Canonical Announces Ubuntu Pro, Premium Images for Amazon Web Services

Canonical today announced Ubuntu Pro, a set of premium images for Amazon Web Services (AWS) that are available right now in the AWS Marketplace for enterprise customers.

Ubuntu Pro, as Canonical likes to call these new premium images for AWS, covers the Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS releases and allows enterprises to purchase longer updates and security maintenance, critical compliance features, as well as broader security coverage with no contract required. The Ubuntu Pro images are supported on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2).

“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.”

Ubuntu Pro highlights

Highlights of Ubuntu Pro include 10 years of package updates and security maintenance for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and 8 years for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Kernel Livepatch support for rebootless kernel patching and higher uptime, as well as customised FIPS and Common Criteria EAL-compliant components that allows its use under environments with compliance regimes like ISO, HIPAA, FedRAMP, and PCI.

Furthermore, Ubuntu Pro offers customers patch coverage for Ubuntu’s application repositories and infrastructure, which provides hundreds of open source workloads like Node.js, Apache Kafka, Redis, MongoDB, RabbitMQ, among many others. Also, coming in Q1 2020, Ubuntu Pro promises fleet-wide systems management via Landscape, including the ability to view and selectively apply updates.

On top of that, Ubuntu Pro promises integration with AWS security and compliance features, such as AWS Security Hub and AWS CloudTrail. The Ubuntu Pro premium images are available for purchase right now from the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace here. Canonical also noted that fact that it is now an Advanced Tier Technology Partner in the AWS Partner Network (APN) and will soon provide Ubuntu 18.04 LTS certifications, beginning Q1 2020.