Currently supported versions of the Ubuntu OS for desktop and server automatically generate ifupdown /etc/network/interfaces during installations.
On the other hand, Ubuntu Cloud uses a YAML-based format. Both scenarios do not offer a simple way for automatic pre-configuration of the NetworkManager network connection management software that is used by default in all Ubuntu flavors, and it also looks like there’s no support for systemd’s networkd daemon for managing network configurations. And this is where the “netplan” project can help, as it promises to provide central /etc/netplan/*.yaml network config files for all Ubuntu Linux operating system versions, including desktop, server, Snappy, MaaS, and cloud. With “netplan” all the installers will generate only those YAML-based network configuration files instead of /etc/network/interfaces ones, giving the Ubuntu developers the flexibility of dynamically switching between multiple backends (NetworkManager or networkd).