It’s no secret that Ubuntu Linux already has a disproportionately large presence in the OpenStack arena. Within the OpenStack ecosystem, users go with Ubuntu 55 percent of the time as their host operating system, according to the OpenStack Foundation’s survey, a surprising statistic that Matt Asay discussed in a recent post. And, as Canonical announced several months ago, its OpenStack Interoperability Lab is playing a key role in how many enterprises gain confidence in deploying OpenStack.

But to really ensure its future in the OpenStack arena, Ubuntu needs to run on non-x86 hardware platforms. That’s why Canonical has announced full support for IBMPOWER8 machines on Ubuntu Cloud.

This week brought many news items that underscore the fact that the cloud is becoming a key battleground for Microsoft and Google, especially as they battle for enterprise users. To begin with, Microsoft announced a much more attractive pricing strategy for its OneDrive cloud storage service, including 15 GB free for any user, and price reductions of as much as 70 percent for paid customers.

Meanwhile, Google announced new levels of compatibility with Microsoft Office documents in its Google Docs cloud-based applications, including the ability to edit Office documents. Google is also offering essentially unlimited amounts of cloud storage for $10 a month.