GigaSpaces today announced that the company is joining the open source cloud computing initiative, OpenStack. In addition, GigaSpaces is working with existing member Citrix to “provide an open, scalable platform for the development of enterprise cloud applications.” Whilst much of the current effort around OpenStack is rightly concentrating on getting the Infrastructure layer right, GigaSpaces’ announcement stresses the company’s interest in “extend[ing] the openness and flexibility of OpenStack to the application platform layer.” With parts of the infrastructural foundations still in flux, it will be interesting to track the extent to which GigaSpaces (or Citrix) can make lasting and truly community-benefiting contributions so much higher up the technology stack. Is this a timely and beneficial contribution to the OpenStack community and code base, or a (still useful, but less far-reaching) bolting of a company’s product on top of OpenStack?