Rusty Walther

Who is Rusty Walther?

Rusty Walther is the senior vice president of Global Support at Network Appliance, where he leads a large, complex, and diverse enterprise support operation. He joined the company in 2005. Walther is responsible for all postsale customer and partner-facing response and resolution activities around the world. He oversees a global ecosystem of support centers, stocking locations, field engineers, and support partners on six continents to help ensure 24x7x365 administrative and technical coverage to NetApp customers and business partners. Prior to joining NetApp, Walther served as vice president of Customer Support in several startup companies, leading AboveNet Communications and ONI Systems to successful IPOs. This followed several leadership positions in large Silicon Valley companies such as Bay Networks, 3Com, and Nortel. After leading AboveNet Communications and ONI

Systems through successful IPO’s and acquisitions, he took a year off

to do some writing and consulting before returning to a Customer

Support leadership role at Airespace, Inc., a leading provider of

enterprise-class secure wireless networking products.Prior to his career in Silicon Valley, he spent 16 years in the federal government designing, constructing, and managing a variety of worldwide IT systems, including serving as director of U.S. Marine Corps West Coast LAN, WAN, and Data Center Operations.