Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, is preparing for an initial public offering. It plans to expand in the field of cloud computing.
/ фото (PD) — on the ISS
Discussions about Canonical's IPO have been ongoing since 2015, when the company's founder Mark Shuttleworth announced the possibility of going public. The goal of the IPO is to raise funds that will help Canonical develop products for the cloud and corporate IoT systems.
For instance, the company intends to focus more on container technology LXD and the OS for IoT devices, Ubuntu Core. This strategic choice is driven by the company's business model. Canonical does not sell licenses and generates revenue from B2B services.
Canonical began preparing for the IPO in 2017. To make itself more attractive to investors, the company ceased the development of unprofitable products — the Unity desktop environment and the Ubuntu Phone mobile OS. Canonical is also aiming to increase its annual revenue from $110 million to $200 million. Therefore, the company is now working to attract more corporate clients, introduced a new service package — Ubuntu Advantage for Infrastructure.
Canonical does not charge separately for the maintenance of infrastructure components based on different technologies — OpenStack, Ceph, Kubernetes, and Linux. The cost of services is calculated based on the number of servers or virtual machines, and the package includes technical and legal support. According to Canonical, this approach will help their clients save money.
Another step to attract customers has been extending the support period for Ubuntu from five to ten years. According to Mark Shuttleworth, a longer lifecycle of the operating system is important for financial organizations and telecoms, which transition to new versions of OS and IT services less frequently than other companies.
Canonical's actions have helped make Ubuntu more popular among such 'conservative' organizations and strengthened the developer's position in the cloud solutions market. The company's efforts may pay off soon. There is a possibility that Canonical's IPO could take place as early as 2020.
What this means for the market
Analitiki , and that with the transition to public status, Canonical could become a full-fledged competitor to Red Hat. The latter has developed and implemented principles for monetizing open-source technologies, which Canonical is also utilizing.
Dolg časa drugim podjetjem s podobnim poslovnim modelom ni uspelo priti do ravni Red Hata. Po obsegu znatno prehiteva Canonical – samo letni dobiček Red Hata vse prihodke podjetja razvijalca Ubuntu. Kljub temu pa strokovnjaki menijo, da bo sredstva z IPO pomagala Canonicalu rasti do ravni konkurentov.
Razvijalec Ubuntu ima prednost pred Red Hatom. Canonical je neodvisno podjetje, ki omogoča korporativnim strankam, da izberejo katero koli oblačno okolje za izvajanje aplikacij. Red Hat pa bo kmalu del IBM. Čeprav IKT-gigant obljublja, da bo ohranil neodvisnost svoje hčerinske družbe, obstaja verjetnost, da bo Red Hat promoviral javno oblačno infrastrukturo IBM.
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Prav tako se pričakuje, da bo IPO pomagal Canonicalu utrditi svoje mesto na trgu IoT in roba (edge) računalništva. Podjetje razvija nove izdelke na osnovi Ubunta, ki bodo povezali edge naprave z oblačnimi okolji v en hibridni sistem. Tem področjem zaenkrat Canonical ne prinaša dobička, vendar Šattlworth glede na njegov potencial za prihodnost podjetja. Razvoj tehnologij za IoT bodo financirali sredstva z IPO – Canonical bo lahko namenil več sredstev za razvoj edge izdelkov.
Kdo še izhaja na IPO
Aprila 2018 je podjetje Pivotal ponudilo del svojega kapitala na borzi. Razvija platformo Cloud Foundry za izvajanje in spremljanje aplikacij v javnih in zasebnih oblačnih okoljih. Večina podjetja Pivotal je v lasti Della: IKT-gigant ima 67% delnic podjetja in odločilno vlogo pri sprejemanju odločitev.
Ponudba vrednostnih papirjev na borzi naj bi pomagala Pivotalu širiti svoje prisotnost na trgu oblačnih storitev. Podjetje bo sredstva, pridobljena s prodajo, namenilo za razvoj novih izdelkov in pritegnitev največjih svetovnih podjetij kot strank. Pričakovanja Pivatal so se uresničila – po prodaji delnic je uspelo povečati prihodke in število korporativnih naročnikov.
Še en IPO na trgu naj bi potekal v bližnji prihodnosti. Aprila letošnjega leta je startup Fastly vložil prijavo za javno ponudbo delnic, ki nudi platformo za periferno računalništvo ter rešitev za obremenitveno ravnotežje za podatkovne centre. Sredstva z IPO bo podjetje porabilo za promocijo na trgu edge-računalništva. Fastly upa, da bodo naložbe pripomogle k temu, da postane bolj opazen igralec v sektorskih storitvah za podatkovne centre.
Kaj naprej
Po (članek pod paywallom) Wall Street Journal, delnice tehnoloških B2B organizacij so lahko bolj zanimive kot vrednostni papirji v B2C sektorju IT. Zato IPO v B2B segmentu običajno pritegne pozornost resnih vlagateljev.
Trend je aktualen tudi za področje oblačnega računalništva, kar pomeni, da ima IPO podjetij, kot je Canonical, velike možnosti za uspeh. Prihodki od prodaje delnic bodo oblačni industriji omogočili, da aktivneje razvija tehnologije, katerih povpraševanje je trenutno posebej visoko med korporativnimi strankami. in za periferno računalništvo.
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Izvor: habr.com
