Canonical Announces Ubuntu OpenStack Distribution

Canonical has announced Ubuntu OpenStack, a separate branch of Ubuntu that, according to the software developer, focuses specifically on setting up a working OpenStack environment. The tools provided should make provisioning such private clouds easier.

Ubuntu OpenStack is based on Juno, the release that was officially released earlier this month. The beta version of the new Ubuntu variant promises to make the installation of OpenStack as easy as possible by arranging it via a gui within the browser. With the test version, a system administrator can set up a complete OpenStack cloud environment with up to ten physical servers and ten virtual servers.

The Ubuntu OpenStack distribution uses a number of Canonical-developed tools. For example, the Maas utility, which stands for Metal-as-a-service, is used to detect and set up the hardware, while the Landscape tool can be used to manage various servers from the browser. According to Canonical, Ubuntu OpenStack supports plenty of reliable networking, storage, and compute hardware, which has already been tested in its OpenStack Interoperability Lab. This test program should help system administrators select the correct hardware.

Canonical, already a key player in the development of OpenStack, believes its optimized OpenStack distribution can gain ground in the enterprise market, especially for companies looking to build private clouds. In the future, with the release of Ubuntu OpenStack 1.0, Canonical plans to charge money for things like support and updates to its management tools.