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Linkoln King III - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Support Specialist at a educational organization with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Easy to use, easy to upgrade, and has an excellent support team
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the solution's ease of upgrading."
  • "The name of the solutions offered by Nutanix does not indicate what the tool does."

What is our primary use case?

We use the tool to run VMs and to replace SQL with errors.

How has it helped my organization?

Our organization can save a lot of space because of the product. We used to have a couple of racks of equipment, and now we have only half a rack.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the solution's ease of upgrading. We can upgrade everything on one screen with Life Cycle Manager.

What needs improvement?

The product should improve its naming convention. The name of the solutions offered by Nutanix does not indicate what the tool does.

Buyer's Guide
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)
July 2025
Learn what your peers think about Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: July 2025.
863,901 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution’s stability has been really good. I haven't had any problems so far. Anytime there is a problem, it is invisible to the customer because everything continues to run on another node.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product’s scalability is seamless. We have around 200 VMs running on our Nutanix cluster.

How are customer service and support?

I faced a hard drive failure when I was doing an upgrade. It was two o’clock in the morning, and I was worried because there was a mission-critical task, and the clusters and the nodes were not coming up. It took me three hours to figure things out, but the support person fixed everything in 30 minutes. So from now on, anytime I have a problem, I put in a work order and let the support team take care of it.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

Previously, we used Hyper-V. We switched to Nutanix because of its simplicity. Nutanix is simple and easy to learn.

What about the implementation team?

Nutanix professionals visited us, asked about our preferences, and set up the solution. It was a great experience.

What was our ROI?

The solution helps us save 10 to 20 percent more money than other products.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated other hyper-converged solutions like Dell but chose Nutanix because we already used Nutanix’s AHV and hardware.

What other advice do I have?

Apart from saving money, the product gives us peace of mind.

NCI made a big positive impact on our business-critical workloads. Our team is comfortable working with NCI because of its ease of use. With Life Cycle Manager, all our equipment stays up to date.

NCI saved us money because we don’t have to pay separate license fees for each separate piece. NCI helped consolidate the work to one person and free up our staff for other projects.

People will not regret choosing Nutanix, especially if they come from a more complex environment. The product will give them peace of mind and less headache.

Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Owner at a computer software company with 1-10 employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Our customers have consolidated all external data in Nutanix clusters, reducing footprint and power consumption
Pros and Cons
  • "The snapshots, cloning, and replication are all effective in helping to reduce downtime. It can replicate cluster data for disaster recovery and it provides high availability in case a node or a disk fails."
  • "They could improve the graphical user interface."

What is our primary use case?

One of the municipalities in Istanbul uses it for virtual servers in their data centers. They have about 150 virtual servers.

How has it helped my organization?

Before Nutanix, our customers were using VMware with external storage from HPE, IBM, and others. They have been able to consolidate all the external data in the Nutanix clusters. That has reduced their server footprint as well as power consumption, which is important for the environment.

Nutanix has a very rich feature set and product solutions that are good for our customers. Instead of using different types of solutions, Nutanix covers all of them. That is a very big advantage. Often, to get the best feature sets, you need a lot of vendors, each one having different products. Vendor management, in that case, is difficult. But with Nutanix, everything comes from the same vendor, making vendor management easy.

What is most valuable?

There are a lot of features but the main ones are related to storage. Nutanix provides a software-defined storage solution for virtual servers.

It also has a lot of available services when it comes to infrastructure, and our customers use most of them. It provides a redundant set of data. The snapshots, cloning, and replication are all effective in helping to reduce downtime. It can replicate cluster data for disaster recovery and it provides high availability in case a node or a disk fails. Nutanix's availability feature set is bigger than that of other solutions.

What needs improvement?

They could improve the graphical user interface. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a robust and very stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's also very scalable.

How are customer service and support?

They are very responsive and provide quick resolutions.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The setup is automated and very easy. The time it takes to deploy depends on the project, but in most cases it will take several hours. One person is enough to do the deployment.

Our deployment is on a private cloud, but you can use public cloud because Nutanix has agreements with Azure, Amazon, and other public cloud services.

