Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) Reviews

The primary use case is as our main provider for our infrastructure, for compute and storage for our main and secondary sites. 

Simplicity has been the most helpful characteristic emerging from a Nutanix-based solution.

From what can I see indirectly from our infrastructure team, I'd say the simplicity of management is the  most useful aspect. Whenever we have some necessity in terms of capacity and expansion of infrastructure, it's like a Lego system where they can just place in some more nodes and our needs are met. They just provision new nodes in a cluster, and everything just goes.

We have noted a reduction in the number of storage nodes. It helps reinforce the simplicity of the solution. There are many capacity problems solved by simply expanding the cluster. 

The reduction in the number of the nodes does have benefits - especially in terms of physical space. We can keep pour racks tidy and use a small footprint. It simplifies the physical infrastructure.

Unfortunately, I do not have information since I did not work directly with the solution. From my point of view, which is indirect, I did not see any relevant defects or needs for marginal improvements.

The pricing could be improved. 

We've been using the solution since around 2017. 

We have not had any issues with stability. 

The scalability is easy. It's simple. They just provision new nodes or set up new clusters. That's all you need to do. It's a great offload for maintaining the infrastructure itself. 

I haven't worked with support directly. I know the team is pretty much satisfied. they will go directly to Nutanix without going through the integrator. They are in direct contact with Nutanix support. 

Everyone seems satisfied. They see value in being able to directly reach Nutanix in order to exchange valuable knowledge. 

The company did use a different product beforehand, however, that was before my time. 

While I did not personally handle the setup, my understanding is it is easy. If we need to scale, we simply order new nodes and provision them, and that's it. 

I do not have visibility on the pricing. My understanding is that the team sees the pricing is fair for what we get. 

We do not use it for any AI or data analytics - yet. That said, we've seen a lot of focus on this area for Nutanix. Likely, we will make use of it more in the future.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. We don't use all of the functionality.

Our customer is in a POC for NUS for three nodes. They're using it as a backup target for Commvault. They have 120 TBs. This is what makes NUS very special. You can use it as a storage for backup or for any production storage. You can also use it for file sharing. These were our customer's needs and instead of giving them multiple products, we recommended NUS.

They will use it on Airgap with Commvault. 

Nutanix was fast and good. They have Commvault as a backup target, you can scale it as much as you want. You can add disks. Later on, you can reuse it as a production environment. So the customer was very happy with that. With Commvault, the restore and backup operations are really good.

You can also separate the networks. You can use it for production from the same appliances and another network for the DMZ. It's better than buying two storage systems or two backup targets for each one.

The capacity is very good. They use fewer nodes than before. Each node is isolated with the CPU with the performance. It is a cluster node but works separately, so the performance will be tripled.

We haven't gotten any bad feedback. 

I have been using NUS for three to four months. 

It's very good, it's very stable. The high availability feature works so that even if one node is down, you still can survive. 

Scalability is based on the nodes. You can scale as much as you want.

The support team is amazing. Our customer had one failure where it was not powering on at all. I opened the case and within two weeks, they replaced it with a new one. The customer is very happy with the help. They are wonderful.

Positive

My client was using Data Domain by Dell. Nutanix has better pricing, features, and cloud, and they're agnostic to any hardware.

The POC was very good. The implementation went smoothly. The customer still has a Dell environment so we gave him NUS to POC.

The pricing is very good. Compared to Dell and VMware, it's very good. VMware cost has doubled. 

I don't use it for AI purposes. I use it as a backup and storage system. The performance is for a backup. It's much better than compared to other appliances.

I would rate it a nine out of ten. Everything has been okay until now. The integrations are very good. Nutanix works well with Commvault. The customer is now finishing their POC.

Our primary use case is for virtual desktop infrastructure. We shifted our delivery storage. We installed other Nutanix files classes for it.

Another use case is for object configuration.

My company has benefitted from Nutanix Unified Storage because we have everything in a centralized place. With Prism Central, we can go to the console files and do what we have to do.

The simplicity of using the files and object, and the performance are really good.

We have all the storage that we need without doing any configuration. The protection it offers is also valuable. 

The data is stored in a LoadBalancer type of way. This feature is very interesting for us. 

There is some confusion in the reporting when I have to create the report for statistics. I find it is not so user-friendly. 

The analysis of data could be improved. We would like to have a better user experience for data analysis. 

We tested Nutanix Unified Storage three years ago and started using it two years ago. 

This whole year I didn't have any stability problems. 

Nutanix support is the best among all the competitors like Red Dot and VMware. Nutanix support is far better than the other competitors. We were really small in 2014. The support was excellent and they were able to maintain that level of support. Every time we open a ticket, we have an engineer assigned, and the problem is fixed.

Positive

We installed Nutanix in 2014. We were the third company to install Nutanix in Italy at the time. We looked at the performance of VDI. 

