The Emerging Vendors 2011 list comprises companies from every discipline and technology facet. The only rules: They must have been established or have undergone a major transformation in 2005 or later and have a strategy to leverage the channel to go to market. Each of these companies brings something different to the table, and each has a fresh perspective. And some are already gaining a foothold in the bustling IT marketplace. They represent new partnership and go-to-market opportunities for solution providers looking to separate the wheat from the chaff in an IT market that is becoming increasingly more crowded and noisy.

Location: Redwood City, Calif.

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: Open source cloud management solutions

Location: Roseville, Calif.

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: Cloud Optimizer cloud cost optimization tool

Location: San Francisco

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: PogoPlug software for cloud storage/streaming

CloudOptix

Location: Boca Raton, Fla.

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: MeghaWare cloud virtualization software unifies public and private clouds into a custom hybrid cloud environment

Location: San Francisco

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: Halo architecture, cloud server security platform

Location: San Mateo, Calif.

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: CloudShare Enterprise IT environment replication, sharing

Location: Burlington, Mass.

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: CloudSwitch Enterprise enables enterprises to run applications in the cloud simply and securely, without rearchitecting the application or changing management tools and policies

Location: Santa Clara, Calif.

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: Cloupia Unified Infrastructure Controller

Location: Chicago

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: Manage Axis cloud monitoring and management

Location: Minneapolis

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: enStratus cloud infrastructure management platform

Location: Santa Barbara, Calif.

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: Eucalyptus Enterprise Edition cloud software platform

Location: Wayne, Pa.

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: Evolve IP offers a comprehensive suite of cloud-based applications, infrastructure and security

Location: San Francisco

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: Fordela Media Platform

Location: Manhattan Beach, Calif.

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: mCloud Controller cloud platform

Location: San Jose, Calif.

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: NephoScale Infrastructure-as-a-Service

Location: Mountain View, Calif.

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: Infrastructure-as-a-Service software

Location: Brooklyn, N.Y.

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: IT-as-a-Service Delivery Platform for MSPs

Location: Redwood City, Calif.

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: Oxygen Universal Cloud Drive

Location: Portland, Ore.

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: N-Tier PHP System

Location: Palo Alto, Calif.

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: Skydera Cloud Automation Platform

Location: Mountain View, Calif.

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: SOASTA makes cloud-based applications that test the performance of cloud, Web and mobile applications

Location: Campbell, Calif.

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: Soonr Workplace documents and file sharing

Location: Austin, Texas

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: Spanning Backup for Google Apps

Location: Denver

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: TrackVia Cloud Database

Location: San Francisco

Category: Cloud Computing

Product Line: Zencoder Cloud-Based Video Encoding