Amazon.com: The Key to Ubuntu Server Edition's Success?
As you may have heard, Ubuntu is leaping from desktop computers all the way to Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). Although Ubuntu Server Edition 8.10 on Amazon EC2 remains in beta, the Amazon relationship could energize Canonical’s server strategy, WorksWithU believes. Here’s why.
First, the undeniable truth: Canonical’s Ubuntu Server Edition strategy is going to take years — rather than months — to gain momentum. Other than Sun Microsystems and niche players like System76 and ZaReason, traditional server makers have been slow to endorse or ship Ubuntu on their server systems. At the same time, server application developers have been slow to port their applications to Ubuntu.
It’s hard to criticize Canonical for the lack of big-name server wins. I believe the situation will gradually change as a few open source application providers (Alfresco and Openbravo, for instance) polish their applications on Ubuntu.
Enter Amazon
Amazon’s EC2 changes the rules of the server game, however, by shifting the competitive ground from customer data centers into Amazon’s cloud. There, software developers and forward-thinking application providers can begin testing — and deploying — various cloud services.
If everything goes as planned, it sounds like Ubuntu Server Edition for Amazon EC2 will leap from beta to production in January or February 2009. At that point, Canonical will be on equal footing with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, OpenSolaris, Windows Server 2003, Oracle Enterprise Linux and a range of databases that already live in Amazon’s cloud. (You can find a list of current Amazon EC2 software offerings here.)
Assuming Ubuntu Server Edition works as advertised in the Amazon.com cloud, it could trigger a new generation of Ubuntu-based applications — and also create pull for Ubuntu Server Edition in corporate data centers.
The Long Haul
Still, Ubuntu Server Edition’s march toward success is going to be a long one. There’s no doubting the continued momentum of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and growing momentum of Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise. Keeping pace won’t be easy for Canonical.
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You may not realize this, but I believe IBM is going to endorse Ubuntu Server for Lotus Domino and I believe Dell is going to start selling Ubuntu loaded servers.
Don: Thanks for your thoughts. The IBM-Lotus-Ubuntu buzz started at the 2008 Lotusphere event. You can find details in this story on our sister site, http://www.TheVARguy.com. IBM has since announced a virtualized Ubuntu desktop push. But so far, IBM’s server hardware team has not made a big commitment to Ubuntu Server Edition. I know Canonical is working to change that; we’ll see if 2009 brings progress.
On the Dell front, I speak with Dell regularly about their Ubuntu strategy. As of Fall 2008, they still had no plans for Ubuntu Server Edition (according to my sources, at least). Will that change in 2009? Again, I know Canonical is working to get Dell behind Ubuntu Server Edition, so we’ll keep our eyes on the situation.
If/when you hear more about IBM and Dell and Ubuntu Server Edition, please let us know. We appreciate your thoughts.