Canonical launches new cloud service to aid Android app development

Creating the code for an Android app is only part of the job, you also need to consider mobile app management and mobile device virtualization as well as testing.

To help with this process Canonical is launching its Anbox Cloud Appliance on the AWS Marketplace from today. A small-scale version of Canonical's Anbox Cloud, developers can use it for rapid prototyping of Android-in-the-Cloud solutions.

It provides a developer-friendly CLI and a simple web UI to manage and operate Android applications in the cloud. Developers can upload their Android apps, configure and virtualise Android devices, and stream graphical output in real-time to any web or mobile client.

Based on Ubuntu Pro the tool comes with all of its features to provide a robust and secure base operating system. This includes the availability of security updates for ten years and access to kernel live patches.

"With the Anbox Cloud Appliance in AWS Marketplace, prototyping, developing and running Android in the cloud becomes simple and a powerful tool in the hands of our customers with access to a wide range of instance types, including Arm and NVIDIA GPUs," says Alex Gallagher, VP public cloud at Canonical.

Anbox Cloud Appliance is aimed at giving corporate innovation labs and startups building mobile cloud computing new services -- like game streaming, cloud-based mobile application management, or mobile device virtualization -- access to a cost-effective development sandbox for mobile app testing.

"Canonical's Anbox Cloud provides our customers with an easy and powerful way to run large numbers of Android instances in parallel on a single AWS instance, and with support for both x86 and Arm instances, customers can choose the best option for their use case," says Mona Chadha, director of AWS marketplace category management at AWS.

You can find out more on the Canonical site and the appliance is available from the AWS Marketplace.

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