Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Reviews

We have multiple use cases. We use this for desktop infrastructure, virtualization, general virtual machines, as well as private cloud use cases.

Any feature related to the performance, like data locality, compression, and deduplication are all very important features.

We could always use a performance upgrade, or simplified management.

The features I would most like to see added would be: compatibility for HV, improvement to the cloud features, and more private features.

It is very stable. We have only had really small issues, and some of it was resolved with my Nutanix support.

Nutanix is very powerful. We have many customers with a number of nodes in the same cluster.

The Nutanix support team is very, very powerful.

Setup was very straightforward. We deployed our own service implementation deployment for four years. I am the consultant. We have a team for deployment, with five engineers.

Pricing varies greatly between license and editions. The license also changes in by number of users. So, it's a little difficult to calculate the license cost.

I would rate Nutanix as nine out of ten. A perfect ten is very challenging to acheive, but I think nine is basically perfect.

I had a customer that was a bank. The bank needed to deploy eight nodes at one site and eight nodes at another. Nutanix was great. We consolidated the whole infrastructure because they had heard about the solution and they bought it straight off the top, and they believed in it. 

The most valuable feature would be the ease of deployment. That is the most significant feature for me because I've worked with multiple vendors and it's always been very complicated to install the software and get everything running. It has better software to get everything up and running.

It has a simple interface.

They should lower the price. If they did they would fall into a more competitive market because the price does scare a lot of potential customers away when they get the quote. Otherwise, I never had to call tech support. I actually met up with one of their consultants just three days before I went for deployment. It was the very first time I'd actually tested the software, and that was enough for me to go to the site and get all the work done.

There's one area in which they should make the software simpler with the deployment. If they can make it just a few steps easier, it will be unbeatable. I'm technically experienced so it was simple, but others who aren't as experienced might struggle. If they can simplify the software slightly for the installation, that would make all the difference.

Stability is unquestionable, it's seamless. It's 100% uptime.

The way this device can continue scaling is mind-blowing. I did 1/50th of what it can grow up to and the fact that it can do compression and has all of this amazing software, you don't need it to scale that high. You can just quote for a small solution and it will be significant, which is where they enter the market.

We haven't had any issues that required technical support but I would say that the technical resource who taught us the software and told us how to plug it in and how to install it was amazing. He knew absolutely everything. He had an answer for every question.

The initial setup was very straightforward. I've only been in enterprise as a technical consultant and presales for eight years, which is not so much time relative to a lot of people. The initial setup was simple for me. I never ran into anything that was too complicated. I didn't spend that much time learning the software. I just decoded twice with one of the representatives and that was as much as I needed.

They gave one week to deploy to allow enough leeway for complications, delay and whatsoever. I was finished in three business days. That goes from unboxing each and every device, racking, inspecting and setting it up to walking out of your environment and telling the customer they can take over.

We only require two staff members for the deployment and maintenance, a technical colleague and me.

I would advise someone considering this solution to go with it. We deal with multiple vendors. We're actually partners with a lot of vendors. Most of the enterprise vendors are in the top 10 but I'll say that this is the best that I've worked with.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.  

Our primary use case for this solution is virtualization.

It consolidates our servers and improves our electricity consumption and cooling as well.

The most valuable feature is the analytics. It gives us a projection of our usage and we can easily justify any request that we have for improvements.

The GUI for this solution needs improvement.

Our primary use case is to support technical applications for our IT team. We are not yet using it for production.

I think that the most interesting features are the replication and redundancy.

It is a good solution and it is easy to work on a Nutanix platform.

I think that there are several areas that they can improve slightly, including the mail servers, the application servers, and perhaps even the database servers.

If we can have certified compatibility with other companies, such as Oracle, then it would let us know that they function correctly together.

My impression of the stability is good. At the moment, we haven't had any issues.

I cannot comment about the scalability at this time because I don't know when we are going to generalize the solution. We may be able to say by next year, perhaps.

Our intention is to expand its usage beyond the IT team to other applications.

Nutanix technical support is very good.

Prior to this solution, we used VMware on Intel technology. We also have IBM IT Infrastructure with Power technology. We switched to Nutanix because it is easier to manage and administer the platform, compared to others.

The initial setup was easy, although we had one problem related to synchronization with the NT servers. We created a technical support ticket, and they helped us to fix the issue. It was very easy.

