Cloud Computing and Ubuntu: 12,000 of Deployments

The cloud isn’t just a buzzword for Canonical. For the Ubuntu Linux vendor, the cloud is a technology that its users are actually deploying, and it’s got the numbers to prove it.

The Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) has been available since the Jaunty Jackalope release in April 2009. UEC is now poised to be included for the first time in next week’s Long Term Support (LTS) release with Lucid, which could further improve Ubuntu’s cloud position.

“We’re now tracking 12,000 active deployments of UEC and we’re adding 200 every single day,” Canonical COO Matt Asay told InternetNews.com. “These are active installations. These aren’t people who downloaded it once and kicked the tires for a few days then dropped it.”

Canonical isn’t working directly with each of those UEC deployments, though it is working with some. Canonical launched commercial support services for UEC in July 2009.

Asay said that UEC users have been waiting for the LTS release, which will provide a longer support period than a standard Ubuntu release. Ubuntu LTS releases come out every two years and provide five years of support on Ubuntu Server. In contrast, regular Ubuntu releases come out every six months and provide 18 months of support.

“I think we’re at the inflection point where a lot of the interest in Ubuntu is about to become paid interest where people are rolling this out into production,” Asay said.

Read the rest at ServerWatch.