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Oracle Linux is coming to Ubuntu's OpenStack cloud

An unlikely partnership will soon bring Oracle's Red Hat-based Linux distribution to Ubuntu's cloud.
Written by Steven Vaughan-Nichols, Senior Contributing Editor
Oracle Cloud

Oracle continues to have trouble gaining traction on the cloud, and the database giant has never had much success in winning customers for its Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) clone, Oracle Linux. So perhaps it shouldn't have surprised me that Oracle is turning to Canonical, Ubuntu Linux's parent company, to bring its Linux to Ubuntu's OpenStack-based cloud.

After all, Canonical, despite being best known for desktop Ubuntu, has quietly become an OpenStack cloud power. For example, Ubuntu is the most popular Linux running on OpenStack. Canonical also recently helped Microsoft to bring Windows Server to Ubuntu OpenStack cloud.

On the Oracle side, two years ago Oracle had dismissed working with anyone on their proprietary cloud. That didn't work out well.

In May 2014, Oracle finally committed to OpenStack. With so many other major vendors — such as Dell, HP, VMware, and Red Hat — way ahead of Oracle, Larry Ellison needs all the OpenStack help he can get.

Officially, all Oracle has to say in dry-as-dust tones, "The Oracle Linux team is collaborating with Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, to allow customers who wish to run Oracle Linux as a guest inside an Ubuntu OpenStack environment and to do so in a supported way."

Canonical's VP of cloud alliances and a member of the OpenStack's board of directors, John Zannos, was more forthcoming. "Canonical will support Ubuntu as a guest OS on Oracle Linux OpenStack, and Oracle will support Oracle Linux as a guest OS on Ubuntu OpenStack. Canonical will test Oracle Linux as a guest OS in its OpenStack Interoperability Lab (OIL) program. This gives customers the assurance the configuration is tested and supported by both organizations."

No date was given for the release. Sources indicate, however, that the Oracle Linux on the Ubuntu cloud will be announced in early November at OpenStack's Paris Summit.

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