Thanks to a rapidly changing SDN environment – and at the risk of reporting more like People magazine instead of the independent credible source of SDN and network virtualization that we are – we continue our reporting of people movements in the SDN space.

I wanted to share a post this morning from VentureWire that Jason Matlof from Battery Ventures has "gone back" to networking.

This is an interesting move for the SDN community – I worked with Jason at Netscreen/Juniper Networks after Netscreen acquired his last startup Neoteris (the market-leading SSL VPN product). 

Jason is a talented product and marketing executive with a strong background in security and switching who's due for a CEO role. His LinkedIn profile shows that while at Battery he invested in Cumulus Networks.

Additionally, his former Neoteris team has started a new SDN security company NetCitadel, which is funded by Kittu Kolluri at NEA, the former CEO of Neoteris. Ironically, Kittu via NEA, has also funded Cumulus competitor Pluribus Networks.

If I was a betting man, my money would be that we'll see Matlof emerging at either NetCitadel or Cumulus. Though this is pure speculation and maybe totally off – either way – we'll know shortly. Regardless of where he lands, if it's at an SDN start-up, they'll have landed a very talented executive.

*Disclosure: Kittu / NEA also funded Aerohive Networks which acquired my company, Pareto Networks, in 2011 for our multitenant cloud service (e.g. controller) to compete with Meraki. I have no financial interest in Aerohive.