New Community Manager Helps Cloud.com Move into Open Source
"The LAMP stack helped build the web; open source helped build the web; and Cloud.com wants to shape the future of cloud computing," says Mark Hinkle, Vice President of Community at Cloud.com.
Founded in 2008, Cloud.com provides an open source software platform for launching public or private cloud environments and can deploy and manage multi-tier and multi-tenant cloud applications in a fully integrated software package. Cloud.com customers can build cloud services within their existing infrastructure without the overhead (both in time and expense) traditionally associated with enterprise server deployments. In addition to a customer’s existing infrastructure (on-site and off-site), Cloud.com technologies can also be deployed as hosted cloud services.
During the past five months, Cloud.com transitioned from a proprietary company to an open source company. Mark Hinkle, the company’s new Vice President of Community, has a long and active history with free and open source software. Hinkle co-founded Open Source Management and Desktop Linux Consortiums, was the Editor-in-Chief of LinuxWorld and Enterprise Open Source magazines, and wrote Windows to Linux Business Desktop Migration. Before joining Cloud.com, Hinkle demonstrated his ability to "grow community" by expanding Zenoss's community adoption and involvement to more than 100,000 community members.
"Open source has a greater history with adoption and distribution of cloud computing technologies,” Hinkle says. “Just as the LAMP stack helped build the web, open source helped build the web, and Cloud.com wants to shape the future of cloud computing," he adds. "Thanks to various TV commercials, many people and companies think the Internet equals the cloud. We want to help define, introduce, and support the newest IT Technologies for enterprise and small business customers," Hinkle says.
Cloud.com offers an Enterprise, Community and Service Provider Editions of CloudStack. CloudStack features include open source, on-demand virtual datacenter hosting, dynamic workload management, broad network virtualization capabilities, virtual resource management and isolation, hypervisor independence, cloud templates and libraries, end-user GUI administration and more. Companies partnering with Cloud.com include Red Hat, Inc, Rackspace via OpenStack, Vyatta, VMware, Rightscale, HP, and IBM.
As more companies are offering cloud computing technologies and services, Cloud.com wants to be a leader in this ever-expanding area of open source. When asked why a customer should choose Cloud.com technologies over similar services, Hinkle said, "Cloud.com has elasticity to grow and shrink with customer demand. When it comes to the different cloud computing technologies, such as Rackspace's OpenStack or Red Hat's ISV program, we are working hard to complement the services already provided, and we are committed to supporting all the hypervisor technologies they utilize."
Hinkle says he is dedicated to growing the Cloud.com community. “I’m a community guy interested in working with different people on a new project where I can help build community,” he says. “Cloud.com gives me the opportunity to work with really smart people, in an open way, and do some really good things through inclusion rather than exclusion.”
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
First Release Candidate for Linux Kernel 6.14 Now Available
Linus Torvalds has officially released the first release candidate for kernel 6.14 and it includes over 500,000 lines of modified code, making for a small release.
-
System76 Refreshes Meerkat Mini PC
If you're looking for a small form factor PC powered by Linux, System76 has exactly what you need in the Meerkat mini PC.
-
Gnome 48 Alpha Ready for Testing
The latest Gnome desktop alpha is now available with plenty of new features and improvements.
-
Wine 10 Includes Plenty to Excite Users
With its latest release, Wine has the usual crop of bug fixes and improvements, along with some exciting new features.
-
Linux Kernel 6.13 Offers Improvements for AMD/Apple Users
The latest Linux kernel is now available, and it includes plenty of improvements, especially for those who use AMD or Apple-based systems.
-
Gnome 48 Debuts New Audio Player
To date, the audio player found within the Gnome desktop has been meh at best, but with the upcoming release that all changes.
-
Plasma 6.3 Ready for Public Beta Testing
Plasma 6.3 will ship with KDE Gear 24.12.1 and KDE Frameworks 6.10, along with some new and exciting features.
-
Budgie 10.10 Scheduled for Q1 2025 with a Surprising Desktop Update
If Budgie is your desktop environment of choice, 2025 is going to be a great year for you.
-
Firefox 134 Offers Improvements for Linux Version
Fans of Linux and Firefox rejoice, as there's a new version available that includes some handy updates.
-
Serpent OS Arrives with a New Alpha Release
After months of silence, Ikey Doherty has released a new alpha for his Serpent OS.