Canonical
on 7 April 2022
7 April 2022 – Canonical, the publisher of Ubuntu, announced today that its channel partner program has seen upwards of 240% growth within the past year. At the forefront of this momentum is the continued growth of the company’s partner-led business, with new and existing partners actively driving Canonical’s offerings into the market.
Driven primarily by the accelerating growth established through distribution partnerships in Europe and North America, Canonical grew many strategic channel partner relationships and selectively onboarded new partners.
The momentum results from primary initiatives, including the expansion of Canonical’s partner ecosystem and deeper engagements with all major OEMs, such as Dell and IBM, to help them build embedded products and be active in the market with enterprise solutions for data centers. Canonical doubled its OEM sales, led by key verticals, including higher education, government, and retail.
Canonical has also expanded and developed several new strategic partnerships, such as Lenovo, which launched new Kubernetes on ThinkSystem for AI development reference architecture and certified Lenovo’s extensive ThinkSystem server platform.
Additionally, Canonical has also expanded partnerships with many leading semiconductor companies, a proven leading stack to successfully bring innovation to market. The company designed comprehensive secured solutions based on open source with several Tier 1 partners, including Intel, NVIDIA, and Xilinx. These partnerships enable Canonical to optimize numerous new verticals and impose Ubuntu and Canonical as the brand for business innovation, including ODM partners like Advantech, and OEMs like Dell and Lenovo.
Beyond the OS, Canonical also has plans to partner with data center management, containers for SDKs, and secure management of open source software in the near future.
Canonical has a new channel focus on industry verticals such as telecommunications, automotive and finance. In the automotive sector for instance, there is a focus on next-generation vehicles that will embed edge and high-performance computing capabilities. Cybersecurity and reliability are new concerns for this industry and its customers, but because of Ubuntu’s already proven security, stability, and 24/7 reliability in data centers, Canonical has been able to quickly engage in commercial deals with its partner ecosystem.
Additionally, CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, recently named Regis Paquette, VP Global Alliances and Channels, to its 2022 Channel Chiefs list. This list identifies top IT channel vendor executives who continually demonstrate expertise, influence and innovation in channel leadership.
“I am extremely honored to be included again in the Channel Chiefs list. Our partners are vital to Canonical’s success and I am proud of the work we’ve done together in serving our global customers,” said Regis Paquette, Vice President Global Alliances and Channels at Canonical. “This recognition is a testament to our program’s success, to Canonical’s ability to become the conduit of open source for our partners and customers, and I look forward to its continued growth and momentum.”
“CRN’s 2022 Channel Chiefs recognition is given exclusively to the foremost channel executives who consistently design, promote, and execute effective partner programs and strategies,” said Blaine Raddon, CEO of The Channel Company. “We’re thrilled to recognize the tireless work and unwavering commitment these honorees put into fostering outstanding business innovation and building strong partner programs to drive channel engagement and success.”
Forward-looking, Canonical is committed to the continued expansion of their existing relationships, working with partners to sell the broader range of their portfolio, while continuing to selectively onboard partners where there are coverage gaps either from a geographic or technology perspective.
For more information on the Canonical partner program, please visit https://canonical.com/partners.
About Canonical
Canonical is behind Ubuntu, the leading OS for container, cloud, and hyperscale computing. Most public cloud workloads use Ubuntu, as do most new smart gateways, switches, self-driving cars, and advanced robots. Canonical provides enterprise security, support, and services to commercial users of Ubuntu. Established in 2004, Canonical is a privately held company.
