Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) Reviews

We use Nutanix Unified Storage for file storage and SMB sharing. My company has around 2,000 to 3,000 users on the platform.

We have massive storage needs and currently have 20 terabytes of storage Nutanix. We are storing around 10 or 11 terabytes of data on NUS. The cost would be huge if we wanted to add another NAS. 

A separate NAS would require us to buy more hardware and add switches. Nutanix allows us to add more storage inside the same cluster. It has significantly reduced our storage nodes by about 50 percent. It has been effective for us in terms of operations, management, and control. 

Nutanix Unified Storage is easy for end users to access. They can use it like any other drive on their systems.  We have mapped it in the user system so they can scan files and store them. They can use it just like an Android drive.

The dashboard could be more customizable

We have had Nutanix Unified Storage for four years.

I rate Nutanix Unified Storage nine out of 10 for stability. 

Nutanix Unified Storage is scalable. 

I rate Nutanix support nine out of 10. If you face any problems, support checks and resolves them immediately. 

We were using a VMware solution, but it required us to purchase separate storage and integrate it with the hardware. Nutanix is more convenient. 

We have Nutanix Unified Storage deployed on-prem in our data center. The deployment wasn't complex, and it only took two days. After deployment, NUS only requires periodic software updates but no patches. 

We see a 35 to 40 percent ROI on our investment. 

Nutanix Unified Storage isn't expensive. 

I rate Nutanix Unified Storage nine out of 10. I would recommend it to others.

Our main use cases with Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) are specifically for unified storage and file shares.

We are not doing any AI or ML workloads at this time.

It removes a layer of aggregation to present storage to end users, so we do not have Windows file servers. This benefits our company by reducing one of our attack planes from a cybersecurity perspective, so we do not have to worry about the OS. 

It also simplifies the storage to ensure we are not allowing anyone to get a file share wherever they want it.

They can include some playbooks for storage deployment. There should be more automation. Going deeper, I would appreciate seeing out-of-the-box automation for storage provisioning and maybe some more customer-facing, web portal-type or API functionality to Jira or ServiceNow.

I have been using Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) in this organization for about four months. Prior to that, I have used Nutanix Prism, not Unified Storage but the Prism series of products, for the past seven years or so.

We have had no issues whatsoever, and we have not had it go down.

From my understanding, Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) scales fine with the growing needs of my company, which is theoretical because we have not had to scale up yet. We buy hardware and add it to the stack and keep going.

We have never had issues with technical support from Nutanix. Nutanix has the best customer support in town.

Positive

We were using Windows VMs. It was still Nutanix, but it was not Nutanix storage. 

From my point of view, the biggest return on investment when using Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) is probably the lack of downtime associated with Windows file servers.

We are going through that right now. It is competitive with other vendors, but you get more for your dollars. It is fairly priced, but not cheap. 

I have not analyzed the total cost of ownership reduction until now, as I have only been here for four months.

We did not consider any other solution before choosing Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS), as we were already a Nutanix customer on our compute storage, and it was a natural progression.

I would rate Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) an eight out of ten. More automation could make it a ten, specifically out-of-the-box automation.

We use Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) for file storage options like storage pools and file servers. Additionally, we utilize Veritas for a third-party backup solution. We have been using all Nutanix-related products.

Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) is appreciated for its fault tolerance and redundancy at the cluster level, which ensures reliable storage of files, folders, and other information accessible on the client side. We utilize features like storage pool containers and file analytics tools for analyzing folder sizes. The functionality aligns with our management requirements.

Nutanix could improve the ability to track user actions, such as identifying who deleted a folder. Additionally, there is confusion regarding container size management; there should be an easier way to identify container sizes and associated storage usage. Nutanix should also consider archive-like functionalities similar to AWS and Azure for unused data, and allow quota assignment on subfolders.

I have been using Nutanix for around 10 to 15 years.

Performance-wise, Nutanix Unified Storage is good, but there are some issues with the security dashboard. It automatically triggers tasks, causing performance issues.

Nutanix needs to improve storage management similar to public cloud solutions like AWS and Azure for better scalability.

Nutanix technical support is excellent, with swift responses based on priority. I would rate it 10 out of 10.

