Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Reviews

We primarily use Nutanix for virtualization and Kubernetes.

Simplifying storage is a huge benefit, but the real gain is complete integration. Nutanix gives you the ability to benefit from the clustering system. For example, you can "clusterize" your file-sharing VM. 

Karbon is a must-have as it drastically simplifies the deployment of Kubernetes.

In the licensing, it needs to be clear about features because it is not clear whether Flow is integrated or not.

We have been using Nutanix for one year.

I primarily use the solution for virtualization.

Now that we have virtualization, with its simple configuration and installation, I can run the different platforms on it.

The configuration is easy and it's flexible.

In terms of the IT different categories, I would like for the governing sections to be able to use it in the IT department. If they can have something like a one view management portal or software similar to VMware that would be an added value.

The solution is about 70% stable. I haven't had any major problems with it.

Scalability is perfect.

I would rate technical support a 7 out of 10. They're fine. There aren't many resources for that here in Saudi Arabia. We need more resources.

We previously used VMware and we switched to Nutanix because sometimes it's cheaper for the environment, the company, and also for the customer.

I'd say the initial setup falls somewhere in the middle. It's not that complex, but it's not easier than the others, for example. Deployment took a couple of hours.

We have our own consultants that helped with the implementation.

It's easy for your IT department, manager, or director. The simplicity of it is good. I would rate this solution at 8.5 out of 10. I would rate it a 10 if support was increased in Saudi Arabia and the pricing was more competitive.

We are looking at Acropolis only as a comparison to VMware. We want to determine what it offers better than VMware, in terms of features, as well as how we can position it to integrate to a VMware environment.

I haven't been there to test everything, but I have been to the Nutanix presentation two weeks back on Nutanix cloud. The cloud features an in-site offering, which I found to be very interesting.

There could be better support for high power ESX and other cross-platform applications. A major feature in Nutanix is that it should be able to move from AHV to BFX.

I would like to see an improved interface. I think Dell EMC is going to launch ClarityNow to address this.

In terms of stability, Nutanix is a good product.

In terms of scalability, I think that it is good that it works with many clusters, which is not the same as other vendors, for which there is a limitation in terms of the clusters.

For the time being, we don't have many users. We're still in development; we did not put it on the production environment yet. We are still busy in the testing phase. Once they are all done with the test, they will be concerned with what the stakeholders want in any condition. The process will be quick and we'll have about 100 people using it for internal purposes first. Then we will back up our server to the cloud. At that point, we can expand to 1,000 or so users.

We only need one or two people to deploy and maintain this solution.

I didn't contact technical support much, but what I hear is good.

The initial setup was straightforward, not complex. We followed all their guides, and you just have to go through them and install them. The initial deployment took less than half a day.

I don't think I know. I think it's cheaper than VMware in terms of cost.

VMware is already in the market and we have been using VMware first. Now Nutanix just emerged as the leader. That's why we are comparing them.

My advice is to go for Nutanix because it is the way the market is going. Nutanix is becoming the leader in the market. Also, Nutanix offers far more software features than other products. You will not need much effort to understand the product. It's very simple to work with.

I would rate this solution as nine out of ten. I can't give it a full ten yet since we are not fully inside.

We started using Nutanix recently. I'm working here in Muscat, Oman and I take care of a complete data center, the managing, security, and maintenance. We deployed Nutanix recently with the help of Entech. Entech is the main vendor here in Muscat. In that setup, we are using the VMA 6.5 as well as 6. The primary use is for node clusters. We are reviewing the Nutanix servers now.

We use Nutanix Acropolis to look after the cluster, the migration, etc. and run the data center. We have around 300 users here using it. 

We deployed a basic setup, then afterward one-by-one, we re-migrated the servers. 

Only four people are needed to deploy Nutanix Acropolis and maintain it. I'm the main keeper for maintaining the original deployment and everything I must do. 

At a cost level, it compared well with the other vendors. Nutanix is very costly compared to others, even HP but, it works very well. 

We recommend Nutanix to the management because of scalability and time efficiency. These advantages aim at the next level of relationship for our current management, then we'll decide on future deployments.

Nutanix helped us to install hardware and taught us how to deploy with a reset. We learned how to install the Nutanix OS, and run a network.

The storage and back-up facilities could be improved. The storage and recording back-up for updates where we can maintain the data server and handle an insurance company. 

We need day-to-day encrypting of the database. We're purchasing Acropolis and Veritas. That is a big headache. We are using Nutanix for backup and storage purposes. That is now going well in terms of storage and backup.

The cloud base is an extra feature. It should be the standard. Nutanix Cloud is not that helpful for us.

The stability is good. It's time efficient compared to Dell and HP servers. Compared to those companies the stability is very good. 

Once you start the server, use the boot manual for very user-friendly options.

The main scalability is time-efficiency. If you are conserving your data, this kind of scalability and performance is very good.

For technical support, we're not in contact with them. We get the information online. You can search to get to the solution.

Before we were using Mascot. Then we started with Nutanix.

The initial setup is straightforward and not complex. It is easy. It's the firewall only. Initial deployment takes less time. We have around four data centers here. 