The deployment took not more than two or three weeks, including the migration of the servers. It is difficult to say because we acquired Nutanix with other solutions, but I think that Nutanix was faster. Not more than two weeks.

Our IT team will be maintaining the solution, and if we ever have an issue then we can call the integrator. If they cannot fix the problem then we will open a ticket to the Nutanix support.

We used an integrator to assist us with the deployment of this solution. They have done a good job.

We haven't measured our ROI for the moment, but the fact that everything is in the same solution will make life easier for our IT team. We won't have to call the storage specialist or the network specialist every time we have a problem. Everything is packaged in the same solution, and to update the platform is very easy. This will be our first ROI.

There are a lot of problems that occur. One example is when we update the firmware for a product, it can make life difficult for us. If we have a new disk that is not compatible with the storage then updating the firmware causes other things to malfunction. That is quite difficult for all of us. Overall, I think that we will be reducing the time in maintenance as compared to other platforms.

The licensing cost is on a yearly basis. There are a lot of features included with Nutanix that cost a lot with other companies.

We were given demonstrations of other solutions, but we were satisfied with all of the features that Nutanix offers.

We have recently acquired this solution and have done the training. We are going to be using it to support technical applications before we can generalize it, and use it on a much bigger scale.

Currently, it is not the number of users that we are focused on. It will be for technical applications used only by the IT team, which is approximately seventy people.

At this point, my advice for other people who are implementing this product is that they should trust Nutanix. It is a good solution and it is easy to work on their platform. It is compatible with VMware, and they have their own container, which is free. 

I would rate this product a ten out of ten.

HQ datacenter workload plus branch offices local datacenter (including small file sharing on Windows VM).

Nutanix simplified administration efforts dramatically and increased the performances of some mission-critical applications.

• One-click upgrade
• Data locality for performances
• Prism central administration console
• Metro availbility.

• Price politics sometimes is not very transparent for the worldwide organization. 
• Better value for money about file share feature
• We feel that the cost for capacity is still more expensive compared to other solutions.

Our primary use case of this solution is that it helped me solve all of my use cases. I can create an integrative private cloud in a data center, create a hybrid cloud, public cloud, and near-site data recording. For example, there are lots of sites that do not have the data there so I can create data because Nutanix also has got it stored on the nodes. So it takes care of storage on the nodes. I can build storage on the nodes, compute them, give the clients who already have a small data center within themselves but they do not have it externally. By using storage on the nodes in Nutanix I can give them the external.  

From a performance perspective, I have not had any issue as of now and from a latency and performance position, it has done quite well. Also no issues.

One of the benefits this solution has had for my organization is the space consumption. Space consumption was reduced by approximately 40% because if I had gone with another kind of traditional, or open world solution, then I would have not saved my floor space. Another way it has benefited my organization is because of the energy consumption. Currently, energy consumption has been saved by around 30% to 40%. Plus the number of IOPS has increased,  I'm getting the highest IOPS in Nutanix. I had situations where I got applications that depend on public IP, RAM, and LAN. In both cases, I have some very efficient data that, more or less, in terms of resource requirement, I don't need resources for.

On-demand scaling is the most valuable feature, I can keep on scaling on-demand. Secondly, Nutanix allows me to create my own configuration. I can create my own configuration and I can get all of it as per my configuration. Number three is that in Nutanix if I do three or four nodes if I look at the traditional environment I have to really figure out the wave concept. Connect wave one, wave two, wave six, wave five. In Nutanix I don't have any of these issues. Lastly, deduplication. Deduplication and erasure coding.

As of now, Acropolis and VMware cannot talk to each other. Until we have some kind of interface, it would be much better for Nutanix if they built an interface which can talk. Otherwise, if I have a VMware stack and I already have a Nutanix stack, I can create containers, I create clusters on VMware, I create clusters on Nutanix. All of these clusters cannot talk to each other. Then it has to be then subverted as a parallel execution. What happens then is that I have to work in two different environments within my data center. Practically, they are two different data centers but physically and logically, they are one. If they cannot talk to each other that creates a lot of issues. That is something which Nutanix has to develop. For example, Oracle is using a function called GoldenGate. They have a feature called GoldenGate which allows them to talk to various different environments which must really help.