Positive

We also use VMware, but for security and performance, I recommend Nutanix. It offers VM migration, automatic healing, resiliency, and security, making it a preferable option for critical VMs.

Installation of Nutanix Unified Storage was easy. We referred to the Nutanix Bible and utilized KB articles for guidance.

Pricing is good as per the market value.

We have been using VMware in addition to Nutanix.

I rate Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) a seven out of ten. It has good features but needs improvements in storage management and user permissions tracking. Consider consulting me for enhancements as I have experience and analysis reports that could help Nutanix succeed in the market.

Some of the features that we use include replication and snapshot capabilities, especially from remote locations to our data centers. The main benefit our company sees from using Nutanix Unified Storage is simplification. In the past, we used three-tier solutions with a lot of complexity and operational overhead. Now, we want to focus on the layers above. I want to have storage available, but I don't want to have to think about it. I want it to work without any issues.

The solution needs to be more open to integration with other vendors. Sometimes, we struggle with the support process. Our skilled engineers must explain our problems to everyone, even though we've already done preliminary investigations. The support team follows standard procedures, which can be painful. We're not a small customer, especially in the life sciences sector, so we'd appreciate more specialized support. I've heard Nutanix Unified Storage has teams dedicated to life sciences and healthcare; we should be part of that.

I have been using the product for five years. 

The solution's stability is good. We haven't heard about any issues with it, which is great. We have had issues related to hardware. 

We have used the tool's technical support and found it good. It's one of the best support services in the market. While some tech support experiences can be painful, Nutanix Unified Storage's support has been solid.

Positive

We see time and money savings from using the product. The simplification means we no longer need to worry about configuring small pieces. It's just a few clicks, and it's done. This saves us a lot of time and helps us avoid human errors. It's hard to put an exact number on the savings, but overall, it's a really simple process.

The solution's pricing is fair. 

The tool has been good so far. Our company has thousands of clusters installed, which we're using for virtualization and VMware. I want to explore whether there's a way to eliminate VMware. We want to try using AHV together with storage as a complete solution. 

Over the last five years, we don't have any other use cases with Nutanix Unified Storage. We're new to NetApp. We use NetApp extensively, and everything is connected to our NetApp ecosystem. We'll try the solution, but there are special use cases where we use some specific NetApp features that aren't available in Nutanix Unified Storage. 

One limitation we faced was the inability to use external storage, but I've heard that it's on the roadmap and should be delivered soon, which is awesome. Another important feature I learned about is the ability to scale up storage and compute independently. This is crucial for us because we've struggled with this in the past. It's good to see that you're listening to your customers.

We haven't been able to reduce the number of storage nodes so far because our systems are distributed worldwide. We need capacity everywhere, so it's hard to consolidate. However, we have been increasing the storage capacity in our storage nodes. I'm happy the tool allows us to think about storage and computing separately. We can grow each independently, which is good for our needs.

We initially used VMware virtualization, but we adopted a dual strategy by introducing Nutanix Unified Storage about five years ago. We saw great potential in it from the start. While there were some aspects we weren't fully satisfied with, we actively engaged with the tool, providing feedback. Our goal was to help make Nutanix our primary infrastructure solution.

The key factors driving us to adopt Nutanix Unified Storage fully are simplification and end-to-end coverage. We don't have to worry about building the solution or dealing with integrations.

I rate the overall product a nine out of ten. 

The Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) is for multiple use cases such as S3 for application use and providing files for users, including file servers; additionally, we are using the NUS for the cluster and other purposes.

For data-intensive workloads such as AI and ML in hybrid cloud environments, we have a different cluster where we are using NVMe and storage nodes that provide storage capacity with high performance; we are using the storage node as capacity from the Nutanix side to support this.

Overall, we see many benefits from using Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) for multiple purposes; we use Nutanix for our database automation, where we use the storage to store data, and we also use it for AI/ML workloads.

One of the best features of the Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) is that I find everything, all the solutions, in one single box; if you look into Nutanix, the HCI plus whatever storage is required as part of the requirements, such as if applications are hosted on Kubernetes or container platforms requiring S3, NFS, or any other protocol, we can access everything from a single system, eliminating the need to manage multiple systems and different storage in the data center, as one system from one OEM provides everything.

