Citrix Acquires Cloud.com, Pledges Interoperability

Citrix Systems has acquired the open source cloud computing platform Cloud.com. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The acquisition adds Cloud.com's CloudStack product line to the Citrix cloud infrastructure portfolio, which also includes Citrix's cloud-optimized virtualization platform, XenServer. CloudStack is an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud software platform that helps providers deploy and manage cloud services.

"As the industry moves into the Cloud Era, Citrix is committed to leading the charge with powerful solutions that make the cloud more open, more secure, and more personal," said Mark Templeton, President and CEO of Citrix Systems. "We are delighted to welcome the Cloud.com team to the Citrix family to focus our combined efforts on helping customers of all sizes make a difference in business, and in the lives of their customers and employees."

CloudStack and XenServer, along with XenApp, XenDesktop, and Citrix's line of NetScaler cloud networking products, will become part of Citrix's new Cloud Platforms product group, which includes a complete portfolio of virtualization, orchestration, and networking solutions for the cloud. As part of its stated commitment to openness and interoperability, Citrix has announced that Cloud.com product line will continue to support hypervisors such as XenServer and VMware vSphere, and that it will add support for Microsoft Hyper-V, Microsoft System Center, and a full range of platform-as-a-service development environments, storage systems, and management software.

Cloud.com CEO and Founder Sheng Liang will stay on to lead the design, architecture, and technology of the CloudStack product line and will report to Sameer Dholakia, group vice president and general manager of the Cloud Platforms product group.

"Cloud.com is the platform behind many of the world's most innovative and successful clouds. Joining forces with Citrix will dramatically accelerate our mission to help customers achieve all the promise cloud computing has to offer, in a way that's open, secure and efficient," said Liang.

According to Citrix, the acquisition will help it accelerate its support for the open source cloud infrastructure movement, OpenStack, which includes more than 1,100 developers and 80 member companies. Citrix is a founding member of OpenStack.org, as well as the project's secon- largest contributor and a member of the OpenStack policy board.

Cloud.com CloudStack is available now. Citrix branded versions will be available in a future release. More information about CloudStack is available on the Cloud.com site.

About the Author

Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].

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