At Canonical Analyst Day 2023, I had the opportunity to discuss and learn about the vendor’s approach to smart cities, cloud modernization and the overall innovation approach it’s using to advance open source initiatives. I spent time with the executives discussing the vision but learned a lot about the go-to-market approach as well.
Thibaut Rouffineau, vice president for marketing at Canonical, and I discussed the overall go-to-market strategy and account-based growth and how Canonical has been a key player in the evolving landscape of cloud computing. According to Rouffineau, while the U.S. cloud market has seen a softening, there continues to be growth opportunities in Europe. One of the most noteworthy upcoming moves is the product play against VMware, which could potentially reshape the competitive dynamics in the virtualization space.
MicroCloud
MicroCloud is a new class of infrastructure for on-demand computing at the edge. These types of clouds are small footprint clusters of compute nodes with local storage and secure networking. They are optimized for repeatable, reliable remote deployments. Adoption is accelerating as organizations seek to optimize their cloud infrastructure. Canonical is poised to grow in existing accounts by offering solutions that go beyond the traditional boundaries of Ubuntu, as well as grow Ubuntu Pro.
Containers
In the cloud-native arena, Canonical is advocating for containerization and working with partners, like Microsoft, to slim down containers to make them more efficient and cost-effective. The battle for the future of the OS lies within containers. Canonical’s Ubuntu Pro offering, which addresses software bill of materials concerns, demonstrates its commitment to secure containerization.
The battle for the future of the OS lies within containers.
Canonical’s dedication to open source development is evident in its efforts to build containers from open source packages, thereby promoting transparency and collaboration in the industry. It is raising awareness of the potential and benefits open source technology offers to businesses looking to navigate the cloud landscape.
Cost optimization and integration
The distributed cloud has caused companies’ cloud bills to skyrocket, making cost-effectiveness a paramount concern. Canonical’s strategic approach includes balancing overall costs through innovative solutions, such as Juju orchestration. This technology enables applications to run seamlessly in any cloud environment and offers packaged solutions for vital tools like Apache Kafka and Spark.
Furthermore, Canonical recognizes the convergence of infrastructure and application spaces. Canonical’s Juju and Kubeflow integration reflects this understanding, as it streamlines the deployment and management of applications in a cloud-native ecosystem.
Cloud to on-premises offerings
Canonical is actively focusing on cloud to on-premises solutions, aligning to TechTarget’s Enterprise Strategy Group research that stated app portability is a critical aspect for many organizations. We see Canonical efforts align with our research in the industry’s sentiment, where 20% consider app portability critical and 67% see it as very important. Canonical is taking a forward-thinking approach to ensure it remains a key player in shaping the future of cloud computing, in the U.S., Europe and across the globe.
Enterprise Strategy Group is a division of TechTarget. Its analysts have business relationships with technology vendors.