In terms of maintenance, it's easy to update Nutanix because you can download hardware/firmware upgrade sets and deploy all of them. I worked with VMware for at least 15 years. You can upgrade VMware products, but you can't upgrade hardware firmware with VMware. You need to contact the hardware vendor or support sites. They are separate things. But with Nutanix, you can deploy hardware firmware and software updates together.

It is also very easy to add compute and storage on demand with Nutanix. You can put a disk into an empty slot and, in several minutes, it's working.

In addition, you can get training very easily with Nutanix University and there are certifications. When you complete Nutanix University courses, they provide free certification exams. If I can compare it with VMware, I attended a conference and I passed a VMware certificate exam, but they didn't give me a certificate and said I had to attend a VMware class that costs about $2,500.

What was our ROI?

Our customers see ROI with Nutanix. Using it, they have very efficient infrastructures. They benefit from the reduced footprint, lower power consumption, and easy management. It also gives them efficient data storage with compression, deduplication, and easy snapshot features to reduce the data footprint. All of these things make it worth the licensing costs.

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

It's a bit expensive, but it's worth it.

What other advice do I have?

Nutanix has a lot of products and solutions to provide a complete cloud-integrated infrastructure. Our customers use some of them, but not all of them.

My advice is to use Nutanix, without hesitation.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)
July 2025
Learn what your peers think about Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: July 2025.
863,901 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1234917 - PeerSpot reviewer
AVP-Datacenter Practice at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Real User
The solution reduced our infrastructure management costs and eliminated downtime
Pros and Cons
  • "Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure has a simple, user-friendly GUI, and I also like the remote recovery capabilities. It provides a single platform for managing databases."
  • "In a hybrid cloud setup, we should be able to port our floors from on-premises to the public cloud and from the public cloud to on-premises."

What is our primary use case?

I use the virtualized component of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure to host some of my applications. We also use it for disaster recovery and replication. We're using Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure to run our CRM software, HR solutions, and databases.

How has it helped my organization?

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure has reduced our infrastructure management costs. The solution helps us eliminate downtime. We haven't had any downtime in the past two years—even during the updates. Upgrades are smooth and easy, but we still need to plan ahead because there is a reduced workload while the updates are happening. 

The solution helped us consolidate applications because we were previously using a three-tier architecture with different sets of servers, storage, and networking. Now everything is on Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure. We also save on rack space and power cooling. We are in the process of modernizing other applications and setting up DRs. 

What is most valuable?

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure has a simple, user-friendly GUI, and I also like the remote recovery capabilities. It provides a single platform for managing databases. They have Nutanix-validated designs for databases that optimize them for performance. They have some guidelines and designs for best practices. It has helped us improve the performance of transactions.

What needs improvement?

In a hybrid cloud setup, we should be able to port our floors from on-premises to the public cloud and from the public cloud to on-premises.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure is reliable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure is a scalable solution, but our organization won't have any need to scale for another two years or so. It's easy to add computing power and storage on demand. 

How are customer service and support?

I rate Nutanix support an eight out of ten. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

We also use VxRail.

How was the initial setup?

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure is deployed on-premises in Mumbai. The Nutanix professional services team deployed the solution. The deployment was straightforward but required some upfront planning. We need to design a solution for our environment. We completed the deployment in under a week. It took us one week to plan and another to execute. Only one person is required to administer and maintain the platform. 

What was our ROI?

We have calculated that we will see an ROI within three years of implementing Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure. 

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

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure could be cheaper. It's costly to upgrade the solution. There are no additional costs aside from the license. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure an eight out of ten. Initial planning is critical when you deploy a solution like this. You need to plan in terms of capacity, sizing, and environment. It's essential to understand your requirements. With appropriate planning, you won't face problems in the future.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer2183859 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior IT Manager at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Real User
A cost-effective and reliable solution with a straightforward setup
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure is its low cost, guaranteed to failover and failback with only a few clicks."
  • "Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure can be improved in terms of the sizing of the solution."

What is our primary use case?

We had a DR within our country and thought of moving to a public cloud. We found the solution in DRaaS from Nutanix. We did a POC and implemented it as the first customer in the email region.

How has it helped my organization?

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure is very cost-effective and reliable. We get notified if there is any issue in a snapshot or replication.

