Astute Networks Inc., a provider of blade storage equipment, has appointed John Shoemaker to its board of directors.

Prior to his retirement in 2004, Shoemaker held various executive roles at Sun Microsystems Inc. starting in 1990. He is currently on the boards of Extreme Networks Inc., Altera Inc. and SonicWALL Inc., where he is chairman.

Astute makes blade storage for edge applications such as telecom network control, IPTV and video-on-demand, and video surveillance.

The San Diego company has raised $63 million in venture capital from investors including KeyNote Ventures, Narra Venture Capital, Scale Venture Partners, Sevin Rosen Funds, Tallwood Venture Capital and U.S. Venture Partners, according to VentureWire records.