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Open-Source Cloud Computing: Channel-Friendly Vendors Who Support It
By Chris Talbot on 2010-08-16



Cloud computing has gained momentum among IT leaders. If they aren’t implementing it they are doing a proof-of-concept project or planning one. Much of it is about saving money and administrative headaches. By moving IT infrastructure to the cloud, IT organizations can reduce capital costs and turn them into operating expenses. Plus, they can reduce administrative headaches by outsourcing them to someone else. But it’s not just standard vendors who are supporting cloud efforts. Cloud computing is just as hot among members of the open source community, Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, recently told Channel Insider. A growing number of channel-friendly vendors have voiced their support for open source cloud platforms. In fact, nearly 30 companies and organizations threw their support behind the new OpenStack open source cloud computing platform unveiled by Rackspace Hosting. Here are some of the channel-friendly vendors who are supporting one open source cloud computing platform or another.
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Rackspace HostingRackspace Hosting (www.rackspace.com) announced the OpenStack (www.openstack.org) project on July 19th. The open source cloud platform was designed to foster the emergence of technology standards and cloud interoperability. Nearly 30 vendors and organizations, including NASA (www.nasa.gov) have signed on since launch day.

CitrixWith a portion of its business being focused on cloud computing in the enterprise, Citrix (www.citrix.com) has signed on with the OpenStack project. Citrix's CTO for the data center and cloud division, Simon Crosby, posted to his blog that the OpenStack project is an example of the open source community reasserting its claim to leadership in cloud computing.

DellDell (www.dell.com) is another major vendor that has joined the OpenStack project. The company offers both public and private cloud computing infrastructure and hosting services.

Peer 1 HostingA hosting specialist with ties to many hardware and software vendors in the computing space, Peer 1 Hosting (www.peer1.com) has been providing hosting services since 1999. With data centers around North America and Europe, Peer 1 also hosted cloud services and is now supporting the OpenStack project.

SoftLayerSoftLayer (www.softlayer.com) provides infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offerings, including a cloud solution called CloudLayer. The company is part of the OpenStack project.

RightscaleRightscale (www.rightscale.com) provides a cloud management platform that enables customers to get up and running within minutes. Its ServerTemplates provide a quick way to deploy cloud-ready servers. Rightscale is a member of the OpenStack project.

Cloud.comAs a provider of public, private and hybrid clouds, Cloud.com (www.cloud.com) is focused on providing open source cloud computing platforms. Its CloudStack software accelerates deployment, management and configuration of multi-tier and multi-tenant infrastructure cloud services. Cloud.com is a supporter of the OpenStack project.

ZenossZenoss (www.zenoss.com)'s core competencies lie in IT operations management products. Previously a supporter of open source platforms (it offers a free open source IT operations monitoring tool), Zenoss has signed on with the OpenStack project.

AMDOn the hardware front is AMD (www.amd.com), known as one of the big two in processors and chipsets. AMD is a supporter of the OpenStack project.

IntelThe other big player in the processors and chipsets market is Intel (www.intel.com), which has signed on as part of the OpenStack project.

SonianSonian (www.sonian.com) provides cloud-powered email archiving solutions. It offers those archiving and ediscovery solutions in the cloud. It is an OpenStack project supporter.

EucalyptusOpenStack isn't the only open source cloud computing platform project. Eucalyptus (www.eucalyptus.com) provides open source private cloud software to its customers. It uses IaaS-style cloud computing using a Linux-based infrastructure found in data centers.

eyeOSeyeOS (www.eyeos.org) is an open source cloud operating system distributed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html). It enables customers to build private clouds that are meant to be secure and private.

Red HatRed Hat (www.redhat.com) is a long-time proponent of open source computing, and the company that helped to put Linux on the map has also entered the cloud computing market with its own enterprise-class open source private cloud computing platform.

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