Cloud.com Launches Scalable IaaS For MSPs

Eucalyptus isn’t the only open source cloud platform in town anymore: Cloud.com, formerly VMops, has come out of an 18 month-long hibernation to launch CloudStack, their infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solution designed to let MSPs integrate their cloud offerings with existing initiatives. Here’s the scoop.

CloudStack, which comes in a free, open source Community Edition, as well as paid Enterprise and Service Provider Editions, implements APIs for common cloud frameworks like Amazon Web Services, Citrix Cloud Center, and VMware’s vCloud, says Cloud.com Chief Marketing Officer Peder Ulander.

Ulander, formerly of Sun, Cisco, and Cobalt Networks, acknowledges that, at least on paper, competitor Eucalyptus has a similar approach to turnkey IaaS — both are designed to turn existing hardware into a cloud, and both have free, community-developed versions and better-supported enterprise versions.

But he says that Cloud.com’s real competitive advantage is in their technology: CloudStack scales better, was build from the ground up to create a platform rather than extend someone else’s grid (Amazon EC2, in the case of Eucalyptus), and has better deals in place with vendors like NetApp to ensure compatibility, the company claims.

And for MSPs, he says that Cloud.com plans on doing a lot of channel sales, and will largely keep its hands off the market. To that end, Ulander says that CloudStack gives cloud services providers better control over billing and SLAs while also providing them what he describes as the leading platform to roll their own SaaS offerings.

Obviously, Ulander is a big fan of his own company. But putting slant aside, open source cloud platform provders like Eucalyptus, Morphlabs, and now Cloud.com, appear to be doing brisk business helping MSPs get to the cloud.

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