Eucalyptus is a Linux-based software architecture that implements scalable, efficiency-enhancing private and hybrid clouds within an enterprise’s existing IT infrastructure. Because Eucalyptus provides Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), you can provision your own resources (hardware, storage, and network) through Eucalyptus on an as-needed basis.

A Eucalyptus cloud is deployed across your enterprise's on-premise data center. As a result, your organization has a full control of the cloud infrastructure. You can implement and enforce various level of security. Sensitive data managed by the cloud does not have to leave your enterprise boundaries, keeping data completely protected from external access by your enterprise firewall.

Eucalyptus was designed from the ground up to be easy to install and non-intrusive. The software framework is modular, with industry-standard, language-agnostic communication. Eucalyptus is also unique in that it provides a virtual network overlay that isolates network traffic of different users as well as allows two or more clusters to appear to belong to the same Local Area Network (LAN).

Eucalyptus also is compatible with Amazon’s EC2, S3, and IAM services. This offers you hybrid cloud capability.