Cloud.com
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| Cloud.com | |
|---|---|
| Name | Cloud.com |
| Type | Private |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Founders | Sasidhar (Sasi) Reddi , Shivaram Venkatesh , Alexander Lindsay |
| Fate | Acquired by Citrix Systems (2011) |
| Headquarters | San Francisco |
| Products | CloudStack |
| Industry | Cloud computing |
Cloud.com was a privately held technology company founded in 2008 that developed infrastructure software for deploying and managing large-scale virtualized datacenters. The company produced an orchestration platform used by service providers, enterprises, and research organizations to automate provisioning, networking, and storage for virtual machines. Cloud.com's flagship project gained prominence through partnerships with major virtualization vendors and a subsequent acquisition that integrated its technology into a leading desktop and server virtualization portfolio.
History
Cloud.com was formed in the context of rapid expansion in virtualization and service provider platforms during the late 2000s, contemporaneous with developments at VMware, Red Hat, Canonical (company), and Microsoft Azure initiatives. Early funding rounds drew interest from venture backers and strategic partners aligned with the growth of infrastructure as a service offerings championed by Amazon Web Services, Rackspace, and telecommunications firms such as Verizon and Sprint. The company positioned itself against orchestration efforts by projects like OpenNebula and products from Citrix Systems, catalyzing industry attention that culminated in acquisition negotiations with prominent enterprise virtualization vendors.
Products and Technology
Cloud.com's primary offering was a cloud orchestration platform designed to manage compute, storage, and networking resources across heterogeneous hypervisors including Xen (software), KVM, and integrations with VMware ESXi. The platform provided RESTful APIs compatible with provisioning models used by Amazon EC2 and programmability frameworks employed by OpenStack adopters. Key product components included a management server, agent frameworks, a multi-tenant network model, and user-facing portals that echoed interfaces familiar from Eucalyptus (software) and hosted control panels used by GoGrid customers.
The software emphasized plugin architectures to accommodate storage backends from vendors such as NetApp, EMC Corporation, and HP (company), as well as network services comparable to offerings from Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks. Compatibility layers and driver modules enabled integration with billing systems and orchestration workflows used by cloud service providers like DreamHost and Terremark.
Architecture and Features
The platform adopted a modular, service-oriented architecture with discrete components for workload scheduling, host management, storage orchestration, and virtual networking. Core features included automated VM lifecycle management, template catalogs, snapshot and volume management, and hierarchical account structures suited to enterprises and service providers such as AT&T. Networking capabilities implemented virtual LAN and software-defined networking primitives reminiscent of techniques promoted by Nicira and later formalized within standards bodies influenced by IETF working groups.
Scalability was addressed through distributed database backends, redundant management nodes, and asynchronous task queues similar to patterns used in RabbitMQ and Apache Cassandra deployments. Security controls mapped to role-based access patterns found in NIST guidance and integrated with authentication services like LDAP and Active Directory from Microsoft. High-availability configurations and disaster recovery procedures paralleled approaches documented by IBM and Dell Technologies for enterprise virtualization infrastructures.
Commercial Development and Acquisitions
Commercial traction grew as Cloud.com forged OEM and partner relationships with hardware vendors, managed service providers, and systems integrators including Hewlett-Packard and regional carriers. Negotiations with larger virtualization vendors reflected strategic consolidation trends in the industry seen in transactions involving Red Hat and SUSE. In 2011, the company was acquired by Citrix Systems, a deal that brought the orchestration technology into Citrix's portfolio alongside products such as XenServer and NetScaler.
Post-acquisition, the core platform elements were contributed to an open-source community under a new governance model, while enterprise support and commercial packaging were integrated into Citrix's product lines and go-to-market channels that included enterprise accounts like Bank of America and cloud partners serving government customers.
Community and Open Source Contributions
Following the acquisition, the core orchestration project was released under an open-source license and became a significant community-driven initiative with contributors from companies such as CloudStack adopters, independent developers, and system integrators. The open governance attracted participation from organizations familiar with collaborative development practices used by Apache Software Foundation projects and mirrored collaborative models from OpenStack and Linux Foundation communities.
Documentation efforts, public issue trackers, and plugin contributions expanded support for additional hypervisors, storage drivers, and networking integrations contributed by vendors including Citrix Systems engineers, third-party cloud operators, and academic labs from institutions such as MIT and Stanford University conducting distributed systems research.
Reception and Impact
Industry analysts compared the platform favorably to orchestration alternatives from VMware and community projects like OpenStack for its ease of deployment, API compatibility, and multi-tenant capabilities. Reviews in trade publications cited successful deployments by service providers and praised the modular plugin approach that eased vendor integration. The acquisition by Citrix Systems was widely reported as a strategic move reinforcing competitive dynamics among virtualization incumbents including VMware, Microsoft, and Red Hat.
Longer-term impact included accelerating adoption of standardized cloud orchestration APIs, influencing design decisions in subsequent projects from OpenStack and prompting increased vendor collaboration on interoperability initiatives led by consortia such as the Linux Foundation and industry forums. The project’s open-source descendants continue to be referenced in case studies about migration from proprietary orchestration stacks to community-driven platforms.