Ubuntu Linux Journal on Ulitzer

Canonical's Ubuntu 9.10 Server Edition, code named Karmic Koala, became generally available for free download Thursday.

That's the stuff that introduces Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC), a k a Eucalyptus Software's open source software, as a fully supported technology.

The widgetry is based on the same APIs as Amazon EC2 and, as previously reported, lets businesses build private clouds.

Eucalyptus uses an organization's own IT infrastructure - machines, networks, and storage systems - without modification, special-purpose hardware or reconfiguration as the basis of a cloud.

Eucalyptus is the only cloud architecture to support the same application programming interfaces (APIs) as public clouds. Users can move applications from on-premise Eucalyptus clouds to public clouds, and vice versa.

Ubuntu 9.10 Server Edition is also available on EC2 as an Amazon Machine Image (AMI). Canonical figures having the same images available on UEC and Amazon's public cloud means that work can be deployed in either environment and improve portability and flexibility for users.

Canonical says the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud is preparing a store capability to provide users with easy access to ready-to-deploy appliances in the UEC environment. A first preview is available in Ubuntu 9.10, together with a sample appliance. Additional appliances will be added down the road.

Canonical figures that businesses that are embracing virtualized environments will take the next logical step and go to the cloud.

The server also includes MySQL 5.1 and its directory stack and Single Sign On tools have been upgraded. Django now ships as a fully supported framework enhancing web server options. Support for Xen (as a guest) and KVM (as both a host and a guest) have been improved along with caching performance. There's also support for the USB 3.0 protocol and WBEM (web-based enterprise management) protocols while Ubuntu's own systems management tool, Landscape, has added a dedicated server to its hosted version so deployments can be managed entirely within the firewall.

Eucalyptus runs on a range of Linux distributions and there's a commercially supported Enterprise Edition that can take advantage of vSphere, ESX and ESXi virtualization as well as other hypervisors such as Xen and KVM.