Name: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)
Brand: Nutanix
Rating: 4.3 (200 reviews)

Product Manager at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

Oct 8, 2015

It has features that help us to manage it, such as one-click hypervisor and firmware upgrade, and we can store data efficiently with compression and deduplication.

What is most valuable?

One-click hypervisor and firmware upgrade
Snapshots and clones
Compression and deduplication
Backup and disaster recovery

How has it helped my organization?

It's easy to manage with the one-click hypervisor and firmware upgrade.

We can also store data more efficiently with compression and deduplication.

What needs improvement?

I have nothing to suggest.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for two and a half years.

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What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

How are customer service and support?

Customer Service:

It's good.

Technical Support:

It's good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did, and we switched because Nutanix is easier to manage and configure.

How was the initial setup?

It's simple, just a few clicks are needed to configure it.

What about the implementation team?

We used a mixed team.

What other advice do I have?

You should look into this product if you are looking for a good piece of technology.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user323556

Sr. Systems Engineer at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

Oct 6, 2015

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It automatically balances and vMotions the VMs to other nodes on the cluster as resources are needed, although it's not hardware agnostic.

Valuable Features

The features that are most valuable to our company would be the ease of use and configuration. The Nutanix software automatically balances and vMotions the VMs to other nodes on the cluster as resources are needed. The Nutanix Cassandra intelligently moves around the metadata as needed. it’s practically a set it and leave it product.

Improvements to My Organization

Our whole infrastructure is maintained by two people. This is how simple it is to use Nutanix. Hyperconverged is the way of the future.

Room for Improvement

One thing I would like to eventually see from Nutanix is the ability to install the Nutanix OS on any hardware, making it hardware agnostic instead of depending on their expensive servers. NOS is what makes the whole Nutanix cluster work so well.

Use of Solution

Our company has been using Nutanix for a little over two years. We decided to implement the Nutanix solution when we decided to virtualize our entire infrastructure.

Deployment Issues

No issues encountered.

Stability Issues

No issues encountered.

Scalability Issues

Scalability is well thought out as well; you can scale out in every direction.

Customer Service and Technical Support

Nutanix support is second to none, their technical support is very knowledgable as well. Though you do pay a pretty penny for it.

Initial Setup

Deployment is simple and does not take much time. As long as your network infrasturuture is set up correctly, creating new LUN containers is just two steps. Adding another block only takes a few clicks as well.

Implementation Team

We had a vendor do the initial configuraiton and implementation for us. Everything was very straigthforward. The only thing is if you want to add another block (either because you need more space or more computing power), make sure to downgrade/upgrade your NOS software to the same as your current software, or it will not work.

Valuable Features

Small footprint
Scalability
Price when compared to other computer/storage solutions is better value

Improvements to My Organization

We are using it for an internal VDI solution and proof of concept for other possible projects.

Room for Improvement

None, everything is working great and I don't currently have any suggestions.

Use of Solution

We installed it in the middle of January 2015.

Deployment Issues

No issues encountered.

Customer Service and Technical Support

I've had to contact them a few times about minor first use things and they responded quickly and with great detail.

Initial Setup

It was very easy, and very smooth.

Implementation Team

They sent an engineer to help us set it up on site, and he walked us through the implementation.

Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing

We were pretty cut-throat on the pricing but we also bought it at the end of the year so we most likely got a good deal so they could make their numbers. We also only bought one year of support to keep the price within the project budget.

Other Advice

For the industry they are in, Nutanix is some amazing stuff. Even if we don't expand our footprint with them, I will personally be keeping up with their technology.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user302127

Network Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Aug 31, 2015

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It centralizes management, so we can build clouds anywhere, but they should replace all the hard drives with SSD.

Valuable Features

All the software-defined, hyper-converged, and cloud-based infrastructure provide our network with VMs and storage.

Improvements to My Organization

It centralizes management, so we can build clouds anywhere. Regardless of the hardware platform, it still works.

Room for Improvement

The processing power is OK, but for the future it needs to be better. Replacing all the hard drives with SSD would dramatically improve performance.

