Nutanix and Canonical expand partnership to offer more choice for containerized workloads

Enterprise Kubernetes® is maturing into a highly flexible, multi-architecture model. As AI/ML and data-intensive workloads continue to demand maximum hardware throughput, organizations are seeking the performance of bare metal without sacrificing the operational consistency of cloud platforms.

To meet this demand, Nutanix and Canonical have extended the availability of Ubuntu Pro to Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) instances running on bare metal, including the newly announced NKP Metal solution. This enablement builds on the partnership announced in 2025, in which the Ubuntu operating system with security patching was made available for NKP instances running on VMs. The security patching is part of Ubuntu Pro, Canonical’s comprehensive subscription for open source security and support and includes up to 15 years of patching and maintenance, tools to simplify compliance hardening, and live kernel patching. The expansion to bare metal ensures the security maintenance and streamlined compliance support provided by Ubuntu Pro on NKP is made available to users running containers on bare metal, as well as users in mixed environments.

Nutanix Kubernetes Platform on bare metal

With NKP on bare metal, customers can take advantage of an architecture designed to help eliminate the performance overhead resource constraints associated with traditional hypervisors. This design delivers  the full performance of the underlying silicon for demanding containerized workloads. NKP has always been supported for bare metal deployments, and the newly added support for Ubuntu Pro will bring even greater security to these implementations.

“Our customers need the flexibility to run containers where their workloads demand, whether in VMs or directly on bare metal,” said Dan Ciruli, General Manager of cloud native at Nutanix. “By bringing Ubuntu Pro to NKP on bare metal, we’re providing a hardened, enterprise-ready foundation so organizations can meet application requirements without forcing a choice, unifying container deployments across both VMs and bare metal for maximum flexibility.”

Streamlining security and compliance

Through the partnership, Ubuntu is integrated and validated with NKP to provide a seamless, securely designed experience. Organizations can opt to add Ubuntu Pro, Canonical’s comprehensive subscription for open source security, confident  in the knowledge that they will benefit from the full range of features, including:

• Security maintenance and hardening of the operating system, for up to 15 years. This is bundled with NKP for all control nodes, as part of Canonical’s Ubuntu Pro commitment. This is designed to help harden the orchestration layer from the moment of deployment.

• Customers can extend Ubuntu Pro to worker nodes, delivering a consistent security posture across the entire cluster.

• For highly regulated sectors such as healthcare, financial institutions or federal government, Ubuntu Pro helps align with FIPS 140 and STIG requirements through tools for automated hardening. Additionally, support for air-gapped environments helps support high-reliability requirements  in disconnected sites.

• With Canonical Livepatch, teams can apply critical kernel security updates without reboots, allowing continuous uptime for significant periods.

“Dependable enterprise Kubernetes requires a cohesive and coherent approach, starting from the operating system and extending throughout the stack,” said Mark Lewis, VP of Application Services at Canonical. “This partnership delivers seamless, full-stack support between Nutanix and Canonical, providing customers with a transparent and simple pricing model alongside the long-term security commitment of Ubuntu Pro, fully optimized for high-performance bare-metal deployments.”

Beyond the OS: build your own containers

While Ubuntu provides the foundation, Canonical’s broader ecosystem helps developers further reduce their attack surface and streamline the path to production.

With Chisel, teams can build chiseled Ubuntu images: ultra-minimal containers that contain only the necessary runtime libraries. By stripping away shells and package managers, Chisel significantly reduces the attack surface, enhancing the overall security posture. While these tools are independent of the NKP partnership, they are a great fit for organizations aiming for a lean, secure, and performant stack on Nutanix bare-metal.

Chisel supports the entire development process. By providing secure language runtimes and integrated tools like Python, Canonical helps support a smoother, more protected path from writing code to deploying it in a cluster. Complementing this hardened “code-to-cluster” path, Canonical provides a full-stack environment for AI and data. This integration of MLOps solutions and data platforms on NKP supports enterprises in building a secure, supported ecosystem for even their most complex workloads.

Getting started with Ubuntu Pro on NKP bare metal

Early access to Ubuntu Pro for NKP on bare metal is available now, with General Availability (GA) scheduled for later this year, subject to change.

Contact us to join the Early Access program

Further reading

• Discover the benefits of Ubuntu Pro
• Find out more about chiseled Ubuntu containers
• Learn more about Canonical’s partnership with Nutanix