The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit advancing professional open source management for mass collaboration today is announcing six new members are joining the organization: Bitnami, CoSoSys, GigaSpaces, Thundersoft, NXT Foundation and INUIT Foundation - University of Rome Tor Vergata.

Open source software is leading the way for mass, cross-industry collaboration spanning web applications, security protocols, cloud software, and mobile devices. To overcome interoperability barriers and speed the rate of innovation for the next generation of computing, The Linux Foundation unites thousands of developers across hundreds of global companies and open source projects. These professionals collaborate with The Linux Foundation to build common, open source technology platforms, develop best practices and provide a foundation for the world's largest efforts to advance open source software.

"Open source software enables companies to collaborate across industries and reach new levels of innovation faster than working alone. The Linux Foundation provides the critical infrastructure needed to enable this level of collaboration," said Jim Zemlin, executive director, The Linux Foundation. "These new members represent the continuing shift towards open source as the de facto way to build technology solutions."

More information about the newest Linux Foundation members:

Bitnami provides free, ready-to-run open source server applications as native installers, virtual appliances (VMs) cloud templates, and containers. With Bitnami, users of any skill level can have a complete data visualization tool, blogging platform, bug-tracking software, software development environment or other applications up and running in minutes.

"Bitnami is constantly striving to make it easy for users to run their favorite apps and development frameworks by making our applications more flexible and accessible to a larger audience," said David Dennis, VP of Marketing, Bitnami. "Open source technology is at the heart of this effort, and we're excited to join The Linux Foundation as we increase our development efforts around microservices, orchestration templates, and other key pieces of the rapidly evolving cloud and container ecosystems."

CoSoSys enables businesses and end users around the world to take full advantage of the performance benefits of mobility, portability and communications solutions, without compromising security. CoSoSys specializes in content-aware Data Loss Prevention (DLP) for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, Mobile Device Management (MDM), Mobile Application Management for iOS and Android, and applications for portable storage device encryption and enhancement.

"Joining The Linux Foundation was a natural next step for us since we support Linux with our DLP software and our solutions are Linux-based," said Roman Foeckl, CEO and Founder, CoSoSys. "We feel passionately about supporting the Linux community, because it shares a lot of our same values, especially with its emphasis on, and reputation for, being secure."

Cloudify by GigaSpaces, is an open source, pure-play cloud orchestration platform that automates and manages complex applications throughout their entire lifecycle. Based on TOSCA, Cloudify provides a single pane of glass to manage and orchestrate hybrid cloud infrastructures, containers, and legacy environments. Cloudify brings web scale best practices for installing, configuring, scaling and repairing cloud applications using automated and repeatable workflows.

"GigaSpaces is deeply invested in building open source platforms to empower next-generation web applications to automate and scale in hybrid cloud environments, alongside containers and even non-virtualized install-bases," said Nati Shalom, CTO, GigaSpaces. "The Linux Foundation is the ideal forum for open source professionals to unite and collaborate for the future of computing."

Thundersoft is a worldwide provider of mobile operating system and smart device solutions, focusing in areas including mobile phone/tablet, IoT, automotive, enterprise, among others. With full-stack engineering resources covering mobile software; hardware; all layers of operating system development; a rich technology/solution portfolio; strategic partnerships with key SoC/ISV/IHV vendors; and a global support networks, Thundersoft is able to provide professional, solid, responsive and turn-key mobile platform technology, services and solutions, and enable customers worldwide to build high-quality and quick-to-market products.

"We believe that open source paves the way to interoperability and innovation for consumers and end users. The Linux Foundation hosts open source projects spanning IoT to cloud-based technologies, which will allow us to participate in the global open source ecosystem," said Larry Geng, CEO, Thundersoft.

Today The Linux Foundation also welcomes the NXT Foundation and INUIT Foundation - University of Rome Tor Vergata as Affiliate Members.