Here's our gathering of the week's news bits around software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), and related topics.

... Microsoft named Satya Nadella as its new CEO. He was named executive vice president of the cloud and enterprise group last year, which implies Microsoft plans to intensify its effots in the cloud. Microsoft's deepest problem, though, is a failure to innovate, David S. Linthicum of Cloud Technology Partners writes on GigaOm. To keep up in a cloud world against Google, Amazon, and others, Nadella should staff up the cloud side of the business — but Linthicum thinks Microsoft might be too large and political to pull that off.

... Elliott Management announced, indirectly, that it has its own slate of directors ready for nomination if it doesn't like Juniper's restructuring plan. The exact wording from Elliott's press release is that it's found executives with "the operational skills and deep industry experience to help ensure that the Shareholder Value Plan becomes a reality." The hedge fund is after Juniper to cut costs and start a share buyback program. New Juniper CEO Shaygan Kheradpir says he's developing a new plan that should be unveiled in a couple of weeks.

... Big Switch Networks added Joe Palazoa as vice president of operations and customer support. Like CEO Douglas Murray, Palazoa comes from Juniper, where he was vice president of operations and customer escalations for the Security Business Unit.

... They don't compete directly, but just in case, Cisco and Google signed a patent cross-licensing agreement.

... NEC offered more details of its OpenDaylight contribution, the Virtual Tenant Network (VTN). It's the technology NEC uses for network virtualization in its own ProgrammableFlow Network Fabric, creating arbitrary logical networks on top of any physical network. VTN can operate through the OpenDaylight controller, of course.