It's often seemed obvious to me that clouds and Linux go hand in hand. Amazon's EC2 started out running workloads under Linux in a modified open source Xen file format. So why couldn't the operation of the whole cloud be based on open source code?Since you can instantiate as many copies of Linux as you want at any time, it's a natural for the elastic workloads of cloud computing. Licensing Windows under cloud circumstances remains a tough nut for Microsoft to crack. So Linux and open source are the natural inheritors of cloud computing.

As if great minds think alike, is just so happens that open source in cloud computing is the topic of an online event that Red Hat has scheduled for July 22, according to a blog posted April 23 by Mike Evans, VP of business development, at the Raleigh, N.C., firm.

Red Hat is currently seeking presenters for its Open Source Cloud Computing Forum and will take submissions at this registration site. There's also a general registration URL listed in the posting.

It's a sign of the times. Evans said in his blog that staging an online event will allow many people to participate from around the world, "while also minimizing costs."

"The virtual event will provide time to discuss progress to date, issues and potential solutions and future directions. The event will be technically focused, with no marketing or product selling permitted," he wrote.

Such an event will undoubtedly increase familiarity with a promising project, Eucalyptus, or Elastic Utility Computing for Linking Your Programs To Useful Systems. The Eucalyptus project is seeking to emulate the Amazon cloud with open source virtualized file builders and other tools.