NCI definitely helped improve our organization's security posture. We have used many solutions from a security perspective, like the Nutanix Flow, micro-segmentation, and snapshot that we have over the Nutanix site to help us recover and protect our VMs from any attacks. Having the snapshots and having the flow on-prem helps us to know the flow between the VMs and the nodes. It gives us the visibility to see if any unusual things happen within it.

NCI helped our organization save time and cost. We don't need to spend time and focus on things that Nutanix is doing for us. We got the DR up and running for the cost of a point-to-point connection between our on-prem and existing DR. So it's a massive saving of time and cost.

We used to have one person dedicated to ensuring that snapshots and replication were happening on a daily basis. Nowadays, we get notified proactively by Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure if something is not working well, and my staff gets time to work on other projects or tasks.

What is most valuable?

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure's most valuable feature is its low cost, guaranteed to failover and failback with only a few clicks.

What needs improvement?

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure can be improved in terms of the sizing of the solution. Recently, I have had minimum requirements or usage of the solution. So, small and medium enterprises will not fit into such a scale.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure for around four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure is very stable.

How are customer service and support?

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure's customer support is very good. They monitor everything, and if something is wrong, they notify us before we know about it.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure's initial setup is straightforward and very easy. An experienced engineer assisted and guided us through the best practices.

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

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure’s pricing is very good and competitive.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated AWS, Azure, and Nutanix, and since we are already a customer of Nutanix, we preferred to go with Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure. Most of the features we got with NCI are because we are already a customer and already have the setup on-prem from Nutanix. We found the other options very costly and would not have got many of the features we are getting with NCI.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I rate Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer2183805 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Infrastructure Architect at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Provides good stability and flexibility for VDI and server utilization
Pros and Cons
  • "Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure's most valuable features are all the cloud facilities or benefits it provides for my data center."
  • "Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure's cloud platform management software could be improved so that I can manage my load between the cloud and on-premises."

What is our primary use case?

We use Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure for VDI, SuperMicro servers, hypervisors, and server utilization. We do have another use case in a production environment.

How has it helped my organization?

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure is an evolution of technology because it simplifies everything. It mitigates the operation risk because you don't have people handling storage, and you don't have to have storage solutions. It makes everything easier for the administrator and the company, not just because of risk but for stability. Our mission-critical applications are doing their best, running on this platform.

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure is an evolution of technology because it simplifies everything. It mitigates the operation risk because you don't have people handling storage, and you don't have to have storage solutions. It makes everything easier for the administrator and the company, not just because of risk but for stability. Our mission-critical applications are doing their best to run on this platform.

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure helped our organization save time and cost. You can save time using this technology because it simplifies everything, including the process and the deployment. When I moved to NCI, I got rid of the SAN infrastructure or the storage network, which was very expensive. As a result, my whole team can do a better job now because they can focus on other things instead of managing the storage network

What is most valuable?

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure's most valuable features are all the cloud facilities or benefits it provides for my data center. Everything that I do in the cloud, I can virtually do in my own data center. NCI provides other benefits like elasticity, upgrading, expanding the cluster, and growing the cluster. Since NCI is non-disruptive, we don't have any downtime when we add new nodes. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure's stability and flexibility are just awesome.

What needs improvement?

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure's cloud platform management software could be improved so that I can manage my load between the cloud and on-premises.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure’s stability is awesome. Stability is one of the things that we appreciate more in Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure, as we don't have any downtime with the solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In our current environment, where we use NCI, we have seven clusters. Most of them are four to seven nodes, and the one we use for VDI is three nodes.

How are customer service and support?

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure’s customer support is great.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

What was our ROI?

We have seen a return on investment with Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure regarding availability, support with response time and knowledge, and peace of mind.

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

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure's pricing is higher now. I think Nutanix is trying to make the whole ecosystem look simple.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Before choosing Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure, we evaluated other options like Cisco HyperFlex and VxRail VMware. We chose NCI over the others because it is cloud native. Unlike other solutions that bring software from other places and can't handle storage, Nutanix is a whole ecosystem.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I rate Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure a ten out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Janak Bhatt - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Infrastructure Manager at a construction company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Excellent stability, saves money, and clones systems with ease
Pros and Cons
  • "It is very easy to clone systems using the solution."
  • "The product requires a lot of resources."

