Eucalyptus Systems, Nebula and Virtual Bridges Join Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation, the non-profit organization dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux, is adding three new companies to its membership list: Eucalyptus Systems, Nebula and Virtual Bridges. These companies “are important additions to The Linux Foundation membership,” according to The Linux Foundation’s vice president of marketing and developer programs Amanda McPherson. “The enterprise IT environment is growing more complex and Linux is helping users and vendors innovate within it. We are excited to collaborate with these companies to advance that work.”

Eucalyptus Systems — lead by Marten Mickos, former CEO of MySQL AB — provides self-hosted Infrastructure-as-a-Service clouds using commodity Linux servers. Mickos was one of the keynote speakers at the 2011 LinuxCon North America, where he observed that we, the Linux community, must strive to ensure that no one closes that which we have opened. Clearly his company’s involvement with the Linux Foundation is an effort to put his money where his mouth is. “Open source has gone from disrupting the old to innovating the new — and Linux and open source hypervisors form the main building blocks of the cloud,” said Mickos. “As pioneers of infrastructure-as-a-service software, Eucalyptus’ membership in The Linux Foundation will keep us close to technology development that is vital for the advancement of new innovations in cloud computing.”

Nebula is developing a Linux-based hardware appliance for large private cloud computing infrastructures; and Virtual Bridges provide a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure solution.

As more and more companies strive to develop “cloud” solutions, it’s clear that Linux and free software provide the best building blocks, as Mickos observed. A neutral arbiter like the Linux Foundation is an important element in the longevity of Linux. I’d expect to see even more companies pledging support to Linux and the Linux Foundation in the not-too-distant future.