Introducing Ubuntu Pro for Google Cloud

June 14th, 2021: Canonical and Google Cloud today announce Ubuntu Pro on Google Cloud, a new Ubuntu offering available to all Google Cloud users. Ubuntu Pro on Google Cloud allows instant access to security patching covering thousands of open source applications for up to 10 years and critical compliance features essential to running workloads in regulated environments.

Google Cloud has long partnered with Canonical to offer innovative developer solutions, from desktop to Kubernetes and AI/ML. In the vein of this collaboration, Google Cloud and Canonical have created a more secure, hardened, and cost-effective devops environment: Ubuntu Pro on Google Cloud for all enterprises to accelerate their cloud adoption.

“Enterprise customers are increasingly adopting Google Cloud to run their core business-critical and customer-facing applications,” said June Yang, VP and GM, Compute, Google Cloud. “The availability of Ubuntu Pro on Google Cloud will offer our enterprise customers the additional security and compliance services needed for their mission-critical workloads.”

Ubuntu Pro on Google Cloud is a premium version of Ubuntu focusing on enterprise and production use. It provides developers/administrators with a secured devops environment, addressing Security, one of the fundamental pillars for all IT systems. It is based on standard Ubuntu components, but comes with a set of additional services activated out of the box, including:

• Patching of high and critical CVEs for Ubuntu’s universe repository, which covers over 30,000 packages, including Node.js, MongoDB, Redis and Apache Kafka, to name a few.
• A 10 year maintenance commitment (For 18.04 LTS onwards. The maintenance period for Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS is 8 years.)
• Live kernel patching, which offers VM instances increased security and higher uptimes.
• Officially certified components to enable operating environments under compliance regimes such as FedRAMP, HIPAA, PCI, GDPR, and ISO.
• Features to be available in H2 2021: Certified FIPS 140-2 components; security dashboard for Security Command Center, Managed Apps and more.
• All the standard optimizations and security updates included in Ubuntu.

Ubuntu Pro for Google Cloud at Work

Gojek has evolved from a ride-hailing company to a technology company offering a suite of more than 20 services across payment, e-commerce, and transportation. Through their applications, they’re now serving millions of users across Southeast Asia.

“We needed more time to comprehensively test and migrate our Ubuntu 16.04 LTS workloads to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, which would mean stretching beyond the standard maintenance timelines for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. With Ubuntu Pro on Google Cloud, we now can postpone this, and in moving our 16.04 workloads to Ubuntu Pro, we benefit from its live kernel patching and improved security coverage for our key open source components,” said Kartik Gupta, Engineering Manager for CI/CD & FinOps at Gojek

To help customers get better visibility of cost and money savings, Ubuntu Pro for Google Cloud embeds a transparent and innovative approach to pricing. For instance, Ubuntu Pro will be 3-4.5% of your average computing cost, meaning the more computing resources you consume, the smaller percentage you pay for Ubuntu Pro. Customers can purchase Ubuntu Pro directly through GCP Console or Google Cloud Marketplace for a streamlined procurement process, enabling quicker access to these commercial features offered by Canonical.

“Since 2014, Canonical has been providing Ubuntu for Google Cloud customers. We continuously expand security coverage, great operational efficiency, and native compatibility with Google Cloud features,” said Alex Gallagher, VP of Cloud GTM at Canonical. “I’m excited to witness the collaboration between Canonical and Google Cloud to make Ubuntu Pro available. Ubuntu Pro on Google Cloud sets a new standard for security of operating systems and facilitates your migration to Google Cloud.”

Getting started

Getting started with Ubuntu Pro on Google Cloud is simple. You can now purchase these premium images directly from Google Cloud by selecting Ubuntu Pro as the operating system straight from the Google Cloud Console.

To learn more about Ubuntu Pro on Google Cloud, please visit the documentation page and read the announcement from Google.