Apache CloudStack is an open source cloud computing and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) platform developed to help make creating, deploying and managing cloud services easier by providing a complete stack of features and components for cloud environments. CloudStack competes with open source rivals like OpenStack and Eucalyptus in the cloud computing market.
CloudStack can be used to deploy public, private and hybrid cloud solutions, and it relies on hypervisors like VMware vSphere, KVM, XenServer and Oracle VM for setting up virtual machines. CloudStack provides its own API as well as support for AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and S3 APIs, and Cloudbridge technology in CloudStack 4.0 introduces AWS compatibility directly into CloudStack.
CloudStack originated as a Cloud.com project but was acquired by Citrix in 2011. In 2012 Citrix donated CloudStack to the Apache Software Foundation.
See also “A Cloud Computing Dictionary Resource” in Webopedia’s Quick Reference section.