We also looked at SimpliVity and traditional architecture. Nutanix's performance was far better than the other two competitors.

I don't mind the licensing. It's very simple to license. The pricing structure changed last year. The price seems fair.

We already have Nutanix, and then we use OpenShift together with CSI for block and volume service.

I would rate Nutanix Unified Storage a ten out of ten. 

We are mainly using it for VDI profile and business continuity for that area.

The HCI concept was relevant for us while going for Nutanix Unified Storage.

For DR and VCP purposes, we have two sides where the storage resides, and the replication feature is very nice for these kinds of scenarios.

It gives us the flexibility and the agility to work from both sides.

DR and the replication power are valuable.

We are using it in a very narrow area. I am not sure if there are a lot of enhancements for that. Pricing can always be better.

We have been using Nutanix Unified Storage for more than two years.

We did not use their technical support, so I guess its stability is okay.

It scales well.

We have not used their support a lot.

We are using another NAS solution for different use cases. We are using both solutions. We went for Nutanix Unified Storage because, for VDI purposes, everything is in the same box. There is a shorter distance for the IOs to go out from the nodes and everything. It is all in the same box.

We see an ROI, but that is not from using this particular solution because it is a very narrow use case. It is a combination of the UC solution.

It is not too high for what we are using.

We are currently utilizing some tools to protect unstructured data in our organization. These tools are very important because we are a regulated company and a bank.

I cannot assess Nutanix Unified Storage for detecting and blocking ransomware threats. It is only for the user profile. We are not using it as a fully blown NAS solution. We have other solutions for that.

Overall, I would rate Nutanix Unified Storage an eight out of ten.

The first use case, we mainly want to use it for our Citrix profiles. So that will be the main usage of files and maybe also other applications. 

Before, we had the classic Windows file server. Because Windows file server is just that, one alone, and we want to be able to replicate, recreate it, etcetera. So we tried to use Nutanix Files. Our use case is also that we can then fulfill files replicated on Rubrik.

We also use it for objects, because we can't back it up on a Rubrik, we have another cluster, which then functions as the backup for the object storage.

We haven't already seen the benefits because we're still in the engineering phase. The main focus is that we have failover in place. We always have access to the data, and we're not blocked in case of that.

The best feature is that it's on Nutanix itself. In comparison, if Windows file server gets killed, then all the data is gone but for Nutanix, it's on another layer. 

It gives more security that the data isn't going to get lost. 

The replication is better solved if we have Nutanix Unified Storage because one file site storage solution has at least three VMs. If one VM doesn't work, it gets replicated on the other two, which means we always have access to the data in comparison to Windows File Server.

It's a little bit slow because there's so much in the underlying layers that even after talking with Nutanix support, I couldn't really grasp it. 

There's still a little bit of a learning curve, but the support was really helpful.

We only started engineering with it this year. Our project is now in the phase where we engineer Nutanix Unified Storage, mainly files, but also a little bit of objects.

We have issues with stability sometimes. I found one specific issue kind of bizarre where in one of our clusters, the underlying inode was full.

I thought, for example, the inode, after some time, would delete all data so that it doesn't get full. But in that case, it was full. Then, the whole cluster shut down. It also deleted one of the other files that Nutanix needed to work. Even the support guys didn't under how it happened but they were able to fix it. 

The tech support is very good. One time, I didn't have the Zoom session on my computer. So the guy I talked with told me what I had to do, and I could also ask questions about the template, in terms of how it works or what it is exactly. 

It was really helpful to be able to show the person on the other side what exactly was happening when I asked questions. They were helpful.  

Positive

Initially, we deployed everything through Prism Element, where it functioned perfectly.

Our Nutanix partner told us to do it over Prism Central because if you do it over Prism Elements, then it's tough. You have problems managing it from Prism Central. 

Our focus is not on detecting and blocking ransomware because the Nutanix cluster we are building doesn't have access to the Internet. To be able to go to the server itself, they have to overcome a lot of clogs or boundaries.

I had to do with the licensing for Nutanix Objects Storage (NOS). While NOS comes with one terabyte of free space, if you actually want to use it, even just for development reasons, we have to buy some terras, or otherwise, it wouldn't work.

Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten. With the migration from Prism Element to Prism Central, some things don't really work, but they are always trying to modify it and make changes.

We are a managed services provider, and we customize solutions for every use case. For example, we have a client who built up file servers on Azure and found it very cost prohibitive. Thus, they wanted to move back into Nutanix Unified Storage to reduce costs. Our clients have seen a 7% to 10% reduction in storage costs. We have been able to achieve a 4:1 compression using Nutanix Unified Storage.

We have one client who is currently doing a POC with Nutanix Data Lens.

We have been able to improve efficiency metrics such as performance, dedup, and energy savings by using Nutanix Unified Storage.

One of our clients has 14 different locations, and having a single pane of glass with Nutanix Unified Storage would be a great help for them. We would not have to create 14 different consoles.

