Here are six of the world's most promising cloud startups

Who will clinch the top spot?

Six incredible startups ready to enter the final round of the 

OpenCloud Connect today announced six top startups for the Clouded Leopards Den 2015 competition, which recognizes top innovative startups in two categories, early-stage innovators and later-stage, pre-IPO companies.

The three startups that made the cut under the Early Stage Innovator category include TapLink, Truedash Ltd, and Innovate Create Ltd.

Under the Later-Stage Pre-IPO Innovator category, the three finalists are Mirantis, Viptela, and CENX.

The Clouded Leopards Den 2015 prize is sponsored by OpenCloud Connect (OCC), a global industry alliance founded in May 2013 to address the need for scaling and enhancing Ethernet technology to meet the stringent demands of delivering cloud services.

Previously known as the Cloud Ethernet Forum, the OCC is creating an open test and iterative standards development program for service providers, industry vendors and over-the-top cloud service providers and includes a dedicated proof of concept test laboratory based in Silicon Valley, to provide ongoing testing and support for the iterative development of OCC’s CloudE 1.0 open cloud framework.

Jim Lussier of Dell Ventures said, “The finalists for the Clouded Leopards Den 2015 demonstrate creativity, talent, vision and potential for tremendous growth. These early-stage and later-stage startups are to be commended for their hard work and success. As entrepreneurs, they are the future.”