AppZero on Tuesday announced that Mr. Nigel Stokes, former CEO and Chairman of Data Integration software vendor DataMirror (acquired by IBM), has become the controlling and majority investor in application virtualization pioneer, AppZero.  Mr Stokes will also serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors.

AppZero is widely recognized for its Virtual Application Appliance (VAA) technology.  The solution encapsulates server applications, enabling them to move seamlessly from datacenters to clouds and back, across both physical and virtual servers.  AppZero VAAs provide tangible paybacks by simplifying datacenter management and reducing the operating costs associated with the proliferation of virtual machines and cloud environments.

AppZero is recognized by AlwaysOn as an OnDemand Top 100 winner and as a "Best Business Application" by Computerworld. The company is a Demo favorite of PCWorld and eWeek and also of Next Big Thing blogger Don Dodge.  AppZero was named one of the "20 Coolest Cloud Computing Infrastructure Vendors" by CRN, as well as a "Top 25 Cloud Services Provider" by Virtualization Journal, and a "Top 7 Cloud Computing Acquisition Target" by Datamation.

"Just as server virtualization fundamentally changed how computing resources could be used in the datacenter and on the internet, application virtualization will redefine portability, scalability and compatibility in the movement of application to private and public clouds.  It is clear that the AppZero solution is strategically valuable.  The solution is broadly endorsed by key influencers, business partners, ISVs, Managed Service Providers and end-customers. We will commercialize and leverage the investment in AppZero to grow the new company," said the new Chairman Nigel Stokes.  "I am pleased to be partnering with existing shareholders VenGrowth and Growthworks, who contributed to the new financing, along with new AppZero shareholders and Board members.  I know Greg from his time at Progress Software (Nasdaq: PRGS) and look forward to working with him and the rest of the AppZero team to drive commercial adoption of this important solution."

"The maturity of AppZero's technology and the market it addresses form a logical inflection point for Nigel's coming on board, "said Greg O'Connor, AppZero CEO.  "In the past year, conversations with enterprises have moved decidedly from the ‘if' to the ‘how' of virtualization - from infrastructure to application.  Going forward, we will emphasize our clear message: AppZero puts control firmly into the hands of IT as it moves through the transforming era of virtualization."