I have never seen any performance issues with the Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) for high-throughput and low-latency requirements in AI and ML workloads because we are using all NVMe as part of the storage.

The Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) has helped us consolidate our systems, thereby reducing our overall TCO significantly; we only deal with one OEM for any issues, allowing us to consolidate our infrastructure and reduce our data center footprint, so the overall TCO is a benefit to us.

While there are good aspects, I would like to see improvements in networking configuration, particularly regarding overlay and underlay, plus enhancements in micro-segmentation, as that would provide added advantages in security and data availability.

I have been working with the Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) for around six, six-plus years.

I have not had any performance issues with the Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS).

The Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) is scalable.

My experience with customer service and technical support of Nutanix is positive; the technical support is good and I do not encounter any challenges with it.

Positive

I have not used any different solutions before Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS).

We evaluated other options before choosing Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS); we previously worked with NetApp as our storage solution for a 3-tier architecture but not in the HCI context.

We did not purchase Nutanix through the AWS Marketplace; instead, we directly obtained it from a partner for our on-premise needs.

My experience with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing of the Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) is that it is competitive compared to other solutions available.

From a security point of view, my impression of the cybersecurity features in Nutanix when dealing with unstructured data like ransomware threats is positive; we are using the snapshots feature to ensure protection from ransomware and Flow for micro-segmentation as part of data security and segregation.

I have not had any issues with the security aspect or any challenges so far.

My advice to other organizations considering Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) is that if they are looking for consolidation and better TCO, or they want to run applications in their systems, Nutanix will be the right choice for them.

On a scale of one to ten, I rate this solution an eight.

Our primary use cases include using the immutable defined storage as a solution for backup, where we have warm backup as the immutable data that we can store there, ensuring that the security of that data will not be changed, which is our last part of security in the data lake.

The immutable data and the object storage are important to us as they provide the same solution as the public clouds with buckets of data that we can store inside. We have always had it, and it's important to integrate our backup solution using this with data course.

The immutable data and object storage are important to us, providing the same solution as the public clouds with buckets of data. In our current situation, we have benefits with NUS that our infrastructure depends on, and we have more benefits by implementing NUS integrated with our infrastructure. This part of Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) is particularly valuable.

We have been using NUS for about four years.

Regarding downtime issues, we haven't had downtime in generations, and everything is going very well. I wouldn't be able to provide negative feedback on that aspect considering the cost benefits.

We plan to assess our storage needs by increasing with ten more nodes, which add up to our storage, and we plan to expand further in the future. Currently, we have purchased ten nodes with approximately six hundred terabytes for our workload.

When considering the difference in cost benefits, if you consider it only as a storage solution, you may find it expensive. However, if you see NUS as a solution with additional features, in my opinion, it's cheaper than others, providing middle-term cost benefits.

When it comes to the vendor or partner, Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) is the best partner we have, so you need a partnership with them.

Our use cases can be divided in two. The first relates to end-user computing. We run Citrix on top of Nutanix clusters. It's highly stable, and we have a user base of around 8,000 people. It's a platform where people can claim government benefits, and many of our office staff at job fairs use it to access their applications. 

We also use it for backend functions in our data and analytics department. Our data lake solution uses cloud data housed on several Nutanix clusters in our data center. The application crunches that data and several analysts rely on it to predict things like fraud. 

The other side is a data warehouse we use for our SaaS application. It holds a massive data set that is pulled into the SaaS application, which crunches the numbers. With Nutanix, we can spread our SaaS worker VMs across several Nutanix nodes. They're all rolled together, but each worker is only dealing with the local data.

Once we patch a Nutanix cluster, we know it has also patched the storage element. We aren't dealing with the hypervisor separately, so we know it isn't completely separate from the SAN, which makes things a lot slicker. It's the same with the storage element.

From an analytics perspective, the best aspect of Unified Storage is its locality. When you read data, you want to know that you're only reading data from the particular local storage node. It's also critical to access the data as quickly as possible from that.  From a business perspective, the most important thing is ease of use. Having a combination of compute and storage makes it much easier to manage. 

