Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

5:42 PM -- Feel like you've only just gotten to know Ben Fathi, Microsoft's security czar? Well, after nearly seven months on the job, Ben is being assigned to a new post at Microsoft as the software giant reorganizes itself once again.

Microsoft reorganizes about every six months, so the latest shakeup is status quo for the company, says Randy Abrams, Microsoft's former operations manager for its Global Infrastructure Alliance for Internet Safety, and now the director of technical education for AV company Eset.

Microsoft is folding its Security Technology Unit (Farhi's former group) into the newly formed Trustworthy Computing team, which will also be made up of the former security group, Trustworthy Computing, and Engineering Excellence teams. And Fathi will become top dog in the development of Windows core computing elements. Scott Charney will head up Trustworthy Computing, which is now part of the Windows Core Operating System Division.

Did you get all that?

This should help Microsoft better execute its OS delivery, says Rob Enderle, principal analyst with the Enderle Group. "This puts security back into the platform groups where it can be better managed as a part of the platform, which should help make sure that its critical path isn’t the one that delays future releases of the operating systems," he says, "and that the work the unit does actually makes it into the platform in the end."

Too much red tape with all the organizational complexity at Microsoft slowed Vista's delivery, Enderle says. The security unit made lots of changes during the development cycle of Vista, which delayed things, he asserts. "This is just one of many changes designed to make Microsoft’s execution capability better."

So, see you in six months.

— Kelly Jackson Higgins, Senior Editor, Dark Reading