What is our primary use case?

We host our healthcare customers’ servers using the solution.

How has it helped my organization?

Previously, we used three-tier architecture. Now, we have everything on one platform. With Life Cycle Manager, we do not face any downtime during updates.

What is most valuable?

HCI and DR are very valuable to us. It is very easy to clone systems using the solution.

What needs improvement?

The product requires a lot of resources. We have to assign a lot of resources to the servers.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for the last seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution’s stability is excellent.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product’s scalability is very good.

How are customer service and support?

Whenever we call the support team, there is an SME present on the call. They resolve our issues instantly.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

Previously we used VMware and Hyper-V. We switched the solution because Nutanix’s support is excellent.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

A Nutanix engineer was present on-site during the deployment.

What was our ROI?

We saved money when we moved our cloud servers to on-premise.

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

The product’s licensing fee is moderately expensive.

What other advice do I have?

My organization is the first company to deploy Nutanix in India. We deployed the solution in Gujarat, Sacramento, and Texas. The solution has beautiful architecture.

Our customers are from the healthcare industry, and they cannot afford to have downtime. With Nutanix’s robust solution, we never face any downtime. Everything we need is available within Nutanix. We do not need to buy any other product.

Previously, most of our workload was on Azure and AWS. Now we have a hybrid setup. We save a lot of money. We use around 4000 VMs in our data center. Upgrading hosts have to be done manually in VMware. Nutanix helps us a lot from a management perspective.

People planning to buy the product should evaluate their expenses in the current infrastructure and understand how much they will save from implementing the solution.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
IT Manager at Q4 Fuel
Real User
Serious reliability and stability across the entire system makes for ROI
Pros and Cons
  • "One major thing that comes up again and again is stability. Our downtime is literally based on hardware upgrades that need to be done. Acropolis is very, very user friendly. You don't have to physically have a super IT guy to manage the system. You can actually give it to a younger guy to manage and there won't be problems. And if he makes a mistake, it's very, very easy to fall back and sort out the mistake."
  • "In terms of what I would like to see improved, I would say the life cycle management. I don't know if it is because they changed to an LCM from the previous way of upgrading the hardware or software but sometimes it feels that it needs a wizard that says, "Check this, check this," telling you your options. The only thing that's a bit frustrating for me is the life cycle management interface. That's the only thing on the entire system that frustrates me."

What is our primary use case?

One of the components that we like about using Nutanix Acropolis AOS is its ability to interact with hardware. You don't have to go into different systems, all your locked files and everything for the hardware is directly available.

Our use cases are for data storage. We use the total Nutanix system in connection with Inuvika. We are busy phasing out all our work stations, where we basically go back to the principle of old bank terminals. When you boot up, you're going into the Inuvika environment, which runs five physical servers on the Nutanix. The accessibility of the performance and upgradeability of the system increase about five-fold where you don't have to upgrade workstation performance, you only add an additional Nutanix server node if you want to increase your performance on your users' workstations. An important feature for me that comes with a hypervisor, as well as the AOS in combination with everything, is the backup redundancy, as well as the encryption component on the server that we use quite extensively. Since we've installed Nutanix our downtime was about 40 minutes to an hour, and that was just to do a memory upgrade on the system.

How has it helped my organization?

In terms of how Nutanix Acropolis AOS has improved our organization, for starters, the one major thing that comes up again and again is stability. Our downtime is literally based on hardware upgrades that need to be done. Acropolis is very, very user friendly.

You don't have to physically have a super IT guy to manage the system. You can actually give it to a younger guy to manage and there won't be problems. And if he makes a mistake, it's very, very easy to fall back and sort out the mistake.

What is most valuable?

The features that I have found most valuable depend on the scenario. The nice thing with the Acropolis design is that in a specific situation where you've got either the problem or you need to adapt quickly in connection with the setup in the environment, they really work through everything. 

