When we launched WorksWithU in 2008, I strongly believed Canonical needed to build strong server hardware partnerships with Dell, IBM and Hewlett-Packard. But as I heard more about Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) in 2009, I realized Ubuntu in 2010 may find a back door into the server market. Here’s why.
First, let me set expectations: I still think it’s important for Canonical to work with hardware markers on Ubuntu Server Edition. Pre-install deals and bundling deals would be great. Fingers crossed, maybe we’ll see some deals around the time of Ubuntu Server Edition 10.04′s scheduled April 2010 launch.
But if server hardware relationships don’t materialize I won’t press the panic button. The reason: I think Canonical’s cloud strategy — built around Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud — represents a back door into the server market.
As you’ll recall: Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud is built upon Eucalyptus. And the Canonical-Eucalyptus relationship seems to be blossoming. Oh, and Hewlett-Packard is now listed as Eucalyptus business partner — potentially connecting the dots between HP and Ubuntu Server Edition.
Please note: I’m stating that UEC is gaining mind share. That’s different from market share. Within Ubuntu circles, developers are talking up UEC. Canonical has launched a cloud training course to get IT administrators up to speed on UEC. And bloggers are sharing quick UEC information to help users get started.
But where are the corporate UEC deployments? It’s still early in the UEC game. I’m hearing from more and more colleges and universities that are testing UEC. In particular, I’m trying to catch up with a few key sources at Auburn University.
As soon as I have more to share I’ll post it here. In the meantime, I wonder: Does the cloud mitigate Canonical’s urgent need to rally server hardware makers around Ubuntu?
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I may not understand the question properly, but how many IT shops are going to buy a cloud-sized piece of iron and then run an OS on it that the HW vendor doesn’t explicitly support?
Deployments do not equal sustainable revenue. Who’s willing to pay Canonical for support services for UEC? Besides the training course…what is Canonical’s UEC specific revenue generating services?
Academic institutions are going to run UEC as a no-cost option… but are they going to pay for service and support contracts to Canonical? Academics are notorious penny-penchers and love to do things on the cheap relying on in-house manpower instead of paying for professional support services. Can Canonical really squeeze any money from that group? You can not easily build a business servicing wide spread academic deployments.
-jef
Alan@1: Eucalyptus is being downloaded about 15,000 times per month. Not a massive number, but big enough to show that plenty of people are testing it…
Jef@2: Agreed, deployments do not equal sustainable revenue. And academia is a cost-conscious vertical market. But K-12 and higher ed have treated folks like Apple, Dell, Microsoft and Sun well for years…
Joe:
Find me any k-12 organization that is deploying Ubuntu and paying for a landscape subscription or annual support services to manage their deployment via budgeted funding instead of being gifted support by Canonical in order to help the deployment happen. If you want to make the bold claim that academic deployments are going to drive revenue…go out and find academics who are paying Canonical.
-jef
@Jef: Here’s one example of a school using Ubuntu:
http://www.cio.com.au/article/333686/nz_school_ditches_microsoft_goes_totally_open_source
The article is light on the details of what was paid, so more research would be required.