Starting up takes around two days, plan for an extra day per data center.

The vendors, Entech, gave very good training to us. I did that one myself.

We evaluated many solutions but finally went with this one. We went with Dell. That is a portable device. We found this one to be better.

I would recommend Nutanix Acropolis. We are a national insurance company here. We require scalability. Nutanix is very good at whatever the scale is. There are no headaches. You can boot-up other servers, all in one.

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate Nutanix Acropolis a nine. I would go to 10, but many features are not perfect. 

We use Nutanix on a daily basis and mainly for virtual server utilization and some VDI.

Nutanix Acropolis allows us to manage our company with a smaller team of IT technicians. It doubles the number of servers that we manage without having to increase the number of IT personnel managing it. It allows us to build more with less. This would be a great example of why we use Nutanix. 

Also, every time we have a new stack or when we need to expand the cluster, it is no hassle. It takes less than five minutes. When we have to upgrade, everything runs automatically, so my team can basically just start an upgrade, go and have a coffee, and three hours later come back to see that everything is finished and upgraded automatically.

We use Nutanix hardware, so we have a single vendor and a single stack for everything, which makes the life cycle management very simple and very forward.

The management interface of this solution is great. We really enjoy not being locked into VMware as the app adviser vendor. The latest version of Acropolis has a very handy micro-segmentation feature, which we use very often. Overall, I think the most significant upside is the great support provided by Nutanix.

I believe the only things that may need to improve is that the Nutanix Controller VM consumes quite a lot of resources. If that could be reduced, it would be great. Secondly, I would have liked it if Nutanix were a hardware as well as a software platform. I think they are currently progressing into a software only path. I think that, in the near future, their own hardware will be discontinued. I can understand why they're doing it, but I would have preferred them to continue being a one-stop shop for hardware and software alike.
However, so far, for our company, the wish list is completely covered.

Nutanix Acropolis is super stable.

We currently have about 900 clusters/users using this program, with only four admins running this environment on a part-time basis. I would say that each Nutanix cluster does not require more than three to four hours of maintenance per month. We plan to increase our usage.

I was absolutely amazed by the linear growth and scalability of this solution and it is the best I've ever seen. Every time we need to grow, we simply add another node and in less than two hours, the storage volume gets increased. 

The technical support is great and that is why we have chosen Nutanix. We have actually chosen Nutanix because of their very high J.D. score, and it's proven to be exactly that: the best support I've ever seen.

We have not used any other solutions before. We have tested many other vendors, such as SimpliVity, but we haven't used anything before.

The initial setup was amazingly fast and very straightforward. The deployment didn't take long because we are currently running four different clusters. Less than a day after the box containing the program was delivered to our offices, the first cluster was up and running. 

Our company provide integration services for Nutanix, so we do our own installation, setup, and deployment.

My first advice to others considering using this solution would be to always use the support because they are great. The second advice would be to read the Nutanix Bible, which is quite good. It's an online resource allowing you to understand what Nutanix is all about. The third thing is to always follow the best practices that Nutanix provides. If you follow the correct practices, you are on the fast track.

I rate this a nine and a half out of ten because nothing is ever perfect. But Nutanix comes very close. 

I use it for electronic VPN management and HR applications.

The most valuable features are its ease of use and its good performance.

The product could be improved with more security. The product needs a bit more experience in the market. I think you don't have the possibility to add other hardware. It could be improved with the ability to add and extend.

Stability, in my opinion, is very good.

Scalability from my impression of the solution is that it's very good. We have 300 users.

My experience with customer support has been good. They're quick in response and offer quality help.

Previously, we used VMware. But it's a completely different solution with a different platform.

The initial setup was straightforward. It wasn't complex; it was easy to setup. Deployment took about 2 to 3 hours maximum. We require five people for deployment and maintenance.

When it came time to implement, we have our own service provider, so we went with them.

The advice I would give would be to ensure you choose the right configuration.

I like the product very much. I would say use it as a solution. I would rate this solution 8 out of 10.

We primarily use Nutanix as our base environment where we host all our database servers. We also host our active directory on it, our mail servers and all our bare metal systems combined to one unit. Then we use Inuvika for the VDI environment on top of Nutanix.

The main reason why we liked it is because of the high availability that we get with it. The platform's extremely stable and other nice things that we like about it is that if we have to move the server or anything, it's not a lot to move and power consumption is a big thing for us as well.

We are not fully in production yet and we are still busy testing Nutanix. A couple of things that it makes a huge difference in is our company's power consumption because we don't have to use computers for all our employees. We can simply put down a Raspberry Pi or a little nook, and in the Inuvika environment, everything is up and running immediately. It gives the users a lot more freedom in connection with what they usually have in a standard setup. With everything operating in the cluster, the chances of losing data is reduced by about 90%. We use this move from one site because we've got about seven sites that we are running from the one Nutanix cluster.
We can move a user from one site to another site without having to move hardware. It is very user-friendly. Another thing I like a lot about Inuvika is the deduplication that you can do on different containers. You don't have to do everything on one container or on one VM itself. 

