Telefónica, one of the largest Spanish telecommunications companies with a big presence in Latin America, announced this week that it had acquired eyeOS, a cloud computing startup behind a suite of open source web applications. With this acquisition, Telefónica further enters the realm of enterprise internet solutions, as well as open-source software.

Telefónica is positioning itself to provide a wider range of internet services for small and medium-sized businesses, as well as the public sector, just as Latin America is entering the digital age in a big way. The open source software that Barcelona, Spain-based eyeOS offers lets companies use the cloud to give employees access to enterprise applications from laptops and mobile devices -- allowing them to work in one consistent environment, no matter where they happen to be.

Part of the deal will allow Telefónica to offer companies and public sector organizations open source virtual desktops with apps for email, messaging, and productivity, along with the ability to translate companies' own applications to the cloud -- all based "on free software capable of competing against other commercial proposals," as the Spanish telecom put it in its release.

Telefónica has partnered with eyeOS for about four years already, but the acquisition offers both companies a chance to further expand the depth and breadth of their offerings and reach. "The acquisition of eyeOS demonstrates the willingness of a large company like Telefónica to work with start-ups, highlighting its openness to innovation and its ability to seek talent and the best ideas outside of its own structure" said Pau Garcia-Milà, co-founder of eyeOS. "Telefónica will help eyeOS to not only consolidate and expand its technological proposal, but give it international reach through Telefónica's global network."

Telefónica isn't the only company offering cloud-based solutions for businesses, of course, as big U.S.-based companies like Amazon, Google, and Oracle have increasingly competed to bring down cloud costs and attract new clients as well. But, according to Telefónica, until 2012, only 13 percent of companies had moved to a cloud-based virtual desktop environment, due to the overwhelming complexity of market offerings and the high cost of making the move.

Telefónica hopes to get an edge by going open source, which goes along with the Spanish telecommunications company's modus operandi in recent years.

The biggest example of Telefónica's open source commitment is its partnership with the non-profit Mozilla foundation's upstart mobile operating system, Firefox OS. As we previously reported, in mid 2013, Telefónica partnered with the open source Firefox OS to launch two smartphones in South America -- a low-cost way to get a foothold in that emerging market.

And as Facebook's much-publicized acquisition of messaging app WhatsApp was intended to extend that company's reach into similar emerging markets, so too was Telefónica and Firefox OS's exclusive launch of a similar app, Line.

Now with the acquisition of eyeOS, Telefónica enters the competition space of Amazon and Google with its own business-targeted cloud-based virtual desktop for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). "The integration of eyeOS into Telefónica will allow us to harness the technological abilities of a great team and develop a new generation of cloud services based on open technologies," said David del Val, product innovation director at Telefónica and CEO of the company's research and development division. "These services define a scalable and affordable proposal that meets the needs of public administrations and SMEs among others."

Telefónica will begin rolling out eyeOS services in Spain first, followed by other countries it operates in.

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