Skip to main content

Your submission was sent successfully! Close

Thank you for signing up for our newsletter!
In these regular emails you will find the latest updates from Canonical and upcoming events where you can meet our team.Close

Thank you for contacting us. A member of our team will be in touch shortly. Close

  1. Blog
  2. Article

James Nunns
on 10 November 2018

Ubuntu Core and Kura: A framework for IoT gateways


The Linux distribution model, whilst established and well understood for computing, has some limitations when it comes to IoT edge gateway devices. Due to often being located in remote or hard to access areas, there is a greater demand for a system that offers both high levels of robustness and security.

With the IoT gateway market growing at a fast pace in recent years and continuing to grow even more rapidly – mostly due to increasing demand for big data collection and analytics, there is greater importance being placed upon finding solutions that are capable of offering this.

Having a standard Linux distribution as the base is often not the optimal choice due to these systems often lacking a clear update story, creating security risks caused by an unmaintained system. Updates are often deferred because they are identified as risky operations, without a good recovery path. This makes such systems an unsuitable fit for unattended devices.

Unfortunately, the use of generalist Linux distributions will likely lead to problems and greater complexity, putting the success of these projects at risk.

This problem can be solved with a combination of Ubuntu Core, snaps and Kura.

Ubuntu Core is an important revolutionary step for Ubuntu. Whilst building upon Linux traditions, Ubuntu Core focuses on predictability, reliability and security while at the same time enabling developer freedom and control. It provides a trusted platform to deploy edge gateway solutions, such as Kura, an extensible open source IoT Edge Framework based on Java/OSGi.

In this whitepaper you will:

  • Learn how Ubuntu Core’s snap packages allow for transactional updates to each key component
  • Understand why Ubuntu Core, snaps and Kura are the best combination for IoT gateways
  • Learn how to deploy Kura on Ubuntu Core and the IoT gateway security benefits of this model

Read the whitepaper

Related posts


Rhys Knipe
12 June 2024

Space pioneers: Lonestar gears up to create a data centre on the Moon

Canonical announcements Article

Why establish a data centre on the Moon? Find out in our blog. ...


Gabriel Aguiar Noury
6 June 2024

A look into Ubuntu Core 24: Your first Linux-powered Matter device

Internet of Things Article

Welcome to this blog series which explores innovative uses of Ubuntu Core. Throughout this series, Canonical’s Engineers will show what you can build with this Core 24 release, highlighting the features and tools available to you.  In this third blog, Farshid Tavakolizadeh, engineering manager from our Industrial team, will show you how t ...


Gabriel Aguiar Noury
5 June 2024

A look into Ubuntu Core 24: Robotics telemetry for your fleet

Internet of Things Article

Welcome to this blog series which explores innovative uses of Ubuntu Core. Throughout this series, Canonical’s Engineers will show what you can build with this Core 24 release, highlighting the features and tools available to you.  In this fourth blog, Mirko Ferrati, engineering manager from our Robotics team, will show you how to deploy ...