I definitely find the reduced power consumption very valuable. Another aspect I really like, when one compares Citrix to VMware, is the interface where you talk directly to your VM from the present software. We have found that it is a lot more responsive using VMware compared to Citrix.

One thing I've noticed is that, when you do a shift from VMware to Nutanix, it opens the setup of the VM that's currently running. If people from another site double click on it, it opens the VM instead of the setup of the unit. So I would suggest that this could perhaps be switched. That is so far the only change I would like. I would like it if they could fix the instance where you double click on a VM and it opens the VM instead of the setup. That's the only thing that's a major bother to me.

The easiest way to explain the stability of Nutanix is to start it up and forget about it. We haven't had any problems with this solution. We've done a couple of tests and restarts and we've moved VMs from one machine to another machine. We tested the availability and we didn't have any problems with that either. The performance and stability of Nutanix is so good, it is almost unbelievable. 

This product is very scalable. We currently have 60 users. One of the things I like about it is that you can add extra nodes without any problem. Something we are currently looking at for the future is to put a smaller cluster on each side, where we can then, overnight, replicate the data from the site to the primary cluster. That's one of the other reasons why we looked at Nutanix instead of VMware and Citrix.
At this stage, we haven't transferred our SQL database as of yet. We're waiting for the software providers to come in and do the transfer from the old server to the new server. All our documents and all our data must be transferred. 

We had only one query so far, and the support team was excellent. They came back to us immediately and their service was excellent.

We used a different solution before we started using Nutanix. We ran three sites on EXSi from VMware. After doing some research, I saw the feasibility of Nutanix. Not only on costs, but on scalability as well. Although I'm a big VMware fan, I've found that one only has a certain amount of time to build your setup with VMware, and if you don't do it in that time, you must start again. One of the main things I liked of Nutanix, is that I can add an extra node or four extra or nodes if needed within a period of two years.

The initial setup was really straightforward. We had a little trouble with the nicks. Also, under the software setup, it doesn't give you the version of the software. It only shows as 'unknown'. So we had to dive into the setup to find out which version it was to update correctly. The entire setup took us half a day. We used a consultant for the deployment. The service I received from them is unbelievable.

One of the major problems with IT in South Africa is that licensing fees are 14 times more expensive than anywhere in the world. This is due to the rand/dollar exchange rate. If I remember correctly, our licensing fee on the total setup was about R900,000. 
There are no additional costs. The only additional things we added to the system was Commvault for additional backup services for the cluster.

We looked at other options like VMware and Citrix, but Nutanix was the only solution that offered us scalability and the option to add extra notes without any problems. 

Nutanix is an extremely cost effective product for the stability that you get without having to install additional hardware to get everything up and running. No other product out there can compare with Nutanix. 

I would rate it a nine out of ten.

I used this for training the value-added reseller. I trained the technique on the console terms to be able to pass the NCP exam.

The fact that there is only one interface to deploy a complete solution for maximum storage is fantastic.

They have offered some new features that I have not deployed so I assume that these issues might have been addressed already, but there was a networking problem. This solution could use network improvements.

I think the next release should include a software improvement, like the ability to deploy with a cloud provider like Amazon or Microsoft Azure. I believe that they are already working on this and I think that the best improvement would be to remove the storage configuration because you don't need to manage or to configure this. By default, it should take all the available storage to present the data. They should create network storage in which the administrator doesn't have to manage or configure this part. They should work on the deployment and storage. 

The stability is very good. It was actually the hardware that had some issues and that does not have to do with Nutanix. The hardware manufacturer is behind that. I don't remember having any issues with the stability of the software.

Scalability is very good, I have removed nodes with no problem. It works well when you follow all the best practices of course.

Sometimes during the most important trainings, there were 14 staff members on two internet clusters.

I have no idea how customer service is because I've never dealt with them. We managed to solve any problems by ourselves so we didn't call support.

I have used VMware solutions with server and storage on the same switch. It was the same product on the same architecture, so I cannot challenge those architectures. They are one and the same. I used to deploy HP 300 AP, which is the exact same solution from HP with the VSA solution. VMware was embedded, but from my point of view, it was a little bit too difficult compared to Nutanix.

I don't remember how complex the setup was. In terms of deployment time, it depends on the nodes. I bring solutions with ACP on HTTP and it takes about the 45 minutes and once I had the chance to deploy on an all-flash solution and it was very fast.

I did the setup by my self. I had to reimage each of the nodes to be able to produce a definite image.

Follow the best practices and check everything. The network is always the point of failure, and if you don't configure or manage the best ways for the network, it will remind you that you have an issue, or that you don't have well-prepared deployment.

I would rate Nutanix as nine out of ten because there is always room for improvement. From the beginning, they had a start-up position, but now it seems that they are going to move to the dark side of the market on the license end, like VMware. It seems like you will need a license for everything now. In the beginning, you could have everything with one license, but it looks like now you need a license for these features, another license for other features, and for everything that gives improvements to the solutions you have to buy another license for. That is not good from my point of view.