The total solution is valuable, you can't split it up. The nice thing with the AOS, as well as basically the entire Nutanix system is that you are not time bound to increase your entire node or service setup. You can add additional nodes as time goes past. It's not like VMware, for example, where it looks like you've got a time period where you have to finish your entire setup, otherwise the upgrades and the newer hardware and that kind of stuff become a problem. Nutanix is very, very backwards compatible, as well as forwards compatible.

What needs improvement?

In terms of what I would like to see improved, I would say the life cycle management. I don't know if it is because they changed to an LCM from the previous way of upgrading the hardware or software but sometimes it feels that it needs a wizard that says, "Check this, check this," telling you your options. The only thing that's a bit frustrating for me is the life cycle management interface. That's the only thing on the entire system that frustrates me. I'm very, very happy with the other stuff.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using Nutanix Acropolis AOS for roughly four years now.

We are currently using the full setup of the system and it's very stable.

We are using the latest version. We update our system on the LTX every time a long sported version comes out and it's very stable.

We are running on-premise. We're running roughly 40 servers on it, which is a combination from Linux, our PBX system, Windows Operating Systems and additional data software that we've built on our own distro's on the system itself.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Nutanix Acropolis AOS is very stable.

Since we started it up, the only time that we had any problems on it or downtime, if I can put it that way, was literally to upgrade the memory. That's it.

In the last three years since it's been running, it was peace of mind. We didn't have any problems and even with Nutanix overseas, we had a faulty memory module and the system worked perfectly, and they sent us a new memory module. We sent the old memory module back and that process with Nutanix support was magnificent, zero frustrations.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is very scalable. We see the scalability in two places. Point number one for scalability, if we need additional hardware by installing an additional node, it's not painful at all. You just put in the node, you tell your Acropolis to find it, integrate it with the system, and everything operates seamlessly. It automatically balances all your virtual machines between all your nodes that you've got at that stage.

Additionally, I used it in our environment a lot as an additional backup for our remote sites. Where we basically have two Nutanix nodes on each remote site and because data in South Africa is very expensive we don't have a lot of bandwidth between our sites. So during the evenings, I replicate everything to our primary server setup that we've got and it works perfectly, no problems.

We have 6,000 units or servers. We are running currently from high performance users right through to just Word and Excel people. We are in the area of 250 users that are running on the system.

Nutanix is at the core of our business. So if the Nutanix falls over, our entire company will go offline.

At this stage it is not necessary to increase usage, but they're talking about opening additional branches, then we will be looking at another two or three nodes within the next two years.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is excellent.

I'm thinking about the two situations that we had. One was the memory problem that we had, and this guy from America explained in detail everything that he did. How the testing principles worked, how the process operated and he put us in connection with all the correct people. The entire process in that case was extremely streamlined and extremely user friendly. Then our second scenario that we had was in connection with upgrade faults that I made, and they explained what happened and how to fix the problem. So yeah, they are excellent.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward.

In South Africa, we've got this saying for the test principle, keep it straight and simple. That is the principle that I followed with it.

Our deployment took us longer to get all the cabinets prepared for the servers or for the nodes than it actually took to set up the entire Nutanix system. I think it took us about half an hour to 45 minutes since we started, and we started installing our first VM on the system.

In the setup, there are literally two people responsible.

I am the IT manager and we've got my 2IC, and we're the only two that work with the servers on all six primary sites.

What about the implementation team?

We did it through Pinnacle Micro and the guy helped us extremely well and was extremely knowledgeable about the Nutanix product and the systems around it. They were extremely knowledgeable in the Nutanix environment and with the processes and risks that need to be assessed. It was an excellent experience and not only the fact that they actually came out and talked to us, it wasn't all over the telephone.

What was our ROI?

We were running a stand-alone service originally. So we saved a lot of money on hardware upgrades that we needed to do. We saved a lot of money on energy consumption. As you know, power or electricity in South Africa is getting extremely expensive. We are now running at about 20% of our original power consumption and that also includes cooling the server room, reduction on security (physical security not cyber security). So all those components played a major role in ROI. Except for our hardware upgrades and that kind of stuff, we've saved about 200,000 Rand.

