Google partnered with Canonical to bring official Ubuntu images to Google Compute Engine.
Google Compute Engine became generally available in December 2013. Since then, it added support for CoreOS, Debian, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE and Microsoft Windows Server. Though Debian and Ubuntu distributions are compatible, many developers prefer to work on Ubuntu. According to Canonical, Ubuntu powers 85% of Linux workloads running on public clouds. Ubuntu is a popular choice of Linux distribution on Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure and HP Cloud and Joyent.
According to a blog post from Google Cloud Platform team, Canonical maintained images are continually tested and updated, following Ubuntu’s best-practices, and delivering these attributes for Google Cloud Platform:
- Fast: Short instance boot times quickly scale server fleets
- Tailored: Ubuntu images are optimized to Google Cloud Platform environment
- Secure: Up-to-date images deliver security from first boot with rapid, automated patching in case of vulnerabilities
- Automated: Image deployment automation streamlines Ubuntu usage
- Rapid and Flexible: Mirror repositories within Google Compute Engine will enable customers to easily and quickly add software to customize their instances with near-zero download times
Currently in beta, customers can launch 14.10, 14.04 and 12.04 releases of Ubuntu. During the beta, Ubuntu images on Google Compute Engine are not covered by any SLA or deprecation policy and may be subject to backward-incompatible changes.
This announcement came a day before Google Cloud Platform Live event scheduled for 11/4 in San Francisco where Google is expected to showcase new features and services. In October, Google dropped the price of Compute Engine by 10% triggering another round of price cuts in the industry.