Linux is a robust technology based operating system that powers most of the cloud infrastructures. It is modular, performance-driven, ubiquitous, and an open source platform. Be it public cloud, private cloud or hybrid cloud, Linux is benefiting all the cloud models with its innate characteristics.

Even Google is using a machine that operates on Linux kernel.

To know why Linux is so compelling for the cloud infrastructures, let's explore the key attributes of Linux that makes it a befitting solution for those who run, build, or operate cloud.

Extremely Adaptable: The Linux operating system is compatible with various applications, and supports most of the hardware equipment than any other OS available today. This feature makes it a right-fit solution for cloud infrastructures, which are required to operate on a varied collection of commodity hardware, storage and network.

Moreover, Linux being an open source allows cloud vendors to tweak the source code and customize the kernel as per the need.

Compatibility: Hundreds of Linux compatible applications are available today allowing users to choose a right application depending on their specific workloads. Additionally, cloud computing architectures are composed of various database systems, file systems, application and web servers, language run times, which is exceptionally supported by this ubiquitous and open source model.

Cost-Efficiency:  Linux is a cost-effective platform for cloud providers to deploy and manage. However, there is a misconception that Linux is always free, which is not.  There is a myriad of enterprise production deployments that are licensed and supported. Cloud hosting providers get an opportunity to run non-commercial distributions, which supports them to pass on the savings to users.

Moreover, by standardizing on Linux based operating workloads, customers will have the elasticity to deploy locally at a data center or remotely on cloud environment according to the changing economics. It is a cogent cloud platform, as it is proficient enough to run as a guest or a host operating system, via technologies such as: Xen or KVM.