The manufacturing industry is facing the impact of a dynamic market and intensive competition. Many companies are looking for a new approach to improve their business activities in a collaborat ive business ecosystem with other stakeholders. Cloud computing enables the sharing of manufacturing resources and capabilities between different stakeholders to support business and physical production. The purpose of this resea rch is to explore approaches moving towards a cloud manufacturing ecosystem and present possible implications for practice. To fulfil the research objectives, a multiple-case study was conducted within sheet metal manufacturing companies. Business and technology related requirements for cloud-based collaborative manufacturing porta ls were collected through interviews with industrial practitioners from the sheet metal manufacturing perspective. Based on analysis a prototype model of a CloudEcosystem was presented to demonstrate the essential features of the portals. This research found that there are three different porta l types for cloud manufacturing ecosystems depending on the value chain configuration. Close to real-time information provided by cloud-based platforms can create manufacturing ecosystems where machine owners, product designers and customers may collaborate and compete simultaneously. The CloudEcosystem designed in this research can provide a practical tool and technical solution to help manufacturers think about moving towards cloud manufacturing ecosystem s.Ecosystems, web porta l, cloud platform, business collaboration, cloud manufacturing.