Cloud computing is known as the next big thing in IT. But what is it exactly? In a cloud, the key players are the user and provider. Users have access to the cloud resources in form of (web) services, containing the functionality of software (inside the browser), platforms or infrastructures. Let’s see what’s behind it…

On July 1, Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu in partnership with Eucalyptus Systems, an open-source cloud infrastructure firm, will be launching Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud Services.

Red Hat has announced that it is expanding its cloud services offering. Together with Amazon, Red Hat's first Premier Certified Cloud Provider, the company is allowing users to extend their RHEL subscriptions into the cloud using Amazon Web Services

For the Ubuntu cloud strategy to succeed, Canonical is going to need a big assist from Eucalyptus Systems - which makes the engine within the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC). But who exactly is Eucalyptus and is the company making progress with its own cloud efforts? Here's an update.

Ubuntu is converging quickly with cloud services. A prime example: Turnkey Linux is launching 12 Ubuntu Server Edition software appliances that users can deploy in various cloud services. The news comes only a few weeks after Canonical said Ubuntu 9.10 will leap into Amazon.com's cloud. I'm intrigued, but I wonder if customers will join the Ubuntu cloud party.

Need a cloud in a box? Want a cloud in a box? Well, then, start requisitioning a couple of machines now so you’re ready on Thursday to load up Ubuntu 9.04, install Eucalyptus, and follow the prompt to register your cloud with RightScale. And best of all, it’s all free.

"A few days ago Google announced its App Engine, which lets folks build applications that run in Google’s cloud. Amazon has for a while had a number of services to let folks run applications in Amazon’s cloud. But in both of these cases, one must use their proprietary APIs. [...] I think most would prefer not to be locked-in, that cloud providers instead sold commodity services.

Have you been wanting to fly to the cloud, to experiment with cloud computing? Now is your chance. With this article, we will step through the process of setting up a private cloud system using Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC), which is powered by the Eucalyptus platform.

The Meta Cloud is one step closer to meta-reality. Last week, at OSCON, a San Jose startup known as Cloudkick unveiled an open source project that hopes to provide a single programming interface for a host of so-called infrastructure clouds, including Amazon EC2, Rackspace Cloud Servers, Slicehost, and GoGrid.