Stability Issues

Very good compression
QoS is very good

Scalability Issues

It's highly scalable because it's all in the cloud.

Customer Service and Technical Support

We often use technical support, but usually we grab an account manager who sends an entire team.

Initial Setup

It was very easy.

Other Advice

The solution you choose will depend on your budget. If you want to build a hybrid cloud, and have a good balance between cost and performance, then Nutanix is good option.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user244362

Managing Consultant with 51-200 employees

Aug 30, 2015

Nutanix vs. VMware EVO:RAIL vs. FlexPod

Originally posted at www.storagegaga.com/dont-get-too-drunk-on-hyper-converged/

I hate the fact that I am bursting the big bubble brewing about Hyper Convergence (HC). I urge all to look past the hot air and hype frenzy that are going on, because in the end, the HC platforms have to be aligned and congruent to the organization’s data architecture and business plans.

The announcement of Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant on Integrated Systems (read hyper convergence) has put Nutanix as the leader of the pack as of August 2015. Clearly, many of us get caught up because it is the “greatest feeling in the world”. However, this faux feeling is not reality because there are many factors that made the pack leaders in the Magic Quadrant (MQ).

First of all, the MQ is about market perception. There is no doubt that the pack leaders in the Leaders Quadrant have earned their right to be there. Each company’s revenue, market share, gross margin, company’s profitability have helped put each as leaders in the pack. However, it is also measured by branding, marketing, market perception and acceptance and other intangible factors.

Secondly, VMware EVO: Rail has split the market when EMC has 3 HC solutions in VCE, ScaleIO and EVO: Rail. Cisco wanted to do their own HC piece in Whiptail (between the 2014 MQ and 2015 MQ reports), and closed down Whiptail when their new CEO came on board. NetApp chose EVO: Rail and also has the ever popular FlexPod. That is why you see that in this latest MQ report, NetApp and Cisco are interpreted independently whereas in last year’s report, it was Cisco/NetApp. Market forces changed, and perception changed.

The most glaring gap of the Gartner MQ is, it does not measure how good each technology is against the competitors, and therefore, boxes like Nutanix and Simplivity, and also the motley crew of so-called EVO:Rail partners, are simply betting on how good they pitch to get into the MQ Leaders Quadrant as part of their agenda.

It is not common that a vendor would do a bake-off against a competitor because one might fall flat on his/her face if they lose the bake-off. Recently we witnessed the big shouting match between Nutanix and VMware, each trying to out-boast the other with claims and counter claims of how good their performance was. Here is VMware’s Chuck Hollis’ piece and here is Nutanix’s piece (part 4 anyway). It was hounding the blogosphere with so much *bleep* that it felt like a game of Kabaddi. (Look up the game of Kabaddi).

The dare, double-dare and triple-dare went on for a few weeks between VMware and Nutanix until Storage Review, an online “independent” storage articles and news aggregator, probably got sick of this undignified spat. Storage Review ran the Nutanix’s tests (and blogged about it) and came up with some unexpected results. Nutanix got disillusioned and started to dictate what should be in the performance tests and went through some “innocent” and “hilarious” acts to justify the results. You can read about them here. Page 2 of that article started the “We ask you not to …” comments to Storage Review, which I thought was really funny.

That’s just it. The Hyper Converged vendors spend a lot of the resource and marketing on hypping up performance, and little of everything else. It is true that storage performance is needed for 25-30% of the active data. However, in any organization, we know very well that 70-75% of the data in the entire data lifecycle is non-active, Tier-3 or archived data. Hyper Converged systems and platforms ignore this passive data space. They do not play with inactive data landscape because the $/GB or $/TB is too expensive.

Furthermore, if we look at the entire HC thingy more close, it is just Software-Defined because it is just a wonderful piece of proprietary software running on an ODM (original design manufacturer) x86 platform. EMC VSPEX is rumoured to be running on the Quanta systems and Nutanix on Supermicro. Why do we need to pay a premium price for a piece of whitebox hardware?