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

Our license is Rand based. I can't remember because we bought the license with other software as well. We did the licensing and it includes the support and everything over a five year basis.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We previously looked at VMware to build our hyperconverged environment. We started looking at costing and lifetime of products and it was quite shocking from my point of view. Because I feel a server must at least have the ability to run for five to seven years and then have scalability. And the thing with VMware is you've got quite a short shelf life on the setup. Meaning, you've got five years and if your system is not fully built, you start from scratch.

VMware versus Nutanix - number one, the cost is much lower with Nutanix. The hardware needed for operating the system is much cheaper and that played a major role in the choice that we made between Nutanix and VMware. The other major thing is the support that we got from the Pinnacle Micro guys. Actually, that's one of the major points why we made the choice for Nutanix. They were very, very intuitive with your company, they knew what we needed, what possibilities to look at, what risks to assess, that kind of stuff.

Before choosing Nutanix I also played with VMware's ESXi open source setup. I also played with Nutanix's open source setup. When we setup Nutanix, it was a lot more intuitive and a lot more user friendly, versus the setup from VMware, which is not bad either. I'm not saying it's a bad product, don't get me wrong. It's just different.

What other advice do I have?

The biggest lesson I learned from using Nutanix Acropolis AOS was that at the stage when we looked at it, Nutanix was still relatively young - so don't underestimate the underdog.

My advice to anyone considering Nutanix Acropolis AOS is that you won't go wrong. It's an easy, maintainable system, it's user friendly. They designed quite an excellent product and with the support and the knowledge from the guys, you're not going to have problems in setting up a system like Nutanix.

On a scale of one to ten, I would put Nutanix Acropolis AOS in the area of eight to nine.

It is so high because for starters, I have not really had problems with Nutanix at all in the greater picture. We've had one or two incidents, which were mostly from our side, except for the memory situation, which was hardware related and not software related. They were always before the schedule on turnaround time for repairs and getting everything sorted out and repaired and up and running. I know a big thing is that local suppliers play a big role in support of hardware and so forth, but we didn't have any problems right through the bank.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at VertitechIT
Real User
Expands as per our needs, works without any issues, and has a good price
Pros and Cons
  • "It is less expensive than VMware products. It is also a little bit more flexible, but it really comes down to price for us."
  • "The software-defined networking should be improved. It is quite substandard as compared to the VMware variant. The software-defined networking is quite limited, and we usually use other products to do that. We're aware that Nutanix is working on that and will be coming out with better solutions, and we can't wait because to do a fully software-defined architecture, the abstraction layer needs not only software-defined storage, which you have, but also the software-defined networking piece."

What is our primary use case?

We have a very large deployment of our own, and we also sell a fair amount of it to our clients.

We deliver VDI systems over this and other similar technologies. We only work with hospitals. This is all in healthcare. We've essentially created private CloudOp architecture that we sell to hospitals for specialized VDI environments, and this is the product that we use.

In terms of the version, we have very significant installations of it for our clients. It is part of a product and service for which we work with our clients. I would assume we have the latest versions.

What is most valuable?

It is less expensive than VMware products. It is also a little bit more flexible, but it really comes down to price for us. 

What needs improvement?

The software-defined networking should be improved. It is quite substandard as compared to the VMware variant. The software-defined networking is quite limited, and we usually use other products to do that. We're aware that Nutanix is working on that and will be coming out with better solutions, and we can't wait because to do a fully software-defined architecture, the abstraction layer needs not only software-defined storage, which you have, but also the software-defined networking piece.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for about four or five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is quite stable. We had no problems with it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

So far, it hasn't been a problem for us. It is able to do all the expansions that we've needed.

How are customer service and support?

It is adequate. It is no better or worse than VMware's support.

How was the initial setup?

It was straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We started with a combination of consultants and Nutanix's professional services group, but now, we're supporting it all internally.

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

It is less expensive than the VMware alternative.

What other advice do I have?

You need to understand abstraction and virtualization properly to be able to deploy it properly. You should look at it as a real alternative to VMware.

I would rate it as an eight out of 10. It is less expensive than the VMware alternative. I wouldn't say it is better than the VMware alternative. If you consider VMware's software-defined networking piece, VMware has an advantage, but its cost is significantly less. For that reason, I would give it a high rating.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: July 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.