Ubuntu 9.04 Arrives, But Where Are the Channel Partners?
Apr. 20th, 2009 by Joe Panettieri
Ubuntu 9.04 — the latest Linux distribution release from Canonical — arrives this week with great fanfare. Server, desktop, notebook and netbook makers are jumping on the Ubuntu 9.04 bandwagon. But where are the channel partners — resellers, VARs and solutions providers? Right now, Canonical doesn’t have many answers.
During an Ubuntu 9.04 phone briefing that ended a few minutes ago, I asked Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth about the company’s channel strategy and progress. Shuttleworth politely said the question would be best directed off-line to Canonical’s channel partner team.
Missed Opportunity
In my mind, that means Canonical is still struggling to develop, articulate and promote its partner program. When Red Hat, Novell, Microsoft and other major system software providers announce landmark product updates, they always include channel partners in their messaging.
Also of note: Major open source and closed source ISVs (independent software vendors) aren’t really making any major announcements around the Ubuntu 9.04 release. Here again, Canonical needs to learn from Microsoft and Red Hat in particular, which tout their ISV relations during every major system software launch.
And just last week, Red Hat and Synnex announced the Open Source Channel Alliance to drive Red Hat Enterprise Linux and open source applications through Synnex resellers — though the jury is still out on that effort.
Back to the story at hand: Ubuntu has considerable market momentum. And it seems to be accelerating with Ubuntu 9.04′s launch. Shuttleworth hinted that more Ubuntu server relationships and another major netbook OEM deal are just around the corner. But the Ubuntu party won’t be compete without solutions providers and ISVs riding the bandwagon, too.
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Yes, I support Ubuntu deployments. You are correct to point out that there aren’t many of us out here. But it seems to me Canonical’s step one partner strategy involves mostly OEMs. Those hardware suppliers have their own VAR and partners networks that can take Ubuntu to market. Don’t underestimate the Ubuntu OEMs.
UbuntuVAR: When you’re ready to brag about some customer wins let us know. We’d like to learn more. And you raise some good points. Canonical has developed OEM relationships that other companies envy.
Surely those OEMs count as channel partners. And over time, those OEMs could help Canonical line up more VARs and integrators.
But I was surprised when Shuttleworth had nothing to really share about how Ubuntu 9.04 could potentially gain traction in the channel.
More than likely they will want to wait for a more stable 9.10 version.
VAR Guy,
Rather than try your RSS I want to add you to my Google Homepage. Do you have a Google Gadget going?
JJ: The VAR Guy is traveling this week but will look into this and get back to you. Either way, he’ll make sure the Google Homepage request gets fulfilled.
FreeBooteR@3: This isn’t a matter of resellers/VARs waiting for 9.10. It’s more a matter of Canonical developing a compelling partner program that rewards solutions providers … though The VAR Guy doesn’t want to speak for Joe (the blog author) on this matter.
@ FreeBooteR
If anyone ISV’s or Resellers were likely to wait for anything it would by the 10.4 which following Ubuntu’s current path should be the next Long Term Support.
Few ISV’s are likely to want to write applications just to have to modify it to run on the next version in 6 months.
Also in terms of easy for reseller 6 month updates is probably harder to train for and support than LTS.
Ubuntu should already be working on their strategy for 10.4 no one but us crazy Linux enthusiasts want anything to do with the six month releases.
Matthews: Great points all around. Let’s hope Canonical has a polished partner program ready to go for the 10.04 Long Term Support launch (April 2010).
You’ll note from shuttleworth’s latest blog entry that 10.4 is not a guaranteed LTS target.
http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/288
“In conversations with Steve McIntyre, the current Debian Project Leader, we’ve identified an interesting opportunity to collaborate. Debian is aiming for an 18 month cycle, which would put their next release around October 2010, which would be the same time as the Ubuntu 10.10 release. Potentially, then, we could defer the Ubuntu LTS till 10.10, coordinating and collaborating with the Debian project for a release with very similar choices of core infrastructure.”
Regardless of the release date of the next LTS…the real question is why wait? Why not start rebuilding a channel solution around the current LTS which still has multiple years of Canonical support ahead of it. At the rate things are going Turnkey linux (which has offerings derived from Ubuntu) is actually going to have a stronger ISV partnership program with its customized application images than Canonical itself before the 10.10 or even the 10.04 release.
It looks to me like Canonical is placing its near term bets on desktop oriented web services as a revenue generator with its still yet to be unveiled “Ubuntu One” project work. I would expect to see the fruit of that effort up and running as a revenue stream before a significant overhaul of the ISV relationship beyond the existing services listed at http://www.canonical.com/services/packaging
-jef