London, Feb.21, 2015: Underscoring the importance of security for “critical infrastructure” by investing in fast, automated, reliable updates for the machines that drive networking and industrial systems, Canonical Ltd, sponsor of the open source Ubuntu project, has announced a series of partnerships for industrial and telecoms IoT,
Canonical said it, along with its partners, was working to deliver certified Ubuntu Core devices that could be automatically updated to address systemic vulnerabilities fast. The company claimed the Ubuntu Core also provided the best-in-class application isolation based on kernel containers, minimising the impact of errors and vulnerabilities in third-party applications.
Both Microsoft and Amazon, said Canonical, had agreed to publish their IoT developer APIs on Ubuntu Core for “Snappy” developers. The “Snappy” Ubuntu Core is said to be a powerful IoT enabler for developers and inventors.
“Certified and supported Ubuntu platforms set the standard for safety and security in connected devices” said Mark Shuttleworth, Founder of Canonical and Ubuntu, in a blog post. “Device manufacturers who choose Ubuntu Core on certified platforms now have a popular platform that meets corporate and government requirements for security updates and management.”
“Smart industrial systems need secure cloud back-ends for data storage and analysis. Microsoft and Canonical are partnering to deliver developer APIs to enable Ubuntu Core for snappy developers. This partnership will simplify cloud-backed device development,” said John Chewchuk, Technical Fellow at Microsoft.
Canonical announced it was also working with telecoms operators to simplify customer premises equipment acquisition, deployment and maintenance, building on the carrier-grade systems and application update mechanisms built into “Snappy” Ubuntu Core. Instead of branded hardware appliances with fragmented management systems, customers can look forward to standard management systems on commodity X86 and ARM hardware for a wide range of software-defined CPE appliances delivered as snappy apps and frameworks.
Next-generation switches were capable of running Ubuntu Core and a collection of network-centric applications. For example, Cavium, one of the world’s leaders in network silicon, will support Ubuntu Core for its switch and router solutions.
Canonical said it would be joining the Industrial Internet Consortium to collaborate with companies focused on smart, connected systems in such environments.
Canonical also announced a program for silicon and board manufacturers to certify their platforms. Under it, all devices based on certified platforms will receive security updates at no cost to the manufacturer, creating a level playing field for device innovators. Manufacturers can also opt for custom device certification for specific devices.
Canonical will certify a range of platforms from participating vendors, across the ARM, POWER and X86 architectures. The Cavium Thunder range of massively multi-core ARM server CPUs, the TI Sitara range of low-cost ARM SoC’s, and the Intel x86 64-bit server platforms are examples of the wide range of platform options now available to appliance designers building on Ubuntu Core.
Image Credit: Canonical
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