We must overcome the hype and read beyond the messages that vendors, partners who tend to oversell their technology. We must look at what is required in our business, in our operations and look at our data requirements. I constantly share that we must look at our data landscape and use the 7 points that I always use to consider a technology – Availability, Performance, Protection, Accessibility, Management, Security and Compliance. Is the HC technology and the solution relevant to your organization’s business?

So, if you want to Hyper Converged, please Hyper Converge responsibly. Your data landscape architecture will thank you for it.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user307227Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

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Jan 6, 2016

Brian - I think your analogy of buying a car is perfect..... for the average driver. I run all season tires on 2 of my 3 vehicles - they perform *adequately* in *most* conditions. However, when I want to drive in harsh conditions, or at a higher performance level, I equip my car with tires that are designed for the conditions. Thus while I happily drive in the blizzard, I pass the GLKs, the Jeeps, etc., because my winter tires are designed for the cold and the snow, while they are sitting in the ditch spinning with their OEM tires.

I'd like to thank you for pointing out that Nutanix is geared to the "get in and drive" consumer, rather than those who know and understand their processing needs. For those of us who still need a higher performing system, we will continue to assess, design, and implement systems that meet and exceed those needs.

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it_user300495

Senior DevOps Engineer at a hospitality company with 10,001+ employees

Aug 28, 2015

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IOPs has increased as new nodes are added, although it has a high upfront cost.

What is most valuable?

Ease of installing the hyper-visor
Out of the box High Availability

How has it helped my organization?

Decreased Rack space/power consumption
No need for SAN
IOPs has increased as new nodes are added

What needs improvement?

None, as I like that Nutanix listen to their customers, and implement new features to improve the kit.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for six months.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

It's excellent.

Technical Support:

It's excellent.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used a huge blade chassis with a SAN. We switched because of a bottleneck in the SAN, and it didn't scale well, as we hit queue depth limits. Some advantages Nutanix has over our old solution are:

Decreased the datacenter foot print
No need for hypervisor purchase with the addition of Acropolis
Reduce costs with regards to virtualisation technologies (i.e. VMware)
Features are at no extra cost
Ability to scale virtual hosts fast

How was the initial setup?

It's straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We did it in-house.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pricing is a little high but if you really look into what the product provides, the cost saving on setting up infrastructure and maintaining it is greatly reduced. Unlike VMware, features are provided at no extra cost. The support for the product is exceptional! Nutanix are keen to make sure their product excels in all areas.

What other advice do I have?

When you get over the initial shock of the price, and think about what you get you will never go back to the old way of implementing infrastructure.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user234747

Practice Manager - Cloud, Automation & DevOps at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

Aug 26, 2015

To get started with this hyper-converged infrastructure solution, the documentation is well-written, but they need to update their policies on who can access them.

Originally posted at http://vcdx133.com/

If you have just heard about Hyper-Converged infrastructure and Nutanix, read my Tech101 – Nutanix Virtual Computing Platform article.

First point, Nutanix has just announced the name change of their Virtual Computing Platform (VCP) to Xtreme Computing Platform (XCP) with the release of Acropolis and their new “Invisible Infrastructure” paradigm during the Miami .Next 2015 conference.

If you are not a Nutanix Customer, Partner or Employee, it is going to be very challenging getting your hands on their technology, KB articles and documentation. They have released the Nutanix Community Edition to get you started, but it will provide limited value for their Enterprise platform.

Nutanix need to update their policies on who can access their binaries, KB articles and documentation. Particularly if they want non-customers to investigate and become familiar with their technology. I have been informed they are trying to fix this. For example:

If you take the Nutanix Virtual Computing Platform Administration 4.1.1 course for NPP, some of the training material links to Nutanix documents that require a valid support contract.
You must be a Nutanix Partner or Employee to download the Foundation and Phoenix binaries.

