Ubuntu will power HP's new cloud service
Ubuntu Linux will be the primary operating system powering HP's upcoming cloud service, Ubuntu maker Canonical said last week. HP recently opened a private beta program for an infrastructure-as-a-service cloud that will offer both compute and storage capacity …
Context & Ripple Effects
HP is entering the infrastructure-as-a-service market with a private beta offering compute and storage capacity, and Canonical says Ubuntu will be its primary operating system. For Canonical, this extends the pattern of Dell's 2007 decision to back Linux on commercial hardware: an OEM-scale endorsement that moves Ubuntu beyond the desktop and into datacenter infrastructure.
First-order effects
- Canonical gains a flagship enterprise deployment for Ubuntu at exactly the moment HP needs credible new businesses, given the rumored sale or spinoff of its webOS unit and criticism of its Palm stewardship.
- Private-beta customers get compute and storage provisioned on Ubuntu, making the distribution the default environment for workloads on HP's cloud from day one.
Second-order effects
- Competing distributions now have a concrete incentive to chase equivalent OEM cloud deals, since default-OS status on a major vendor's infrastructure concentrates workload share more durably than per-server licensing ever did.
- For HP, the bet pairs with its confirmed Memristor storage project with Hynix — both attempts to anchor future revenue in datacenter technology after the tablet effort was cited among the year's worst iPad challengers.
Third-order effects
- If hardware vendors keep standardizing on one or two community distributions for cloud infrastructure, the operating system layer consolidates around whoever wins default status, shifting value from OS licenses to the management and services wrapped around them.
The trend: Linux distributions are evolving from desktop and hardware-support plays into the default operating layer for cloud infrastructure, with OEM endorsements like HP's deciding which distro owns that position.