VMware has integrated RabbitMQ with Cloud Foundry, its open-source beta PaaS offering that competes with the Google App Engine, Microsoft Azure and other offerings. RabbitMQ is an also open messaging system that was originally developed by the UK-based Rabbit Technologies, a company VMware acquired last year.

“RabbitMQ is now a first class citizen of Cloud Foundry,” VMware spokesman Al Sargent tells The Reg. “It can be used to communicate between Cloud Foundry services and with other applications on Cloud Foundry, and to connect to third-party services like Twitter or PayPal.”

Cloud Foundry is free and will remain open even after it comes out of beta, says, Sargent, though VMware does plan on offering add-on offerings, paid sister services, on what seems to be a freemium basis in the making.

VMware is seeing open-source getting tied up with its core virtualization business too. The launch of vSphere 5 came with a rise in licensing fees that triggered a lot of protest among its customers – some of which switched to competing platforms such as the far more affordable OpenStack. This is one reason why VMware decided to cut prices after the vSphere 5 launch, and recently upped vRam allotment from 30 percent to 100 percent.

Indeed, open-source tech is gaining a lot of influence in IT. Open-source NoSQL DB developer Couchbase just closed a $14 million third round of funding led by Ignition Partners. Existing investors Accel Partners, Mayfield Fund, and North Bridge Venture Partners,  also participated.

Over in the big data scene, Cloudera launched a new enterprise program. The Cloudera Connect Partner Program encompasses, a certification suite for Apache Hadoop, online training that includes seminars among other things, marketing tools (a lead generation program) and the list goes on. Expanding its partner base by providing more incentives is one way for Cloudera to boost its momentum.