Canonical launches Global Partner Programme

Canonical, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, today announced its newly created Partner Programme to drive awareness and adoption of business-ready, open source server platforms, and desktop solutions. The Programme aims to help Canonical partners using Ubuntu as a major element in their solutions, and to deepen Canonical’s relationships with leading IHVs, ISVs, resellers, system builders/OEMs and training partners.

“Ubuntu is increasingly being specified and used as the base for delivering high-performance solutions that substantially reduce Total Cost of Ownership for businesses. The new Canonical Partner Programme sets out to enable a wide range of partners, and provide them with advice and tools that ensure they can deliver high quality, cost-effective and flexible alternatives to expensive proprietary platforms”, said Malcolm Yates, ISV and Partner Manager at Canonical Ltd.

Entry into the Partner Programme depends on the size, skills and experience of the partner company, the level of business commitment and their technology. There are five separate tracks in the Partner Programme:

• Software Partners – Applications are tested and certified on Ubuntu and offer support customers who deploy the product on Ubuntu.
• Hardware Partners – Manufacturer of storage adaptors, network cards, video cards or peripherals such as printers or hard drives, Hardware Partners should have drivers and support available for Ubuntu.
• System Builder/OEM Partners – Ship non-Windows PCs with the Ubuntu Desktop Edition and offer Ubuntu Server Edition, and provide support to customers running Ubuntu on these systems.
• Solution Provider Partners – Demonstrate significant experience with selling, installing and supporting Ubuntu-based solutions.
• Training Partners – Have a proven record of delivering education, and the facilities and staff to continue to build on this record.

To recognise performance and success, each track has three levels of participation (excluding Training Partner): Gold, Silver and Affiliate.

Gold Partners will be involved in engineering, support and marketing collaboration. These partnerships require higher revenue and support commitments, but benefit from a much more strategic relationship with Canonical, and involvement with Canonical’s business processes and strategies.

Silver Partners will have met requirements set out by Canonical, demonstrating a definite commitment to promoting and developing open source technologies within their customer base, and to building joint business with Canonical. These partners will receive additional marketing assistance, and are eligible for technical support at reduced prices.

Affiliate Partner is the entry level into the Programme. Affiliate Partners will have access to many services provided by Canonical from technical support to marketing and communications. The entry requirements are set to enable most Ubuntu and open source focussed businesses join at this level. This is also the standard participation level for all Training Partners.

For more information on the Canonical Partner Programme visit www.ubuntu.com/partners. Partners wishing to join the Programme should go to partners.ubuntu.com and register their interest.

As an alternative to the more strictly managed Partner Programme, Canonical also offers the Canonical Marketplace (partners.ubuntu.com). Listing within the Marketplace is free to all businesses and individuals who work with Ubuntu, whether they provide local support to their clients, or provide large scale consultancy across regions and countries.
Ubuntu is open source software, costs nothing to download, and users are free to customise or alter their software in order to meet their needs. The Desktop Edition can be deployed as a general-purpose workstation, thin client, or engineering workstation. The Server Edition provides a well integrated platform and simplifies the deployment process of new servers with any of the standard Internet services such as e-mail, web, file serving and database management.

About Canonical

Canonical is the commercial sponsor of the Ubuntu project and the leading provider of support services for Ubuntu deployments in the enterprise.

Ubuntu is a free, open-source platform for client, server and cloud computing. Since its launch in 2004, it has become a natural choice for users of all kinds, from Fortune 500 companies to hardware makers, content providers, software developers and individual technologists.

With developers, support staff and engineering centres all over the world, Canonical is uniquely positioned to help its partners and enterprise customers make the most of Ubuntu. Canonical is a privately held company.