14 DAY TRIAL // Canonical, the company behind the popular and free Ubuntu operating system, introduced today a new service, called Ubuntu Advantage. Designed for businesses, Ubuntu Advantage brings together all the useful services and tools, such as: Landscape (systems management and monitoring), legal assurance, enterprise technical support and direct access to knowledge base.
"Rather than having to decide which tools or services are useful, we decided to make things simple by bringing together all the necessary tools and services into a single offering, Ubuntu Advantage. [...] At Canonical, we believe these are the key service areas that help enterprises make successful use of Ubuntu in their business. As new technology features and capabilities are incorporated into the Ubuntu platform, the Ubuntu Advantage service offering will also grow to support those new platform capabilities." - Fern Ho, Ubuntu Advantage product manager, said in the official announcement.
The enterprise-level technical support provided by Canonical's Ubuntu Advantage service is available for desktops and servers, and promises a rapid issue resolution for different machines with different workloads. For desktops, it offers two options:
- Standard Desktop, which covers general end users employing stock business programs such as e-mail, office tools or web browsing;
- Advanced Desktop, which covers developers with complex desktop configurations, like desktop visualization or advanced developer applications.
For servers, Ubuntu Advantage provides three options:
- Essential Server, which covers common workloads, like print and file serving;
- Standard Server, which covers advanced business requirements, such as server visualization or Windows networks integration;
- Advanced Server, which covers complex configurations, like clustering and high-availability.
"It’s also crucial that staff using Ubuntu feel comfortable with it, because the more confident they feel the more they can take advantage of Ubuntu’s many features and the fewer problems they will come across. So we also included training credits in Ubuntu Advantage. These can be redeemed to train end users on how to make the most of Ubuntu Desktop for their daily job, or they can be redeemed for system administrator training to help them more easily deploy and manage Ubuntu systems."
Ubuntu Advantage offers an easy and simple way for businesses to purchase the right services and tools, in order to support, manage and use their Ubuntu systems at maximum, more efficiently and effectively. With Ubuntu Advantage from Canonical, your business can save a lot of precious time and money, which can be invested in more important things.
For more details about Ubuntu Advantage, please visit its official home page.