VMware Inc.’s ex-chief technology officer Ben Fathi is back at work barely two months after leaving his old job, having joined up with CloudFlare Inc. as its new head of engineering.

Fathi outlined his reasons for joining up with his new employer on CloudFlare’s blog, admitting that some people might be scratching their heads considering his new role has nothing to do with operating systems.

That may be so, but in Fathi’s words: “We have an opportunity to build a fully distributed and resilient always-on Internet Operating System at the edge of the network — where it matters most — as far as end user experience is concerned,”

“I’m thrilled to be taking over the helm of engineering at CloudFlare,” Fathi continued. “The question shouldn’t be why I joined, but rather, why you’re not here as well. Come join us and let’s make the Internet a better place together. If we happen to build a scalable secure cloud at the same time, even better. If we manage to build a distributed Internet-scale operating system to manage it all, you might call it serendipity.”

Fathi’s departure from VMware last August led to all sorts of rumors about what might be going down at EMC Corp., because he was one of several top executives to depart the Federation in quick succession. But while most people guessed something big was about to happen, very few predicted that Dell would step in with its $67 billion offer.

Fathi brings to CloudFlare more than 30 years experience of working in tech. He previously helped build UNIX, Linux and Windows, and has also worked on embedded and distributed operating systems, according to TechRepublic. Most recently, Fathi led the vSphere core engineering team at VMware before becoming its CTO.

It sounds like an exciting time to be at CloudFlare, which is enjoying rapid growth right now. Just last month, the company announced a $110 million funding round, plus plans to acquire new customers, expand to international markets and grow its product capabilities.

Image credit: VMworld via YouTube