On November 7, 2011, Abiquo, Inc. announced the release of version 2.0 of its hypervisor-independent self-service cloud automation platform, for the first quarter of 2012. Abiquo's new cloud framework is targeted toward line of business end users (mostly developers), as well as the CFO and the IT department. Therefore, in addition to its self-service component, Abiquo 2.0 provides granular financial and compliance insight, as well as tightly integrated security features preventing accidental policy violations. Balancing three core stakeholder groups -- end user, IT manager, and financial department -- constitutes the central competitive differentiator for Abiquo's cloud management solution.

This Enterprise Management Associatesô (EMA) impact brief explores the effect of this product release on the cloud automation marketplace.