Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) Reviews

I use the solution in my company since I have two or three users, specifically cloud customers, who use Nutanix Files and subnets for backup storage and for a common shared folder.

The product's benefits stem from the ease of use and management it offers to its users.

The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that I like the object sizes. The tool's infrastructure is quite easy to implement. I know that I would like the product's licensing model to be much cheaper, especially if I tried to make another type of cluster. When you have huge data, the tool is cheaper.

Nutanix Unified Storage for detecting and blocking ransomware threats is a good option offered by the tool to users for objects and storage. Users can access the right technologies offered by the product so that it is more secure for our company.

Nutanix Unified Storage offers large space per node. The tool does not help reduce the number of nodes used in my company. Usually, my company needs to expand the number of nodes used.

In terms of the tools my company is currently utilizing to protect unstructured data, I would say that there is one option that you can use for your data protection. You can have two or three implementations to develop a disaster recovery for unstructured data, especially for the ones on file servers.

The product does not offer one console. From an improvement perspective, it should offer one console. With Prism Central, Nutanix tried to manage all the stuff, but I believe that it can be made easier.

I have been using Nutanix Unified Storage for three or four years. My company is in partnership with Nutanix.

My company deals with the product's customers who work in the government sector who use it at a massive level. The product is also used in the banking sector. The product is very stable in general.

The solution's technical support is awesome, quick, and effective. I don't really use the product's support services. Whenever I use the product's support services, it has always been good. I rate the technical support a nine to ten out of ten.

Positive

Before bringing Nutanix Unified Storage into our company, files and objects were stored in separate products. My company used to use one solution named Nutanix Mine. All the licenses gained by our company work in a different manner.

Some of my company's clients used to use QNAP's NAS solutions. My company's client changed to Nutanix Unified Storage since it offers more reporting options, making it more cost-effective in terms of management.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

The licensing model the tool has is cheaper than an HCI storage solution. You can get a straightforward compression feature in Nutanix Unified Storage, which is better than buying a SAN solution of eight terabytes for 1,000 USD. If you have some complexities and some requirements, or if the users operate in a government agency or in a VDI environment, depending on how you like to use it, it is better to use a solution from Nutanix instead of an all-modern block storage tool.

As my company is in partnership with Nutanix, we cannot consider another product against Nutanix Unified Storage.

I have never used anything in the tool associated with AI, so I don't know about Nutanix Unified Storage's throughput or latency for data-intensive workloads, such as AI or data analytics.

I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

We have a local data center here that isn't connected to the Internet because of the nature of our organization. It does not have any external communications. Last year, we had a disaster when we ran out of storage space in the clusters assigned to the storage containers. We had around 10 TB allocated for files across five clusters. One of our clusters was hosting critical files, so we had to rate the machine consumption from that cluster, and it can expire because the application that the customer was working on was transferring pictures with enormous sizes. 

We realized that we also had the file license, so why don't we go ahead and use it? We contacted Nutanix, and the managers and system engineers suggested we have meetings. We discussed it and then started providing these storage services. Soon, we will expand with node storage, and that will be another option. We're currently looking at best practices because I think there is a limit on the file sizes. We cannot go beyond 10 TB.

The Nutanix solution has improved the overall performance of our infrastructure operations. Nutanix unifies our block file and object storage. It's like a separate service we can provide for the critical applications we are running, but I can ensure each application is secure against ransomware or other vulnerabilities. I will recommend my team to go further with the block and object storage.

I like Nutanix Prism Central. The primary benefit is that we can manage everything from the same page. It also gives you the data in graph form on the main page, so you can keep a close eye on what is happening. You can watch for high utilization and see the disks and reports in the central console. It's a resilient and highly stable application 

The modernized infrastructure and data services feature is the most beneficial to me as an administrator. We derive business value in terms of storage because we have the option of using Windows Firewall.

Nutanix Unified Storage allows us to consolidate our data platform within the Nutanix cluster itself without using external storage. You can work with all types of unstructured data seamlessly with Unified Storage. There should be no problem with that. There are no issues with audio, video, uploads, downloads, etc. 

It's a flexible solution. This is what I understood as I was reviewing the documentation today. Nutanix is trying to simplify storage and has many options for scalability. 

The GUI is easy to use, but it's complex to do tasks from the command line. That is one way they could simplify things for the engineers. People tend to use a graphical interface more than the command line interface. If anything goes wrong, we need to do troubleshooting from the CLI. It would be nice if there were more ways to fix issues within the GUI. 

Nutanix is highly stable. 

Scaling can be a challenge. Once you order a block with a specific size, it will need to be changed to a different node to scale up. We have to expand the cluster and have the nodes ready to increase the storage size. We cannot go ahead and add an extra hard disk if the slots are full.

I rate Nutanix support nine out of 10. 

Positive

We previously used VMware. Nutanix is faster, but the two solutions offer the same level of security.

A typical deployment could probably be completed in a day or two, but our data site required a lot of approvals and an on-site review by our engineer, so our deployment time was around a week. One person is enough to deploy the solution. It doesn't require much maintenance if the clusters are upgraded correctly. 

Switching to Nutanix Unified Storage reduced the total cost of ownership by nearly 50 percent. You can go on the Nutanix website and see a cost comparison of how much you can save over three to five years. 

Nutanix is priced a bit higher than some of its competitors. A lot of Chinese companies like Huawei are entering the Saudi Arabian market trying to provide similar solutions for a lower price. It offers good value, especially the support. Nutanix has a highly competent team. The after-sales support is excellent. 

I rate Nutanix Unified Storage nine out of 10. 