Nutanix needs to improve their cybersecurity options at the storage level.

We've been working with this solution for a year.

We have not seen any issues with the stability of the solution.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. With a few clicks, you can stand your storage up. It reduces the overall life cycle of deployment within the ecosystem.

We have seen an ROI. When we build a solution for a five or six-year contract, we factor in the total cost of ownership. The total cost of ownership for Nutanix is very competitive.

Compared to other solutions, Nutanix Unified Storage is cost-effective and efficient. It also has good performance.

I would recommend Nutanix Unified Storage and rate it a ten out of ten. You will be able to bring in scalability and flexibility. 

I use the solution for user home directories, profiles, and general file storage.

The product is very easy to manage. File Analytics allows us to track who's doing what. We can set up scenarios based on what the product alerts when somebody creates or deletes a bunch of files.

The solution's deployment and scalability are the most valuable features. The solution is simple and robust.

We originally deployed the file server VMs from Prism Element. So now we have to go back to Prism Element to manage them. Since then, Prism Central has gained the ability to manage file servers. It would be great if we could import older file servers into Prism Central to avoid having to manage things in two different places.

We have issues with software updates occasionally. The new features seem to be rolled out before they go through quality control.

I have been using the solution for three years.

The core infrastructure is rock solid. I don't ever have a problem with it.

The solution is extremely scalable.

The support is top-notch. I've never had a problem with the support. Whenever I have an issue, I typically get a federal person right away, and they work with me until the issue is solved.

Positive

Previously, we used Synology, QNAP, and NetApp. We switched to Nutanix Unified Storage because of its ease of management.

The initial setup was super easy.

The product is pricey. The pricing makes sense when running Nutanix Clusters just for files, but when running it to do everything, the per-terabyte limit gets a little pricey.

We use the solution mostly for SMB shares. Our environment was built using Nutanix. Since Nutanix Unified Storage was built into the platform, we decided to go with it.

By implementing the solution, we want to get rid of traditional NAS, consolidate everything into a single platform and alleviate having to run file shares based on regular Windows VMs. The product provides a single platform for file storage. We run our VMs and have our file shares on the same hardware. It's all protected at the same level of redundancy.

Nutanix Unified Storage has made it very intuitive for the administrators to have a simple console to log in and ensure everything's up and running. We have ransomware protection enabled within files. We also have backups. We are a lab, so we don't have any off-site storage.

The solution narrowed the gap between file administrators and Windows administrators. Typically, file shares are managed by Windows administrators. Now, the same admin can manage the virtual infrastructure and the Windows domain infrastructure in the same place.

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

We have a practice of testing different solutions and we completed a POC of Nutanix Unified Storage. 

The capability of Nutanix Unified Storage to store unstructured data is impressive. We have CCTV camera footage from each office location, and we can efficiently manage all the instructional data from a single interface. This is in contrast to Cisco, which represents a more complex system to manage.

Nutanix Unified Storage demonstrates resilience. The solution has the capability to duplicate data across multiple node storages, ensuring that if one node fails, the data remains accessible.

Having the capability to consolidate our storage through Nutanix Unified Storage gives us the assurance that we can oversee all our data under a single management team, rendering it more dependable.

We can utilize mixed storage block-sized objects and combine various databases within a unified interface. 

We can scale up or out without causing any interruptions to our service.

The concept of using the Gflag should not be employed in unified storage, as storage is a particularly sensitive domain. Allowing the use of the Gflag compromises the integrity of the Nutanix system and its established standards. While we do employ the Gflag to meet customer requirements, it's important to note that during maintenance activities, it becomes necessary to reset the Gflag to align with the customer's expectations. Thus, on one hand, the Gflag serves to support the customer, but on the other hand, customers become more reliant on the assistance of the Nutanix support team.

I have been using Nutanix Unified Storage for one month.

Nutanix Unified Storage is stable.

With Nutanix Unified Storage we can scale up and down accordingly.

The technical support is good. Our sole concern arises when we require assistance from them on weekends. We've noticed that the engineers' response time is slower during weekends.

Furthermore, when we ask for feedback regarding the nature of the issue and its resolution, we are only provided with a summary. This leaves us reliant on their support. They do not share internal articles with us; instead, they only provide generally available ones. If they could furnish us with detailed steps, we could address the issues independently, thereby saving time and reducing our dependency on Nutanix support.

Positive

The deployment took two days. We had several dependencies related to the required port openings that we had to satisfy while also adhering to our organizational standards during the process.

Normally we would only have two people involved in the deployment but because it was a new solution everyone wanted to be involved because they were eager to learn.

I would rate Nutanix Unified Storage a six out of ten because my experience is limited to the POC, and I haven't fully familiarized myself with the solution.

We also use Nutanix NCI and Database Service.

The POC involved a total of five people. One person conducted the testing, while the other four observed on Zoom through their screens.