Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Co. Chief Executive Meg Whitman (pictured) is tightening the company’s executive ranks anew as Chief Technology Officer Martin Fink has announced his retirement.

Fink’s departure, part of a reorganization of the enterprise computing company split off last fall from the rest of HP, raises questions about HPE’s ability to keep pace in innovation around data centers and cloud computing. That’s not least because as head of HP Labs, Fink ran development of The Machine, a bold attempt launched two years ago to create a computer based on a new memory technology developed by HPE.

Many observers had expected to hear more details by now about the development of the machine, a prototype of which is due out by year-end but which won’t be commercial available for several years. So its perceived delay might have figured in Fink’s retirement after 30 years at the company, though Whitman praised Fink and said The Machine will be “the capstone of Martin’s leadership.”

Executive Vice President Antonio Neri, general manager of HPE’s Enterprise Group, will take over management of HP Labs. In a statement, Whitman said the reorganization will help bring The Machine to market. “This move will also help align our R&D work on The Machine with the business – particularly how we integrate key components like photonics and memristor into existing product lines – by bringing together our innovation roadmap with our business roadmap,” she said.

The change is a smart move, said Peter Burris, chief research officer at Wikibon Research, owned by the same company as SiliconANGLE. HPE will need to make sure a revenue-oriented executive is in charge as The Machine edges closer to reality, he said.

Also leaving HPE at year-end is Chief Customer Officer John Hinshaw. Whitman also reorganized the sales team into one global organization in the Enterprise Group, to be led by Peter Ryan, senior VP and managing director of the group’s EMEA region.

Another promotion is longtime Whitman cohort and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Henry Gomez, who will handle a combined product marketing, e-commerce and customer advocacy organization. And HPE’s IT and cyber security teams will move under Chief Operating Officer Chris Hsu.

The changes come just a month after Whitman, in a surprise move, spun off HPE’s services business to Computer Sciences Corp. in a deal expected to close early next year. In its most recent quarter, HPE reported the highest absolute revenue growth in five years, earning a profit of 42 cents a share, but revenues still rose only 1 percent (5 percent before currency changes) from a year ago, to $12.7 billion.

HPE recently invited open source software developers to participate in creating applications for The Machine, seen as a key to HPE remaining competitive in computing versus a consolidating field led by the likes of IBM and Dell but also versus fast-charging cloud computing services such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.

HPE needs to recharge growth to keep pace in the new computer industry. Since Whitman took over HP, some 55,000 employees have lost their jobs at the Silicon Valley icon.

Hsu explained in a recent interview at the HPE Discover conference how the company aims to use mergers and acquisitions to attempt to recharge its growth:

(Disclosure: TheCUBE, owned by the same company as SiliconANGLE, was the paid media partner for the HPE conference.)