Novell names new CTO

Novell on Tuesday named Jeffrey Jaffe as its executive vice president and chief technology officer.

Jaffe, a former executive at IBM and Lucent Technologies, replaces Alan Nugent, who left the position earlier this year.

Jaffe will oversee Novell's technology and product business units, the Linux and server software seller said. He will report to Ron Hovsepian, who was promoted to president and chief operating officer at the beginning of this month.

At IBM, Jaffe held a number of positions over the years, including corporate vice president of technology and general manager of the SecureWay business unit. As president of Bell Labs Research and Advanced Technologies, he established new facilities in Ireland and India, Novell said.

Jaffe will inherit several technical tasks. A major one is supporting Open Enterprise Server, a product that combines Novell's formerly dominant NetWare operating system with its newer SuSE Linux Enterprise Server.

Novell's version of Linux is second in market share to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Earlier this month, Novell announced a plan to elevate its Linux products, lay off 600 employees and divest its Celerant consulting group.

CNET News.com's Stephen Shankland contributed to this report.