Company says it’s full prepared to deal with virus impact

Mar 22, 2020 06:32 GMT  ·  By

Canonical says Ubuntu and broader open source support services are completely unaffected by the coronavirus outbreak, as everything is running normally thanks to a series of measures.

First and foremost, Canonical says it’s now working 100 percent remotely “and can sustain that posture indefinitely.” Not only that some employees were already working remotely, but additional staff is now requested to stay home amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

“With remote colleagues by default, and a policy of flexible office work, Canonical was well placed for the adjustments needed globally to slow the spread of COVID-19. We have given our teams space and time to ensure those vulnerable close to them are shielded as possible, and to enable them to make any needed childcare arrangements,” Canonical says.

“We have moved the teams who previously did work in offices – finance, design, inside sales and device enablement – to remote work, and assigned mentors to those groups for the transition.”

Engineers working from home in over 40 countries

Additionally, Canonical says it’s also preparing for the possibility of some of its employees to contract the new coronavirus, in which case it wants everything to continue to operate normally.

“We have planned for up to 15% of our colleagues to be unable to work at any given time, either personally ill or taking care of someone in the immediate family who is ill. All service delivery teams have the needed capacity and have adjusted schedules accordingly,” Canonical explains.

Mark Shuttleworth, CEO, Canonical, says the security update coverage should also be unaffected by the new coronavirus outbreak.

As far as the technical support is concerned, engineers working from home are distributed globally, with staff currently based in over 40 countries. Furthermore, if a specific region is affected by COVID-19, backups are already prepared, with other staff from different regions ready to step in.