With more and more hardware vendors moving up the stack to escape the accelerating commoditization of data center infrastructure, software providers like Zenoss are coming under increased pressure to differentiate against the fast-multiplying competition. The unified monitoring provider announced this week that it has appointed Greg Stock as CEO to chart a course through the industry’s rough waters.

Stock is taking over the reins from Zenoss co-founder Bill Karpovich, who is credited with growing the company from a startup to a category leader boasting over 35,000 corporate customers worldwide and is set to remain on the board as a director. He’s leaving big shoes to fill, but Stock is a worthy successor by all accounts.

The veteran executive brings more than 20 years of experience to the position, most recently serving as entrepreneur-in-residence for Austin Ventures and the chairman of cloud-based mobile broadband provider Macheen. Prior to that, Stock was CEO at multiple successful software companies, most notably Vovici, a consumer analytics vendor that was acquired in 2011 by Verint Systems.The firm’s customer base grew to more than 1,200 companies under his leadership, including half of the Fortune 500.

Earlier in his career, Stock was the vice president of marketing for trade automation company Vastera and helped supply chain management specialist Manugistics grow to more than $200 million in revenues, according to his bio.

In his new gig, Stock will focus on expanding Zenoss’ market share among large enterprises and service providers. The appointment marks the latest in a string of recent milestones for the company, which claims to have achieved record sales in the first quarter and established strategic ties with a number of industry heavy hitters in that period, including ServiceNow.