An Ubuntu snap-based solution for enterprises to control their data

A factor for so many smaller enterprises today is that they are unable to take full advantage of the range of services associated with standard public cloud offerings. Privacy and control are so important to their operation that using a publicly provided service will not work for tech-focused, smart enterprises that place privacy and control as one of their most important requirements.

The successful Nextcloud box, which runs Ubuntu Core, has shown the level of interest that exists in full control and self-hosting. Document sharing and editing, communications and messaging, email, code management are further examples of services that work well as part of a self-hosting solution – especially for small businesses that are sensitive to the privacy of their data. Ubuntu has a ready-made ecosystem of services which will run on a device such as a smart NAS or a router which can benefit enterprises that wish to control and host everything on-site. At MWC this year, we will be demonstrating a new solution for enterprises who want to take advantage of this trend in self-hosted services.

We have taken the very best available from the Ubuntu snap ecosystem and created a solution designed specifically for small enterprises that delivers a range of high quality self-hosted services which are engineered for privacy. Thereby enabling a small business to easily deploy a full suite of relevant, self-hosted services for internal staff to access from any desktop browser sitting on the private LAN. The solution is built to be fully extensible and can easily evolve to include other services which exist within the Ubuntu snap ecosystem.

As well as a demonstrating the product on our stand at MWC next week, it will also be available as an image containing all the featured snaps so anyone can download and run the solution on compatible hardware.

Included in the image is a snap-based offering with Nextcloud file and data management, Rocket.Chat messaging and communication, Collabora Online collaborative document editing suite, Wekan workflow tool, code management and distribution from Gogs , video conferencing using Spreed, and a fully self-hosted email solution and UI using iRedMail. All the services are open source and all integrated using Ubuntu Core for added security with the wider benefit of extending the solution to include any service that exists as a snap. And importantly, the solution comes with a customisable front-end GUI for admin control and service management.

Frank Karlitschek, Managing Director at Nextcloud, said: “This new solution from Ubuntu is the perfect next step on from the Nextcloud box and brings a fantastic blend of snaps to make it super easy for enterprises to experiment with self-hosted services.”

Michael Meeks, Managing Director at Collabora Productivity, said: “Collabora is the driving force behind bringing LibreOffice to every modern device with a browser, so we’re thrilled to contribute an Ubuntu snap of Collabora Online to this solution. By seamlessly integrating the collaborative editing of complex documents we give huge scope for enterprises to reduce cost as well as to simplify their productivity provision.”

Visit us at the Ubuntu Booth in Hall P3 – 3K31 at Mobile World Congress