We don't have any latency, which is one reason we continue to use Nutanix for these workloads. Our data warehouse has a traditional three-tiered structure and has been that way for many years. It doesn't mean it doesn't function, but we wanted to modernize it by improving performance. 

We achieved that using Nutanix. We could remove the latency you would get from reading your traditional SAN and combine all that into the Nutanix nodes on a cluster. 

It has reduced the number of nodes to a degree because we've been able to collapse several legacy SAN infrastructures into the Nutanix boosters. We still need that storage for three-tier, so we put it together outside. 

Historically, it has been a hyper-converged infrastructure, so when you are looking to grow the solution, you need to scale the compute and storage. Having the ability to scale the storage independently would be a good improvement. 

We have used Nutanix Unified Storage for nearly seven years. 

Nutanix technical support is generally very good. You can speak with someone, and they'll work behind the scenes to resolve the issue. If it's a more long-term issue, it may need to be passed from one team to another. It tends to work smoothly. 

Positive

We also use VMware, Oracle, and Linux hypervisors. When we adopt new tech, we add tenants to the picture because of what they can offer. We combine the skills of our system administrators and collapse them into one. Nutanix's advantage is ease of use. Compared to all the products we've tried, Nutanix performs just as well as anything else — better in some cases. 

Nutanix Unified Storage is competitively priced. There aren't any competitors that can do much better for the same price. 

I rate Nutanix Unified Storage eight out of 10. 

The use case for Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) includes using Nutanix Files for storage. We migrated from a legacy NFS system to Nutanix NFS, which we use to store business-critical files. Additionally, we perform backups with snapshot storage at remote sites. We also use Nutanix Volumes for scaled-out volumes and backups. We plan to integrate Nutanix Object Storage for internal backups and storage solutions. I have recommended using Nutanix Lens for data growth pattern analysis and data visibility.

The features I like the most about Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) include the direct availability of NFS and iSCSI storage protocols. This setup removes dependability on a server running on virtualization, offering us direct access to these protocols. This feature enhances monitoring, growth pattern analysis, and manageability, all from a single console. Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) provides stability and self-healing with no problems to report, establishing a reliable storage solution.

I suggest more flexibility and resiliency for object storage, supporting more protocols. The licensing terms are restrictive, as they go by terabyte cost. It would be beneficial to reduce costs and offer flexibility to encourage more usage of raw storage. Including a more granular snapshot restoration process would greatly improve usability, allowing us to restore deleted files rather than the entire share.

I have been using Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) since 2019, which amounts to about four or five years now.

The stability of Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) is commendable. The solution offers self-healing, and I have not encountered any problems with stability so far.

Scalability is fine with Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS); it allows compatibility and building on top of existing infrastructure. The scale-out capability works well, enabling us to run both legacy and advanced hardware seamlessly.

Technical support is adequate, but it is challenging to reach a subject matter expert quickly. As a technical person, I find it difficult to get direct answers from SMEs instead of going through initial support levels. This process can delay resolution.

Neutral

Previously, I used solutions such as Citrix, VMware, and Hyper-V. I chose Nutanix for its flexibility, intelligence, and straightforward management, which suits my day-to-day work much better.

The initial setup was not difficult, but having some prior reading makes understanding easier. Nutanix provides good knowledge resources, making it tech-user-friendly, although not necessarily easy.

I recommend that Nutanix include file storage features in the pro license or Prism Pro, reducing the cost per terabyte. This would encourage more usage, make the product more accessible, and optimize the idle storage present in clusters.

In my previous experience, I evaluated solutions from Citrix, VMware, and Hyper-V.

I rate Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) a ten out of ten. The solution is excellent for stability, scalability, and valuable features, although improvements in licensing flexibility and more granular snapshot restoration would enhance it further.

We use the solution more for Citrix profile VDI. We also have some Windows servers running, and we use Nutanix Unified Storage more for the server platform. If I remember correctly, we have more than 1,200 servers running on the Nutanix cluster.

