Brad Brooks, the Corporate Vice President of Consumer Marketing for Windows, has jumped to Juniper Networks.

      Juniper announced on January 19 that Brooks will be the Juniper Vice President of Worldwide Enterprise Marketing and Solutions.

      As Windows watchers may recall, Brooks isn’t the first Microsoft exec to jump to Juniper. Kevin Johnson, the former head of Microsoft’s Platforms and Services business, quit Microsoft in 2008  and became the Juniper CEO. After Johnson’s departure, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer split Platforms and Services into two, creating the Windows/Windows Live and Online Systems Divisions.

      Brooks joined Microsoft in 2002, to work on the initial business development and marketing of Windows XP Media Center Edition.

      I’ve asked Microsoft about its replacement plans for Brooks. No word back so far. Microsoft officials declined to comment as to what the company plans to do next, in terms of a replacement.

      Microsoft is continuing to push Windows 7 as the company works on developing the next version of Windows, known as Windows 8.

      Microsoft officials have not been willing to talk about the planned Windows 8 delivery date, but have said the next version of Windows will be out 24 to 36 months after Windows 7 — which could mean anywhere from this year to 2012, depending on how  Microsoft is calculating. (This year, however, the most that us company watchers are expecting is a beta of Windows 8.)

      Microsoft officials have said the next Windows will run on x86, as well as systems-on-a-chip architectures from ARM, Intel and AMD, making the operating system able to run on smaller devices using less power.

      Update: Reader Romit Mehta reminded me that Microsoft Group Product Manager for Web Platform, Lauren Cooney, also recently jumped to Juniper Networks. She is now Director of Developer Evangelism there.

      Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Source from ZDNet