VMware's executive vice president of research and development, Richard Sarwal has quit and gone back to Oracle just nine months after leaving the accounting outfit.

Sarwal left Oracle in December to join VMware in he hope of pulling more research rabbits from the hat to compete against a much more aggressive Microsoft. While it is not clear why Sarwal left, VMware does not appear to be in any hurry to replace him.  Instead it has announced "organisational changes" will do the same job.

Sarwal also appears to have left in somewhat of a hurry not waiting for those organisational changes first. His job has been taken over by Stephen Herrod, its chief technology officer and senior vice president of research and design.