Solving cloud challenges with Canonical and Microsoft Azure through Linux and open-source solutions

In this guest blog post, Jehudi Castro-Sierra, Director of Public Cloud Partnerships at Canonical, examines the technical and strategic benefits of deploying Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS and how Canonical and Microsoft Azure are working together to provide enterprises and developers with a scalable and flexible infrastructure. Explain. Drive increased automation and security, cost optimization, and sustainable IT practices.

IT departments are constantly looking for ways to improve efficiency, scalability, security, and innovation. As organizations plan their strategies leveraging technologies such as secure Linux, open source software (OSS), AI, and ML. It has become essential. To support these goals, the collaboration between Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu) and Microsoft Azure offers powerful synergies. This partnership focuses on optimizing security, performance, and automation within Azure environments through powerful Linux and OSS solutions. This collaboration enables IT departments to drive increased automation and efficiency, scalable and flexible infrastructure, improved security and compliance, innovation, cost optimization, data-driven decision-making, developer productivity, and sustainable IT practices.

Challenges of modern cloud infrastructure

Enterprises face many challenges in their cloud infrastructure, whether migrating existing workloads or starting new projects. These challenges include:

• Security Vulnerabilities and Compliance: Protect sensitive data from constantly evolving cyber threats while complying with strict regulations.
• System stability and performance: Ensure that your cloud infrastructure is reliable and performant enough to support mission-critical applications.
• operational efficiency: Manage and update cloud instances without incurring downtime that can cause significant operational and financial disruption.

Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS: Optimized for Azure

Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS It is designed to address these challenges by providing improved security, reliability, and performance. Here’s how to address the key needs of modern businesses:

Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS has been fine-tuned to improve compatibility and performance on Azure. This allows Ubuntu images to support the latest cloud features, increasing system efficiency and stability. Optimized for Azure, Ubuntu is the trusted enterprise choice for mission-critical workloads on Azure. Confidential Computing Virtual Machine.

Integration with Azure tools such as: Azure guest patching and Azure Update Manager Enhances overall security and stability by facilitating streamlined, continuous system updates.

Enhanced Security and Stability

Security is a top priority for businesses, and Ubuntu Pro excels in this area. Features like Kernel Livepatch allow organizations to significantly reduce downtime by applying kernel patches without rebooting. Extended Security Maintenance provides 10 years of security updates, extending coverage to more than 25,000 packages, including critical applications such as Apache Kafka, NGINX, and PostgreSQL. This comprehensive security maintenance helps businesses meet their internal security, governance, and compliance requirements.

Ubuntu Pro also provides certified automation tools for hardening and compliance profiles, including CIS, DISA-STIG, FIPS 140, and Common Criteria. These tools reduce operational risk by ensuring your systems adhere to stringent security and compliance standards.

Developer-friendly environment

Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS supports a variety of libraries and tools to improve developer productivity and innovation. In particular, .NET 8 will be accessible directly through the official Ubuntu feed from launch date. This collaboration between Canonical and Microsoft facilitates seamless integration of the latest .NET enhancements, optimizing both development and deployment workflows. This release also includes container images optimized for .NET 8, a TCK-certified Java version, and the latest Rust toolchain, providing a robust experience for developers.

confidential computing

Ubuntu continues to lead the confidential computing space with support for confidential VMs, including confidential AI features. Leveraging advanced hardware security extensions on both CPU and GPU, Ubuntu Pro helps protect your data at runtime from system vulnerabilities and unauthorized access. This is especially suitable for AI training and data inference involving sensitive information.

Provides a stable and powerful marketplace

Canonical’s Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS is available at: Azure Marketplaceprovides a powerful, secure, high-performance platform that addresses the critical challenges facing modern businesses. By leveraging the optimized features of Ubuntu Pro, businesses can strengthen their cloud infrastructure and ensure reliability, security, and scalability. That makes Ubuntu Pro on Azure an indispensable tool for companies looking to drive digital transformation and remain competitive in an increasingly complex business environment.

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