The Nutanix documentation (HTML, EPUB or PDF) you want to get your hands on for NOS 4.1:

Setup Guide (publicly available)
Advanced Setup Guide
Field Installation Guide
Hardware Administration and Reference
Upgrade Guide
Web Console Guide (publicly available)
vSphere Administration Guide (publicly available)
Acropolis Virtualisation Administration Guide (publicly available – previously “KVM Administration Guide”)
Hyper-V Administration Guide (publicly available)
NOS Advanced Administration Guide
Nutanix Cluster Check (NCC) Guide
Command Reference (publicly available)
API Reference (HTML only – publicly available)

General observation, Nutanix documentation is very well written with an elegant font and format; very easy to read and understand.

The Nutanix Portal areas (HTML, EPUB or PDF) you want to checkout (if you have access):

Knowledge Base Articles
End of Life Bulletins (& Policy)
Field Advisories
Security Advisories
Support (for Support Request creation and management)

General observation, Nutanix support is very prompt and helpful, even for low priority requests.

The Nutanix hardware, software, binaries and licences you will need to start your journey:

Nutanix XCP block (any model), even as a PoC for a few months
Foundation (2.1 at time of writing) with the embedded Phoenix images for ESXi, KVM and Hyper-V
Nutanix Installer Package (2.1.3 at time of writing)
Prism Central (4.1.3 at time of writing – separate Hyper-V and ESXi versions)
Professional/Ultimate Edition Licences for your Cluster (for advanced features)
Nutanix Cluster Check (NCC – 1.4.1 at time of writing)
Nutanix Community Edition (with whitebox hardware or nested virtual)
Nutanix supported version of ESXi ISO image from my.vmware.com
Nutanix supported version of Hyper-V ISO image from microsoft.com
Nutanix KVM Hypervisor upgrade bundle
Various Tools and Firmware (eg. SCVMM Clone AddIn, SCOM Management Pack etc.)

What can you do to get started:

Register for Nutanix Training and get certified (free and paid options)
Register for the Nutanix Next Community to access Blogs, Activities and Forums
Register for the Nutanix Community Edition and deploy it in your lab (nested or physical)
Contact your local Nutanix office and request a PoC for your company
Work with a Nutanix SE to witness and participate in the deployment process in your PoC
Become a Nutanix Customer
Join a Nutanix Partner
Join Nutanix

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user298428

Systems Engineer at a government with 501-1,000 employees

Aug 26, 2015

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It eliminates the need to have a "storage team" when using virtualization, but it would be nice to be able to converge the network switch required to connect the Nutanix nodes together.

What is most valuable?

The reduced complexity of the overall system is a major plus, especially for smaller IT teams. Nutanix eliminates the need to have a “storage team” when using virtualization.

How has it helped my organization?

Beside the reduction in cost, we have been able to use Virtual Desktops for all our users. The Nutanix Hardware is capable of delivering the performance needed for Virtual desktop deployment.

What needs improvement?

Nutanix has made huge improvements over the past years and the product is very good at the moment. It would be nice to be able to converge the network switch required to connect the Nutanix nodes together. This can then be managed via the Nutanix Admin console.

For how long have I used the solution?

We were the first in New Zealand to implement the Nutanix converged infrastructure during December 2012.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have recently scaled up on our infrastructure without any issues. It takes longer to get the kit out of the box and in to the rack than what it takes to set it up.

How are customer service and technical support?

They have excellent customer service and has a few support contract options available to customers.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used to use an HP SAN but there is no way SAN’s can compete on performance with Nutanix.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was more about migrating between hardware than actually having complexity problems. Almost any systems engineer would be able to understand and administer Nutanix infrastructure in just a few days.
I’m confident that there is no infrastructure on the market now that is as simple to implement and configure as Nutanix.

What about the implementation team?

The initial configuration was done with assistance from Nutanix support. The guys there offer a great service and know the product well. During upgrades and such, we contact support to talk us through the process just because we can and it gives management a safe feeling.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Nutanix is very competitively priced and the reduced cost compared to a traditional SAN, and the increased performance and scalability sits well with the finance department. I suggest you talk to the Nutanix engineers and get a solution that is right for your workload and needs. Licensing is simple and easy to understand.