Canonical Announces Ubuntu Pro For Amazon Web Services

Canonical announced last 04 December 2019 the availability of Ubuntu Pro images for Amazon Web Services (AWS). Available via AWS Marketplace, covering Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, 16.04 LTS and 18.04 LTS, these new premium images allow enterprises to purchase extended maintenance, broader security coverage, and critical compliance features by simply selecting and running an image on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) — with no contract required.

The new Ubuntu Pro images include all the optimisations in the standard Ubuntu Amazon Machine Images (Amazon AMIs), which Canonical publishes across AWS Regions, plus key security and compliance subscriptions automatically enabled. Customers can purchase Ubuntu Pro directly through AWS for a streamlined procurement process, enabling quicker access to these commercial features offered by Canonical.

Key features of Ubuntu Pro include:

• 10 years of package updates and security maintenance*
• Kernel Livepatch, which allows for continuous security patching and higher uptime and availability by allowing kernel security updates to be applied without a reboot**
• Customised FIPS and Common Criteria EAL-compliant components for use in environments under compliance regimes such as FedRAMP, PCI, HIPAA and ISO
• Patch coverage for Ubuntu’s infrastructure and application repositories, spanning hundreds of open source workloads including Apache Kafka, MongoDB, Node.js, RabbitMQ, Redis and more.
• Integration with AWS security and compliance features, including AWS Security Hub, AWS CloudTrail and more — available from Q1 2020.

“The new Ubuntu Pro images will deliver a further optimised experience to our customers, providing additional security and performance to their Ubuntu instances,” said Deepak Singh, VP of Compute Services at AWS. “Available directly through AWS Marketplace, Ubuntu Pro can be purchased, deployed and launched on AWS in a seamless and effortless manner, removing the need for additional provisioning or procurement processes.”

“Users have been running Ubuntu on AWS since 2006. As Canonical assists enterprises moving their mission-critical workloads to AWS, the feedback we receive is that they demand expanded security coverage, greater operational efficiency and native compatibility with AWS features,” said Christian ‘Kiko’ Reis, Vice President, Public Cloud at Canonical. “It has been exciting to collaborate with AWS to fulfil that demand through Ubuntu Pro for AWS, available now directly in AWS Marketplace.”

Enterprises wishing to also take advantage of Canonical-backed technical support can add a subscription to the Ubuntu Advantage Advanced or Standard support packages through AWS Marketplace, adding an extra layer of confidence and assurance when running Ubuntu on AWS.

“Delivering commercial IoT solutions requires us to track large fleets of devices in a manner that is secure and scalable. The optimisations built into Ubuntu Pro on AWS provide us with the performance requirements needed and a trusted platform to run our operations and fleet,” said Justin Rigling, CTO at Rigado. “Utilising Ubuntu in the cloud and across our edge devices also accelerates our customers’ time to market and decreases development cycles via a consistent platform.”

Canonical is an Advanced Tier Technology Partner in the AWS Partner Network (APN), and has now achieved AWS Internet of Things (IoT) Competency status. The APN Advanced Technology Partner status is the highest for APN Technology Partners and it reflects rigorous qualification through AWS’s technical certification, including validation with a wide range of customer references. Canonical can now deliver projects to AWS customers in an even more streamlined and efficient manner.

The Ubuntu Pro images can be found here in the AWS Marketplace.

* Maintenance commitment for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS onwards is 10 years; for 14.04 LTS and 16.04 LTS, it is 8 years.

**18.04 LTS certifications are in-progress and will be available Q1 2020. Certified components and kernel live patches are not available for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.