Nutanix will be there for the long run because if you look at it, Nutanix is not into the hardware business. Nutanix is mainly into the software business. For any business which is running on a hardware business, stability is a little difficult because hardware keeps on changing but since Nutanix is only into the software, and they only sell the hardware, I guess it is on Super Micro. They have greater stability than anyone else because they are purely into the software medium.

Nutanix's scalability is better than anyone else. The only area where Nutanix still lags in terms of scalability is the storage on the nodes. For example, Nutanix has to make its scalability, in terms of storage on the nodes for 100% ACI-based storage on the nodes, as of now it cannot go more than interact in a single bracket. Cannot go more than, up to one petabyte usable storage. If you look at other windows, they can go up to 2 petabytes, 2.5 petabytes and I think Nutanix has to look into that aspect. Many times, whoever buys the Nutanix solution, buys a high compute and storage or they buy only storage with low compute. So only storage with low compute really helps in terms of storing offline databases or storing unstructured databases. For example, when there was a lot of unstructured data coming in into my data center, two different centers, and two different cameras. All of this unstructured data I can store into storage-only nodes. Nutanix cannot go more than to 900 to 800 GB interact when I'm storing on the nodes. Then the customers are forced to look for a solution which can give better storage options than Nutanix. 

Their technical support is really good. They have been very helpful.

We wanted to have a data center of our own. I did a lot of research into Nutanix, spent around 77 hours, and presented a report. In government what happens is that anybody can go and buy a solution but keeping it maintained and sustained for a longer period is extremely challenging in government because people keep on changing because there are a lot of transfers. People keep on switching from one department to another department. They are not technically savvy. These are the two challenges. From a long term sustainability perspective I have to see whether will I be able to manage this entire infrastructure. Third was cost. I distributed my comparative study in three different areas and then sub areas in terms of technology, resources, training, scalability, and all that stuff. Finally, we found Nutanix is the best solution and that's how we went ahead with this solution.

The initial setup was not complex at all. It was very simple. I was monitoring the entire racking, stacking, cabling and all of that stuff. I was there while my team was doing that and we had, every day, two to three meetings while doing that and I learned that it's quite simple but it's not easy. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. If they develop the interoperability then it would make it a ten. 

I would advise someone considering this solution to not look at the market share. Look at the technical aspects in terms of the long term sustainability like licensing issues, easy scalability, hardware infrastructure, and storage compute. It should help in saving your OpEx costs in terms of floor space, energy, power consumption, and energy. Also look at latency IOPS and availability and if you can train your associates easily in the support aspect.

At the moment, I am using this solution for internal use. Its performance is quite good. 

The most valuable feature is its data locality, as well as the solution's performance. 

I would like to see a fuller integration with the public cloud. It would help the user enter the hybrid cloud infrastructure.

Prepping my environment with Turbonomic before migrating made the transition quicker and easier by right-sizing my VMs. It continues to offer great features in my new environment. 

• The simplicity Prism (AHV) delivers over other hypervisor solutions has dramatically alleviated the workload, reducing the work pressure from the current workforce.

• It has helped us to distinctly improve our organization and proved to be an effective solution.

• The level of statistical performance data that it can confirm in real-time is extremely useful. I can see what my VM’s hosts and guests are doing from a single pane of glass and identify issues before they would otherwise become apparent.

• The informatics support for this graphical software is up-to-date with the latest infographic web trends.
  

• Site-to-site deduplication needs some work. It’s not as feature-rich for a disaster recovery implementation, but my understanding is that it is slated for improvement in near future releases. 

• DRS-like functionality is also a much-desired feature slated for a future release.
• Third-party solutions are few and far between right now since Nutanix is so new considering the production of the software. Improvements should be made to compensate for upcoming software and solutions. 
• Regarding third-party backup solutions, the only agentless option is Commvault, which is expensive, complex, and requires intensive vendor training. We opted to use the built-in snapshot replication options from Azure.

Consider purchasing Turbonomic with or before Nutanix. They pair and play well together.

If you do use Turbonomic before going with Nutanix, make sure the company knows you intend to move to Nutanix. This ensures you license the proper features.

Do not dismiss Nutanix too hastily over one little feature or another. They are advancing, and it is worth your patience. The value brought in from simplicity, support, and time savings is worth a consideration.