Citrix Systems Acquires Cloud.com

Citrix Systems has acquired Cloud.com in a deal which will boost its position in the cloud computing market. The deal also underscores the growing role of open source software in building and deploying cloud platforms. Cloud.com provides open source software to create cloud computing platforms for service providers, providing Citrix with an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offering in addition to its XenServer hypervisor.

Cloud.com provides the back end for cloud platforms for about 45 companies, including hosting giant Go Daddy and game developer Zynga. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

"Cloud.com is the platform behind many of the world’s most innovative and successful clouds," said Sheng Liang, CEO and Founder, Cloud.com. "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."

Citrix Vows Support of Other Hypervisors, Platforms

The Cloud.com platform is "hypervisor agnostic," supporting technologies from a wide range of virtualization providers. Citrix said Cloud.com will continue to support VMware vSphere in addition to the open source Xen hypervisor and XenServer, Citrix's commercial hypervisor based on Xen. Citrix said it intends to add support for Microsoft products like Hyper-V and System Center to the Cloud.com product line.

Citrix (CTXS) also said that its ownership of the Cloud.com and its CloudStack platform will not diminish its support of OpenStack, the fast-growing open source IaaS platform founded by Rackspace and NASA. "In addition to providing leadership in communities like Xen.org at the virtualization layer, this acquisition will help Citrix further accelerate its support of OpenStack, the popular open source cloud infrastructure movement that now includes over 1,100 cloud developers, and more than 80 member companies," Citrix said in its announcement. "With this acquisition, Citrix will also be extending OpenStack support to the Cloud.com product line in an upcoming release later this year."

'Furthering Its Commitment' to OpenStack

"Citrix has been a leader in the creation of OpenStack, assembling an impressive team of developers and creating Project Olympus to take open cloud-scale technology into the market," said Jim Curry, GM of Cloud Builders, Rackspace. "With the addition of the Cloud.com team, Citrix is furthering their commitment to OpenStack, ensuring that the OpenStack platform and APIs are even more widely available to customers everywhere."

Cloud.com CEO Sheng Liang will continue to lead the design, architecture and technology of the CloudStack product line, reporting to Sameer Dholakia, group vice president and general manager of the newly-formed Cloud Platforms product group at Citrix.

"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, Citrix Systems, Inc. "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."