Our company is a product-based company that performs order processing. Most of our applications are on the web. We also get invoices and a lot of files. It generates a lot of files and keeps them on the server, and the application is posted on some of Nutanix's servers as well.

In my experience, we haven't had any outages so far. The virtualization of the memory is based on the usage, and it consumes a lot. The previous tools were not as efficient as compared to Nutanix Unified Storage.

Nutanix Unified Storage is a cluster. Compared to any other virtualization environment, Nutanix Unified Storage doesn't require any downtime to upgrade and doesn't experience storage outages. So, things are going smoothly with Nutanix, and that's the best part of the Nutanix cluster for storage.

The solution's most valuable feature is the Prism Central centralized management console. We have close to eight to nine clusters and also remote sites. Compared to other tools, the solution is easy to manage. I would also like to mention the solution's ActiveDR concept and replication.

We have sites from different locations, and we are in the process of procuring ultimate licensing. Even if one cluster goes down, we can bring it up and have the application operating from the other site. That's the beauty of the tool, which makes it more efficient.

We use Cohesity from Nutanix to protect our organization's unstructured data. We also have a cloud-based Rubrik tool. Cohesity has the same infrastructure as Nutanix Unified Storage. I am an administrator for both Nutanix Unified Storage and Cohesity. We take snapshot-level backups. Since we are implementing ultimate licensing for remote sites, we will use an internal snapshot feature to replicate to the other sites.

The solution's storage and scalability features have improved our data operations. Our storage is increasing daily for business purposes. Nutanix Unified Storage has good scalability. We recently received some orders, and some nodes were added.

I like Nutanix's data locality feature because it improved our data accessibility and availability.

Implementing Nutanix Unified Storage has tremendously reduced the number of storage nodes by around 20% to 30%.

There is no tagging concept in Nutanix Unified Storage where you can tag the servers. It is more useful for backups because I manage backups as well. In other solutions, you can group servers in the backup. Although we can do a complete cluster of VMs in Nutanix, we cannot tag the server to a particular tag ID or number you can pull from the backup solutions.

If you call for that number, the server should ideally take the backups irrespective of the cluster in which it is present. We faced issues with those things. We have to protect the entire cluster manually. The server tagging feature could be added to the solution's future releases.

We didn't face any issues in Nutanix after the upgrade, but we had issues with the Cohesity backups. We consistently work with both the vendors, and that has been fixed. So that is the only thing that we had faced up to the upgrade.

We have been using the solution in my current organization for four years, and I used it for over a year in my previous organization. So, I have a total of five years of experience with Nutanix Unified Storage.

Nutanix Unified Storage is a stable solution. That's what we need. I see. As a customer, we look for such solutions to stabilize our environment and storage. Our day-to-day business requires that.

I rate the solution’s stability a nine out of ten.

Around 784 users use the solution in our organization.

I rate the solution’s scalability ten out of ten.

The solution's technical support is good and pretty responsive. We contact the support for small issues, and their problem-solving is the highest.

I rate the solution’s technical support a nine or ten out of ten.

Positive

The solution's initial setup is straightforward. The upgrade from a previous version to the latest version is also easy. I wasn't involved in the solution's initial setup because it already existed when I joined the company. However, I was involved in increasing the nodes, which took around three to four hours. I don't remember exactly because it's been a while since we added storage.

From what I hear from the management, Nutanix Unified Storage has comparatively decent pricing. I think we are in pro licensing and have yet to get ultimate licensing.

We are not into AI yet. I'm an administrator and not an authorized personnel for those things. We are a product-based electronic components reseller. From what I have heard from management, we will be implementing AI soon.

We are mostly concerned about and focused on security hardening. Some internal solutions, like SentinelOne, have been recommended for security hardening. However, we are not dedicatedly using anything. We are also checking Cohesity DataHawk, and we are still in the process of finalizing it.

The solution is deployed in eight locations. We have multiple nodes in our main data center and DR data center. We mainly use the solution for VDI profiles and server virtualization.

I told my old colleagues that we are using Nutanix Unified Storage, and they were pretty impressed with its features. I would recommend Nutanix Unified Storage to users as a unified storage solution.

