DevOps Teams to be “Charmed” by Zulu, Azul’s 100% Open Source JDK

• DevOps teams will be able to deploy cloud-based, tested and certified open source Java directly from Canonical’s Charm store
• Azul’s Zulu build of OpenJDK becomes the first fully-supported Java distribution in Canonical’s Charm Partner Programme
• The availability of Azul Zulu in the Juju Charm Store highlights Canonical’s focus on robust and pre-certified open source infrastructure components

Azul Systems (Azul), the award-winning leader in Java runtime solutions, and Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, today announced that Azul had joined Canonical’s Charm Partner Programme. The programme helps solution providers make the best use of Canonical’s universal service modeling tool, Juju, which enables instant workload deployment, integration, and scaling on any public or private cloud, as well as bare metal, at the click of a button. The Juju Charm Store has a rapidly growing number of charms available to DevOps teams, with over 300 cloud-based applications now ready for use.

“Package management has long been of critical importance for both software providers and developers alike, because it’s the most efficient route to deployment for both parties,” said Stephen O’Grady, Principal Analyst with RedMonk. “For enterprises, however, the certainty of certified builds is crucial because they want to have confidence in the software they’re building on. By making Zulu available as a Juju charm, Azul and Canonical can offer Java users the commercially-supported builds they require.”

Azul will be “charming” its open source Zulu®, a certified, multi-platform build of OpenJDK that is compliant with the Java SE 8, 7, and 6 standards. As developers and operations teams accelerate their use of open source cloud-based Java, they need to be confident that their Java platform meets all the Java SE standards and incorporates the latest OpenJDK security patches.

“Azul and Canonical will simplify and accelerate deployment of Java-based solutions across clouds and bare metal with the Zulu Charm. Together we will make it easier for enterprises large and small across a wide variety of industries to use Zulu, as well to be confident that their Java platform meets all the Java SE standards. Adding Azul to our Charm Partner Program further expands the rich catalog of software in our Juju Charm Store and we look forward to working further with them”, said John Zannos, Canonical’s Vice President of Alliances.

Scott Sellers, Azul Systems President and CEO, said: “We are pleased to join Canonical’s Charm Partner Programme. By enabling instant deployments of the Zulu Charm, Azul and Canonical will simplify the deployment of Java applications and ensure that proven, certified builds of OpenJDK are available for private and public clouds as well as site-specific implementations.”

Azul Zulu will be available from the Charm Store in August 2015. In the interim, devops teams can download Zulu from the Azul website (www.azulsystems.com/products/zulu/downloads), Azul’s Apt-Get and yum repositories on repos.azulsystems.com), the Microsoft Azure Cloud (azure.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/?term=zulu), and via the Docker Hub (Docker search keyword zulu-openjdk at www.registry.hub.docker.com/search?q=zulu-openjdk). For more information on Canonical’s Charm Partner programme, go to http://partners.ubuntu.com/programmes/charm.