Ubuntu Server 12.10: all you need for cloud

Ubuntu 12.10 Server gives cloud developers and enterprises easy access to the latest open cloud technology, including OpenStack Folsom

Canonical today announces that Ubuntu Server 12.10 will be available for download on the 18^th October 2012. Ubuntu Server 12.10 includes the Folsom release of OpenStack, alongside deployment and management tools that save devops teams time when deploying distributed applications – whether on private clouds, public clouds, x86 or ARM servers, or developer laptops.

“Enterprises shifting to cloud-based infrastructure and those testing and developing on clouds need the latest, cutting-edge technologies to deliver performance at little effort and cost” comments Jane Silber, CEO at Canonical. “Ubuntu Server 12.10 combines the latest time-saving tools from Ubuntu with the newest release of OpenStack, making it the fastest and easiest way to take advantage of the latest open cloud technology. Ubuntu Server is the reference operating system for OpenStack, which means no other operating system will work with Folsom as naturally.”

Ubuntu Server 12.10 is the fifth Ubuntu release to feature OpenStack, in the form of Ubuntu Cloud Infrastructure. It gives cloud builders access to the latest technologies from both Ubuntu and OpenStack, including two major new components: Cinder, for block storage and Quantum, a virtual networking API. Together, Ubuntu 12.10 and the latest version of OpenStack give developers the flexibility to deploy cloud services faster and more cost-effectively.

Ubuntu Server 12.10 is also the first OS to support Intel's new Open Attestation (OAT) in an OpenStack environment. The software uses a crypto key to to authenticate cloud images, so developers can be sure that no virtual machine they plan to launch poses a security risk. This brings an additional layer of security to cloud deployments – especially important for healthcare, pharma, finance and telecommunications carriers, who are bound by strict compliance and data regulations.

Juju, Ubuntu's service orchestration tool, is now natively supported on OpenStack clouds running on Ubuntu. This means it can also be used on public clouds powered by Ubuntu, such as HP. IT departments can now use Juju on many more public clouds – in turn, making it easier to migrate their deployments from one cloud to another without disruption. This gives them the agility and financial leverage they need to get the best possible return on their IT investment.

Enterprises that have built infrastructure on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS can now remain on that long-term support release, but deploy compatible versions of the latest OpenStack releases, directly from Canonical's Ubuntu Cloud Archive. The archive is a growing repository of backported versions of OpenStack, that gives enterprise Ubuntu users access the latest open cloud software on a fully supported and certified platform.

Sysadmins and devops teams starting to build prototypes and test on ARM-based servers need a high-performance platform that can support demanding workloads. Ubuntu's Metal-as-a-Service (MAAS) bare-metal provisioning tool has been updated for Ubuntu Server 12.10, now supporting Calxeda hyperscale hardware based on ARM. This means users can quickly deploy services directly to bare-metal clusters, whether they're built on legacy hardware, new Ivy Bridge-based machines or the new ARM-based hardware.

Ubuntu 12.10 provides a first look at the new graphical interface for Juju. Designed to save devops teams even more time, it offers a visual representation of the relationships between services, as they are added and deployed.

The Ubuntu Advantage support package is available to support Ubuntu 12.10 deployments and includes the latest version of Landscape, launched in September. Landscape is a scriptable systems management tool that can handle tens of thousands of Ubuntu machines and cloud instances, making administration and compliance less costly and time-consuming.

Availability

Ubuntu 12.10 is available globally for public download from October 18^th 2012 BST. To download Ubuntu 12.10, visit: www.ubuntu.com/download