These are not sunny times for Sunnyvale, Calif.-based NetApp, which also has a big campus in RTP. Its stock is down 20 percent this year, sales are lagging, and on Monday its board acted.

Still reeling from a disappointing quarterly earnings report and the layoffs of 500 workers (many of those cuts coming in RTP), storage tech firm NetApp now has to look for a new CEO. Rather than make a new replacement permanent, NetApp is adding to the turbulence by naming an interim chief executive while preparing for a search.

In a terse announcement Monday, NetApp disclosed that chair and CEO Tom Georgens is out.

This news was not the usual corporate boilerplate with ample words of praise for the departing executive. He was written off simply as “the company’s former chairman and chief executive officer.” with a “sincerely thank [you]” for 10 years of service from the new board chair who was among those that voted Georgens out.

His “departure” was “effective immediately.”

In fact, no quotes from Georgens, either.

Speculate all you want, but NetApp is clearly struggling as the storage business transforms under the “cloud” and virtualization transformation.

“It’s not hard to guess,” reports tech news site The Register, “that NetApp’s investors and its board have not been happy with Georgens’ performance of late. NetApp’s revenue for its most recent quarter was down 6.6 per cent from the year-ago period, while its net income was down 32 per cent.”

Taking over as interim CEO is former Cisco executive George Kurian. He also was named to the board, replacing Georgens.

Mike Nevens, the lead independent director,is the new board chair.

More change needed?

But one analyst believes the changes aren’t enough to turn the company around.

Summit Research analyst Srini Nandury said in a research note published at StreetInsider:

“We have been calling for a sense of urgency and a wholesale change in strategy/direction for the company. Under the tenure of Tom Georgens, the company has made number of mistakes including acquiring Engenio, overhyping the FlashRay product, and doubling down on legacy technologies such as WAFL/clustering ONTAP …

“While we think appointing a new CEO is a good first step, the company has a ways to go in fixing its problems. Until then, we remain on the sidelines.”

As one would expect, Kurian said in a statement that he was “honored” but noted that he takes over NetApp “during this time of transition.”

Kurian, who joined NetApp four years ago, was executive vice president for Product Operations and headed strategy so if anyone other than Georgens knows where NetApp needs to go in terms of sales and services it’s Kurian, the board obviously believes.

“I look forward to engaging with the entire NetApp community as we execute our strategic plan and key investment areas of accelerating clustered Data ONTAP adoption, regaining traction in the channel, and increasing our sales capacity,” Kurian said.

Note the “regaining traction” comment.

Note as well the “increasing our sales capacity.”

Will NetApp be hiring in sales?

“We are committed to delivering improved growth and financial performance and remain confident in the strength of our technology and hybrid cloud strategy,” Kurian added.

So what did the new chair have to say?

“NetApp is an exceptional company with a great future and the board believes that it is the right time for new leadership to maximize its potential,” Nevens said. “These changes are aimed at speeding the company’s movement to its next phase of innovation and growth. While we intend to conduct a CEO search, we have the utmost confidence in George’s ability to lead the company, given his deep knowledge of NetApp and support from a strong executive team. George has deep relationships with customers and partners globally and is committed to strengthening those relationships going forward.”