Along with Xenserver, the open source CloudStack product supports KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine), Microsoft's Hyper-V and VMware's vSphere.

Ulander said that joining with Citrix "amplifies what we can do because we're now closer to the product team."

As a start-up, "we only had so much reach," said Ulander. "This basically builds a lot of credibility and lot of experience and sets us up for an accelerated market position versus what we would have to do as a grow-by-yourself startup."

Patrick Thibodeau covers SaaS and enterprise applications, outsourcing, government IT policies, data centers and IT workforce issues for Computerworld. Follow Patrick on Twitter at , or subscribe to . His e-mail address is .

in Computerworld's Cloud Computing Topic Center.