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

We are using Nutanix Unified Storage for the clusters, the AHV, and the environment for our hybrid cloud setup. This was our part of the refresh activity. As a result, our database and SQL servers are running on this unified storage platform.

The challenge we faced was transitioning from our legacy platform, which was at the end of its life. We had the option to either buy some of the Dell platforms or go with a data center refresh activity. Most of our hardware was at the end of its support life, which was becoming costly. This led us to look for a better technology platform, and ultimately we chose the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform after conducting a POC. We found that some workloads were better suited for this environment, so we moved to Nutanix Unified Storage.

With Nutanix Unified Storage, managing our unstructured data is much easier. The platform's manageability is a significant improvement compared to what we were doing before. Previously, we had to invest a lot of manual effort in tasks like patching and upgrading, but now, most of these activities are self-service and transparent. One example of this is self-service, which allows us to quickly restore files or folders in just a few minutes. This has been very beneficial for our engineers, as it enables them to easily recover files and data on their own.

Nutanix Unified Storage is flexible. We can add storage as we need it because we can add it on the fly. Once we see that our capacity is reaching a threshold, we can easily add a new brick or additional storage to our platform. It's really easy, with no downtime or any other requirements. We can expand it very quickly.

Nutanix Unified Storage is resilient, making it easy to increase storage capacity compared to older three-tier systems. Previously, extending storage required extensive follow-ups and project activities, taking months to complete. Now, these tasks can be done within days or even minutes as soon as storage is available. If assistance is needed, a support ticket can be opened, but most of the time, it is quickly resolved through self-guided documentation. In just a few minutes, tasks that used to take months can now be completed in one day.

Nutanix Unified Storage has significantly improved our organization's disaster recovery capabilities. We have been using Rubrik to back up our other DR activities, making it easier to manage multiple sites. This has allowed us to meet our DR requirements and seamlessly expand our environment while still meeting DR goals.

Nutanix Unified Storage helps to unify our block, file, and object storage. We can easily scale the environment because it operates on a consumption-based model, allowing us to track usage daily and expand our storage accordingly. The platform also allows us to see the capacity of file objects in a single pane, making it easy to access all data platforms from one storage system. This provides flexibility as we can use it for checking block storage, object storage, or file-based storage as needed. Nutanix Unified Storage supports various workloads and storage types in a unified manner.

Nutanix Unified Storage allows our organization to manage and run its storage from one location using a single platform. The flexibility is also a significant advantage, especially with capacity-based licensing, as it enables us to scale our environment as needed. We have observed that sometimes we reach an 80 percent threshold, and based on that, we can plan our consumption model for the next three or six months. We can control both aspects effectively. Additionally, the platform offers a single pane of glass for management, making it very easy to handle. We don't need specialized storage admins; anyone with infrastructure knowledge can manage this platform effortlessly. It's a straightforward and efficient solution for managing and running our storage.

Nutanix Unified Storage has helped us eliminate silos in our organization. We can move critical workloads as needed for IOPS and performance, and these workloads have been running smoothly without any performance issues. We were able to utilize different storage features, such as compression and deduplication, to manage our resources effectively. The best part is the scalability it offers without causing any disruptions or performance problems. We can easily scale up or scale out our environment based on data growth or workload requirements.

The integration between Nutanix Unified Storage, Cluster, and Prism is excellent. They are integrated based on the licensing model we choose. Once we have selected the appropriate licensing, we will be able to use all the features we are licensed for. The software is responsible for integrating all these different products together. Once we have all of them set up, we will be able to see all three solutions in one dashboard. This dashboard allows us to monitor our business, view running VMs, and track resource utilization.

There is a software called Nutanix Data Lens that provides insight into our infrastructure data. With it, we can keep track of anything we detect, allowing us to monitor and prevent suspicious activity and attacks. Nutanix Data Lens offers a feature that can monitor suspicious activity.

What I found to be the most valuable features were better performance and uptime. Performance, in terms of block storage, provided a good amount of IOPs, which was essential for our tier application. The other important aspect was meeting our SLA's uptime requirement. This ensured that our platform, applications, and customers were effectively served.

