Canonical is expanding its Ubuntu Pro service, bringing the extended security maintenance plan to IoT devices, in addition to desktop and servers.

Ubuntu Pro is Canonical’s service that provides expanded security maintenance for Ubuntu packages outside of the main operating system. In fact, Ubuntu Pro adds security patches for more than 25,000 additional packages, reducing “average CVE exposure time from 98 days to 1 day.” The service increases the support period from the standard five years for LTS releases to 10 years, with an option add-on to extend it an additional two years, for a total of twelve.

The company has launched Ubuntu Pro for Devices, bringing security and long-term compliance to IoT.

Ubuntu Pro for Devices provides 10 years of security maintenance for Ubuntu and thousands of open source packages, such as Python, Docker, OpenJDK, OpenCV, MQTT, OpenSSL, Go, and Robot Operating System (ROS). The subscription also provides device management capabilities through Landscape, Canonical’s systems management tool, and access to Real-time Ubuntu for latency-critical use cases. Ubuntu Pro for Devices is available directly from Canonical, and from a wide range of original device manufacturers (ODMs) in Canonical’s partner ecosystem, including ADLINK, AAEON, Advantech and DFI.

The company says it is expanding its collaboration with ODMs to provide a best-in-class experience. Canonical says the service will be especially beneficial for organizations that lack the in-house resources or expertise to secure their entire open-source software stack.

Customers are already touting the benefits of the new service.

“As new legislation is introduced for IoT embedded devices, it is crucial that our customers have a means to securely maintain the operating system along with commonly used applications and dependencies”, said Ethan Chen, General Manager of the Edge Computing Platforms BU at ADLINK. “Ubuntu Pro ensures that IoT devices receive reliable security patches from a trusted source”.

“Many of our customers from across different sectors are using computer vision software that requires regulatory approval. In particular, the latest US regulation makes it important to provide timely CVE fixes for all of the components used in our products. Thanks to Ubuntu Pro for Devices, this is now covered”, said Jason Huang, Director of AAEON’s UP Division.

Canonical provides a datasheet for companies interested in learning more about Ubuntu Pro for Devices.