AT&T; Picks Ubuntu OS to be Open-based for Business
By How significant has the embrace of open source solutions become in propelling the use of non-proprietary software-defined network (SDN) and closely related network function virtualization (NFV) as the preferred foundation for enterprise and carrier networks going forward? In short, it has become very significant. AT&T has just proved that with its enlistment of Canonical for its network transformation. Canonical will provide the Ubuntu OS and engineering support for AT&T’s cloud, network and enterprise applications.
AT&T explained that its decision to go with the Uunto OS from Canonical was based on its demonstrated innovation, and performance as the leading platform for scale-out workloads and cloud.
“By tapping into the latest technologies and open principles, AT&T’s network of the future will deliver what our customers want, when they want it,” said Toby Ford, Assistant Vice President of Cloud Technology, Strategy and Planning at AT&T. “We’re reinventing how we scale by becoming simpler and modular, similar to how applications have evolved in cloud data centers. Open source and OpenStack innovations represent a unique opportunity to meet these requirements and Canonical’s cloud and open source expertise make them a good choice for AT&T.”
John Zannos, Vice President Cloud Alliances and Business Development at Canonical said: “This is important for Canonical. AT&T’s scalable and open future network utilizes the best of Canonical innovation. AT&T selecting us to support its effort in cloud, enterprise applications and the network provides the opportunity to innovate with AT&T around the next generation of the software-centric network and cloud solutions. Ubuntu is the Operating System of the Cloud and this relationship allows us to bring our engineering expertise around Ubuntu, cloud and open source to AT&T.”
For those who might not be familiar with the Ubuntu OS, it is designed for cloud, scale-out and ARM-based hyperscale computing. It features fast and secure hypervisors, and the latest container technology with LXC and Docker.
It should also be noted that in terms of being open for business and certainly no small part of the AT&T selection, Ubuntu is the world’s most popular OS for OpenStack with over 80 percent of the large-scale OpenStack deployments currently on Ubuntu. And Canonical is partnered with Juniper Networks on accelerating development of an NFV cloud platform based on OpenStack and the Juniper (formerly Contrail) SDN controller.
Edited by Kyle Piscioniere