Ubuntu, ARM and the public cloud

Ubuntu has a long history of interest and investment in supporting ARM-based hardware. Since our 10.04 release, Ubuntu has been fully compatible with the ARMv7 architecture, and in 2014 we were the first commercial Linux-based operating system to announce full support for the newly enabled 64-bit ARMv8 architecture.

Christian Reis, VP Hyperscale at Canonical said: “Our ARM SoC certification program has provided end-users with the ability to evaluate and deploy certified ARM-based platforms in both client and server products, backed by the confidence provided by Ubuntu Advantage. It is not a coincidence that Ubuntu has become the de facto platform for ARM server products, from early reference designs on Marvell, TI and Calxeda SoCs to production systems such as HP Moonshot and Baidu’s Storage Cluster.”

Ubuntu’s leadership in the cloud, combined with its commitment to broad support for ARM Server platforms, makes it a natural choice as leading operating system for a new category of public cloud services that run on ARM servers.

Which brings us to Scaleway. Coming out of French cloud service Online. (a subsidiary of the Iliad group), Scaleway is our first ARM-based partner in the public cloud space.

The Scaleway bare-metal service is powered by ARM-compatible Marvell server SoCs, and is offered at a disruptive price point, which should make for very exciting adoption rates by users looking to rightsize their cloud instances without being affected by noisy neighbors typical of VM-based clouds.

Yann Leger, VP Cloud Computing at Online commented: “Ubuntu was an obvious choice for us as the leading cloud OS, and with Canonical’s rich heritage and long experience in supporting ARM-based hardware. Ubuntu will give us the right technical capability whilst ensuring we’re primed for growth.”

Try it out at www.scaleway.com, the first month is free.