Subscribe
  • Home
  • /
  • Software
  • /
  • Obsidian joins Ubuntu Advantage Reseller programme

Obsidian joins Ubuntu Advantage Reseller programme


Johannesburg, 01 Feb 2012

Leading open source software and services provider, Obsidian, is pleased to announce that it has strengthened its relationship with Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu operating system, by joining its Ubuntu Advantage Reseller partner network.

Ubuntu Advantage is a package of services and tools that help customers deploy and manage Ubuntu on servers, desktops and in the cloud. Delivered by Obsidian, supported by Canonical, it includes support services from Ubuntu experts as well as Web-based software for the ongoing management and monitoring of physical and virtual systems.

“We are very excited about this latest development in our relationship with Canonical, particularly as it opens the way for us to offer our customers the benefits of Ubuntu at enterprise level,” says Muggie van Staden, MD of Obsidian.

“In addition to the level of expertise and support that is now available to us directly from Canonical, we were encouraged by Ubuntu's certification of enterprise-grade hardware and applications for use within its framework.

“This truly ups the ante in enterprise systems, and should go a long way to convincing IT managers who may have been reluctant to move beyond deploying Ubuntu only on desktop systems.”

Obsidian expects to see growing demand in the coming years for computing infrastructure, software and platform as a service, which opens the way for open source systems to be even more widely deployed on desktop and end-user devices. Considering Ubuntu's strong market share in this environment, the company expects a major uptake by companies deploying Linux on front-end computing.

Chris Kenyon, VP Business Development at Canonical, says the company has seen rapid growth in global demand for Ubuntu in enterprise environments. “We are very pleased to extend our longstanding relationship with Obsidian and look forward to working with them to make strong headway in the South African enterprise market.”

Van Staden says Obsidian has full confidence in Ubuntu as a mature operating system that has been developed, to the point that it is a truly enterprise-ready, open source solution. The company will continue to offer open source solutions from other vendors, but believes Ubuntu is uniquely positioned to take advantage of Linux on all devices.

Share

Obsidian

Obsidian, provider of enterprise open source in southern Africa, offers open source and related technology services, including training, consulting, products and solutions. Since starting in 1995, Obsidian has grown to become the premier OSS solutions provider. Visit www.obsidian.co.za.

Canonical

Canonical provides engineering, online and professional services to Ubuntu partners and customers worldwide. As the company behind the Ubuntu project, Canonical is committed to the production and support of Ubuntu - an ever-popular and fast-growing open source operating system. It aims to ensure that Ubuntu is available to every organisation and individual on servers, desktops, laptops and netbooks.

Canonical partners with computer hardware manufacturers to certify Ubuntu, provides migration, deployment, support and training services to businesses, and offers online services direct to end-users. Canonical also builds and maintains collaborative, open source development tools to ensure that organisations and individuals can participate fully in innovations within the open source community. For more information, please visit the Canonical Web site.

Editorial contacts

Ian Rodney
Cerebra Communications
(+27) 11 465 5709
ian@cerebra.co.za