Storage has been constantly changing due to a significant improvement in technology over the past few years. As a result, the cost of storage has generally decreased. However, in recent years, pricing has gone up in certain areas due to factors like the COVID pandemic and disruptions in the supply chain. We are currently waiting for the demand and supply to stabilize in order to improve the cost situation.

Another aspect that needs improvement is continuous protection against security threats such as ransomware and potential data leakage. These areas require enhanced security measures to safeguard the data effectively.

I have been using Nutanix Unified Storage for a couple of years.

We have not seen anything at all as of now that concerns the stability of Nutanix Unified Storage. In terms of performance, it is providing better IOPS. Everyone is content unless there is a concern raised by the application folks about some issue with IOPS or a performance conflict related to the application ID. In that case, we need to investigate. Otherwise, Nutanix Unified Storage works perfectly all the time.

It is easy to scale the environment. We can scale based on the performance requirements of our workloads. So, if we have a new workload coming in and need more storage, we can easily scale it. There will be no disruption or performance loss when scaling out or scaling up.

We have around 200 people that use the solution.

We contact tech support whenever we have issues and need help. It's very easy to reach out to them because they are available online. If we're stuck or unable to find specific documentation, they are able to help us out.

Positive

We had various types of storage, mainly Dell EMC, with three file storage systems. We used multiple different storage options since it followed a three-tier architecture. As a result, we began transferring some of our data to the cloud and some to Nutanix.

The initial deployment was straightforward because we had already done everything earlier, such as test drives. After that, a lengthy discussion was conducted to determine the capacity sizing and other necessary details. We then communicated with the Nutanix account team to decide on the required storage and the environment we would be implementing.

There were plenty of other team members involved in the testing. These team members also work with us and have specific concerns related to their areas of expertise, such as the application folks with concerns about the application and the database folks with concerns about the database. During the testing, we collaborated with these different team members to ensure that any questions or performance issues they had were addressed. This included the database team, application owners, and various infrastructure members. There were around 50 people involved in the deployment.

In our two years of using Nutanix Unified Storage, we have already seen a 50 percent return on investment.

Nutanix offers different pricing options, including Ultimate and Ultimate Pro. Depending on our business requirements, we can discuss these options with the account manager. We can also request a quotation based on the capacity and model we need. The price will vary based on our specific requirements and the workload we plan to run.

If the workload is critical, we will need better critical support licensing to ensure our platform is robust and has the flexibility to handle any additional storage needs. It's important to have a single point of management to monitor all files, objects, and block storage services in the environment. Our goal is to support a maximum amount of different product services and storage types to accommodate our environment.

Anyone who is worried about the price can run the test drive. They should do the Proof of Concept because, in the long run, Nutanix Unified Storage offers a good return on investment within the first year. One of the best things about it is that it provides peace of mind by transitioning an organization from a three-tier architecture to a single unified platform, offering a single pane of glass to help plan maintenance activities accordingly. There is no need for months of planning as required in those three-tier architectures. With Nutanix Unified Storage, it will be simple.

We also explored a couple of other solutions, such as moving everything to the cloud platform or utilizing the CMB with EMC storage and implementing the three-tier models. However, after careful consideration, we decided to go with a hybrid cloud environment. This way, we can run certain workloads that are not suitable for the cloud on our current setup while upgrading other aspects to the cloud.

I give Nutanix Unified Storage a ten out of ten.

Nutanix Unified Storage does not require regular maintenance. Maintenance is only necessary when performing patching or other specific activities. Even then, maintenance is simplified due to the use of clusters, which allows for easy transfer of workloads between clusters during upgrades or updates. The process is non-disruptive and allows for seamless transitions. Maintenance is only needed on a few occasions, as most upgrades are non-disruptive.

Anyone considering evaluating Nutanix Unified Storage should consider the workload they plan to run and the specific use case they have. Another important factor is whether they will be using a mix of cloud or hybrid environments, or if everything will be in the hybrid cloud. To begin, they should do a test drive and conduct a proof of concept with a critical workload. The advantage is that there is no cost involved in testing it out and seeing if it suits their needs before deciding to proceed with the unified solution.