Mark Shuttleworth has announced at the OpenStack conference that Canonical has received a ringing endorsement from HP in the form of certification for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on the ProLiant server systems. Responding to customer demand, HP has decided to officially support the popular flavor of Linux giving sysadmins another flexible software option to leverage their current and future hardware.

With Canonical claiming that Ubuntu is the “server of choice” for cloud computing infrastructure, getting the support of a large, well known company in its server arena certainly helps to cement that statement. But with the recent turmoil happening inside Hewlett-Packard, who’s really getting the endorsement here? While it looks on the surface that HP is helping out an idealistic open-source software offering, perhaps the reality is that HP needs Canonical just as much to improve its damaged reputation with confused buyers.

On the technical side, the endorsement announced today basically means that when the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS build is released on April 26th, customers using the software on a ProLiant server will be able to receive hardware warranty support directly from HP. This doesn’t mean that a customer with an installation issue or similar problem can pick up the phone and call HP support, it simply means that by installing Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on their current (or future) ProLiant hardware that they won’t nullify any kind of hardware warranty.

In a phone interview with ExtremeTech Chris Kenyon,VP of sales and Business Development at Canonical, stated that the support of the actual software will remain with his company, and that there are no plans for ProLiant servers to ship with Ubuntu pre-configured. He added, however, that this model was ideal as the cloud computing architects that are building infrastructure want to have flexibility and the ability to purchase their chosen hardware to form the backbone of their operations.

While this certainly may be the case, this announcement can be boiled down to a simple tip of the hat from HP to Canonical to build consumer confidence in the brand. What HP doesn’t want recognize however is the idea that the confidence boost is flowing both ways and is certainly aiding the beleaguered manufacturer.

Canonical has been building momentum lately. The whole Unity debate aside, the releases that have been announced in the past few months have been compelling. While Ubuntu TV may not have been the exciting release we had hoped for, Ubuntu for Android not only makes sense but has me wanting a device that has it installed. Having both a mobile and desktop experience in one device shows a real understanding of where mobile computing is going, and was an excellent step for Canonical. Add in the other recent releases of MAAS, AWSOME, and JuJu and you have three excellent tools for cloud computing architecture that address specific needs that consumers have expressed while working with Ubuntu Server. To use another line from VP Chris Kenyon, “Everything that we have been working on for the past couple of years is crystallizing all at once, things are a bit wild right now.” That statement encapsulates the ride that Canonical is on at the present.

That all being noted, who benefits the most from this deal? While Canonical certainly benefits from a legitimacy point of view, HP stands to gain far more when it comes to improving its image with the IT buyers that they really need to reconnect with — namely the sysadmins and network architects looking to cut costs and avoid the bloat that is Windows Server.

There are certainly no losers when it comes to this announcement, and more open-source software being certified — legitimized even — is always a good thing.