Caching Start-Up Entera Names CEO

Entera, a maker of Internet caching products, today named Steven M. West its president and chief executive.

West previously was the president of Electronic Data Systems' Systemhouse, and before that was president and CEO of Hitachi Data Systems, a joint venture of EDS and Hitachi. West is also on Cisco Systems' board of directors.

With West installed at the helm, Entera, positioning itself as a developer of "Internet content delivery systems," is hoping to push its way into the hot content distribution market.

"Steve West's proven ability to fuel growth and successfully manage expanding enterprises will be key to propelling Entera into a leadership role in the multibillion dollar network infrastructure arena," said John Scharber, Entera's co-founder, chief technology officer and chairman.

The company's TeraNode appliance, which combines caching, streaming media distribution and server replication, is targeted at Internet service providers and content hosting companies. Entera's financial backers include ComVentures and Crescendo Ventures.