RSA Names Former EMC Enterprise Content Division Leader As New President

RSA has appointed former EMC Enterprise Content Division leader, Rohit Ghai, as its new president, following the departure of Amit Yoran last month.

Ghai has been president of the Enterprise Content Division at EMC since December 2014. Dell announced in September that it planned to sell the Enterprise Content Division to Canadian information management firm Open Text Corp. for $1.6 billion.

"I am thrilled to join RSA’s mission to deliver Business-Driven Security solutions, a transformational architecture that connects insights with business context to enable customers to manage business risk and protect what matters most," Ghai said in a statement. "RSA has a highly talented leadership team and incredibly dedicated engineering and sales teams globally. We remain focused on our customers and partner ecosystem, and will continue to power their security transformation initiatives."

[Related: Q&A: Amit Yoran On Leaving RSA, New CEO Role At Tenable And 2017 Security Predictions]

Ghai will assume the role of president of RSA when the deal to sell the Enterprise Content Division closes, the company said.

In a statement about the appointment, Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell said Ghai will help position RSA for the future. Dell acquired RSA as part of its $58 billion acquisition of EMC last fall.

"Under Rohit’s leadership, RSA will continue to excel as one of the industry’s most pervasive and influential security brands. RSA is perfectly positioned to help customers transform their security strategies well into the future," Dell said in a statement.

Ghai has a reputation as being a technologist, though primarily in the storage space. Prior to joining EMC in 2009, he was vice president and general manager of the storage and availability management group at Symantec.

His appointment comes after the departure of former President Amit Yoran in December. Yoran, one of the best-known executives and thought leaders in security, took a position as CEO of Tenable Network Security, starting Jan. 3.

One RSA partner told CRN Ghai is a "good guy" with an extensive background in content management and governance risk and compliance. However, the partner said Ghai's lack of a security background, compared to predecessor Yoran, will likely fall flat as RSA looks to maintain relevance in today's competitive security market.

"Rohit is no Amit. Period," the partner said. "Amit is straight up a stud in the security space. Rohit is more products and marketing from a compliance side. From an industry standpoint, this will not resonate as RSA being a leader in security. [That's a] big difference from Amit."

However, the partner said Dell's appointment of an internal EMC executive to lead RSA helps keep things as "non-disruptive" as possible as the two tech giants integrate.

"The only good thing is that Dell is keeping an EMC person at the helm of RSA to keep synergy in other areas going, so excellent move," the RSA partner told CRN.