Canonical announces Ubuntu Pro for Amazon Web Services

Canonical today announced 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.
• Fleet-wide systems management with Landscape, including the ability to visualise, screen and selectively apply updates
• 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 fulfill 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 AdvantageAdvanced 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."