Canonical has officially released its subscription-based and security-minded version of Ubuntu, Ubuntu Pro. This offering was first launched as a beta last October.
What distinguishes Ubuntu Pro from the freely available version of Ubuntu is that it offers timely patches, hardening and compliance standards, and includes security support for 23,000 more packages than the main operating system.
According to the product website, Ubuntu Pro has the ability to help companies reduce their average CVE exposure time to one day from 98 days.
Ubuntu Pro’s patching will cover critical, high, and selected medium CVEs. These will span across thousands of applications and technologies, including populars ones like Ansible, Apache Tomcat, Apache Zookeeper, Docker, Nagios, Node.js, phpMyAdmin, Puppet, PowerDNS, Python, Redis, and Rust, WordPress.
“I manage my own compute cluster leveraging MAAS and other Canonical tools to support my research. The open source security patches delivered through Ubuntu Pro give my team peace of mind, and ensure my servers are secure. Canonical is continuously delivering timely CVE patches covering a broad portfolio of open source applications for the entire ten-year lifetime of an Ubuntu LTS. This brings much needed stability and compliance”, said David A Gutman,, associate professor of pathology at Emory University School of Medicine.
Ubuntu Pro comes with the Ubuntu Security Guide (USG), which provides hardening and security measures based on CIS benchmarks and DISA-STIG profiles.
Automated patching at scale is managed by Landscape and Livepatch. Livepatch patches kernel vulnerabilities at runtime, which reduces the amount of time that is needed to reboot devices.
The pricing for Ubuntu Pro is $25 per year for a workstation and $500 per year for a server. There is also a free tier for “personal and small-scale commercial use in up to 5 machines.”
