VMware's Cloud Hybrid Now Works with Ubuntu Images, OpenStack

For many IT administrators, the worlds of virtualization and cloud computing have converged. Lots of them want to take advantage ofcloud platforms like OpenStack. However, they  don't want to completely do away with infrastructure like VMware they've already invested in.

Now, Canonical and VMware have sought to address this issue with OpenStack-ready Ubuntu images available on VMware’s enterprise-grade vCloud Hybrid Service. VMware has also rebranded its vCloud Hybrid Service to VMware vCloud Air.

According to VMware: "The integration of Ubuntu (which represents 70 percent of workloads running in public clouds today, and is the most popular OpenStack distro) into VMware’s pre-configured OS templates delivers a secure, versatile cloud operating system in quick-to-deploy virtual machines. In addition, it offers seamless integration with NSX, VMware’s SDN solution, allowing customers to fully utilize the operational and economic benefits of a fully virtualized network."

VMware and Canonical made their announcement in conjunction with VMworld, going on this week.

Through its work with Canonical, VMware can potentially get access to many more customers, because Ubuntu remains the most popular platform to run OpenStack on. And, as noted by Forbes:

"From a commercial perspective it’s also positive, as existing Ubuntu Advantage support services customers can take their instances of Ubuntu into cloud environments from either on-premise systems or other cloud environments without having to purchase additional or new agreements."