s Networking and Security business.

Just last month he tweeted about VMware’s new “modern network framework," which aims to give customers a cloud operating model both in on-premises environments and public clouds, with easy migration between the two — and this echoes Nutanix’s efforts as it transitions to a subscription and SaaS company.

The two companies compete fiercely in the hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) and cloud software sectors, and have exchanged heated words in this war over the years as they battle for market share and customers. Ramaswami acknowledged this competition in a statement.

“I have long admired Nutanix as a formidable competitor, a pioneer in hyperconverged infrastructure solutions and a leader in cloud software,” Ramaswami said. “Working closely with the board, the management team, and the more than 6,000 talented Nutanix employees around the world, we will build on Nutanix’s strong foundation of continuous innovation, collaboration and customer delight. Together, we will capitalize on the significant opportunities ahead and deliver on the company’s next phase of growth and value creation.”

Before joining VMware, Ramaswami served as EVP and GM of infrastructure and networking at Broadcom. He also held earlier GM roles at Cisco where he led multi-billion dollar product lines in switching, data center and storage, and optical networking. Earlier in his career, he held various leadership positions at Nortel, Tellabs, and IBM.