Pivotal’s head of platform ecosystem Joshua McKenty
Boston – Canonical and Cloud Foundry developer Pivotal have agreed a partnership in which Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux will become the preferred operating system for running Cloud Foundry, with secure certified Ubuntu images included. Cloud Foundry is one of the most popular platform-as-a-service suites for developing and deploying cloud-native applications, and versions of it are integrated in a number of platforms such as IBM’s Bluemix developer cloud and HPE’s Helion Stackato.
The new collaboration pairs Cloud Foundry with Ubuntu Linux, which is the most widely deployed Linux distribution for running servers, especially in the cloud. «Ubuntu on Pivotal Cloud Foundry brings together the leading Linux OS and cloud-native platform for enterprise scale-out cloud deployments,» said Dustin Kirkland, Canonical’s head of Ubuntu product and strategy. Kirkland added that users will also get the full benefit of Canonical’s professional service and support facilities when they choose Ubuntu images on Pivotal Cloud Foundry.
Distribution of Ubuntu for US federal agencies
Ubuntu tied its release cycle to that of the OpenStack cloud framework a few years ago to synchronise a new release of Ubuntu Linux with the latest OpenStack enhancements every six months. Pivotal cited this as one of the reasons for standardising on Ubuntu as its preferred platform for running Cloud Foundry. «Widespread enterprise adoption in cloud and physical machines, predictable release quality every six months, an unequalled package portfolio, an excellent security track record, and outstanding leadership around Linux containers makes Ubuntu Pivotal’s preferred operating system for Pivotal Cloud Foundry customers,» said Pivotal’s head of platform ecosystem Joshua McKenty.
Tight collaboration between Pivotal and Canonical is also expected to bring further benefits for customers of the two products. For example, the pair are further hardening the Pivotal Cloud Foundry distribution of Ubuntu for US federal agencies and customers in tightly regulated industries. In particular, Pivotal and Canonical are working towards meeting the Defence Information Systems Agency Security Technical Implementation Guides and the Centre for Internet Security guidelines on security hardening. Pivotal and Canonical are also developing an industry standard set of security certifications for the best practice when using Ubuntu in cloud-native platform deployments. (Canonical/mc/hfu)