Nutanix Unified Storage is our primary storage solution, and I primarily use its volumes to provide additional disk space for machines. These volumes are shared between vision machines and technical servers. However, for some projects, this solution was discontinued. I currently have all of my additional systems running on bare-metal machines, which fully utilize the available hardware and provide ample storage capacity. To accommodate this, I've repurposed the volumes to share them over the network and connect them to the bare-metal hosts and storage systems. This approach has proven to be highly effective for multiple companies I've worked with.

Another use case for Nutanix Unified Storage is sharing storage through the SMB and NFS protocols. This has been particularly beneficial in my work, as it allows both Windows and Linux machines to access shared files seamlessly. This is a valuable feature for large-scale projects.

Nutanix Unified Storage also offers object storage, which I have used in large-scale environments. However, I have not been entirely satisfied with the available options. Therefore, I have opted to use AWS object storage instead. Currently, I do not utilize Nutanix object storage internally due to ongoing limitations. A year ago, I attempted to integrate object storage into my workflows, but it fell short of my requirements. Consequently, I reverted to the AWS system. Overall, I am pleased with the file storage and volume options provided by Nutanix Unified Storage, as they have significantly enhanced my productivity in various tasks and projects.

I previously worked at a hospital where I utilized Nutanix Unified Storage to facilitate data sharing and capture from the laboratory. I developed a shared design using Nutanix Unified Storage over the network infrastructure. This design enabled seamless data transfer whenever a machine-generated a test result. Upon receiving a blood sample, the machine, connected to a printer, would automatically print the blood test results and the blood type. Additionally, a copy of these results was generated and shared via the Nutanix Unified Storage platform. Using the 'fixable to call' function, I mounted the shared file to the machine, enabling the automatic printing of one hard copy and the simultaneous sharing of a soft copy. This allowed lab technicians or lab doctors to conveniently send the test results to the attending physician at the clinic or directly to the patient.

Nutanix Unified Storage has proven to be flexible to meet our needs.

Unified Storage is good at unifying our organization's block files.

Implementing Unified Storage has streamlined the way I manage and execute tasks across our multiple branches. Unified Storage has enabled me to consolidate data, effortlessly mount it to machines, and share files and folders with colleagues in different locations.

Unified Storage's ability to remove silos is good.

The integrations between Unified Storage, Kubernetes Engine, and the database service are complete. We have not encountered any incompatibility issues.

The Nutanix block files are the most valuable feature.

Unified Storage failed to fulfill our object storage requirements.

The virtual volume has limitations. If I create more than one disk, it encounters limitations. When I mount the volume group to the physical machine, it updates the same disk or partition on the machine, which is not desirable. I was working on a media project that required ten gigabytes of data. I created a volume group of that size, but due to the limitations of the virtual disk, which can be up to 64 terabytes, I had to create a mini disk. Once I mount the disk to the physical machine, it creates a mini virtual disk or mini partition, not just a single partition.

I have been using Nutanix Unified Storage for five years.

Nutanix Unified Storage is stable.

The technical support is one of the best support services we have used.

Positive

I previously used VMware in another organization.

The initial deployment is straightforward and I can do it myself.

I would rate Nutanix Unified Storage ten out of ten.

The security of Unified Storage is comparable to that of other SDS solutions, and we have not encountered any security concerns.

Our positive experience with Unified Storage has prompted us to further invest in Nutanix products to establish our private cloud with on-premises data centers.

I would recommend Nutanix Unified Storage for anyone researching enterprise data storage solutions.

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.

We use it for the application virtual machines and the database virtual machines.

Performance-wise, it is very impressive. We get local storage, which creates copies of data objects on each host. Therefore, even if there is a host failure, we can rebuild the virtual machine (VM) using the copies from other hosts. This setup enhances performance, especially since the storage access is local.

When it comes to licensing, we get favorable terms compared to other technologies on the market. For instance, we receive the ready boxes at a lower licensing price than competitors. The applications run smoothly on these boxes, adding to their reliability.

Cost efficiency is another significant advantage of our setup. Our private environment provides considerable savings compared to public offerings like AWS.

Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) provides an integrated environment that combines storage, computing, and networking resources into one cohesive system. This is a significant advantage. Additionally, we can easily migrate machines from any environment to Nutanix with the Move tool without the need for a license. Upgrading hosts, BIOS, or firmware for the physical hardware is also straightforward through Nutanix Prism. This ease of management makes Nutanix a convenient solution for our operations.

More training sessions should be organized by Nutanix, or they could consider creating training videos to help users learn about new features or tools that we introduce. This would provide a better way to gain knowledge in these areas.
The training programs could be improved. It's quite challenging to find adequate learning resources online, as there isn’t much available on the internet or YouTube. Users often have to rely on Nutanix documentation to learn how to use the platform. Therefore, it would be beneficial to offer knowledge transfer sessions that focus on installation steps and new tools.

I have been using Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) for three years and six months.

Regarding scalability, I would rate it an eight out of ten. Adding another node to scale the environment is straightforward and effective. Overall, I would also rate the scaling process as easy. By simply adding a node, we can increase the cluster's capacity.

I would rate the technical support for Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) as a solid eight out of ten. They respond very quickly.

Positive

Installation is straightforward. We simply need to install the foundation tool on a laptop, then provide the IP address, host name, and other details. The tool automatically creates the cluster and sets up the storage without any manual intervention needed during deployment.

It typically takes about four to five hours to set up a single cluster.

Five people manage the solution. 

Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) requires maintenance. Regarding maintenance, the solution requires occasional maintenance, particularly to upgrade to the latest versions or to ensure compatibility with any tools or hardware. This maintenance primarily involves node maintenance, not application maintenance. As for the time required for maintenance, it varies depending on the features being addressed, such as FTS (Full Text Search) or LTS (Long-Term Support). Typically, it takes around two to three hours to upgrade at least five hosts.

It is cheaper than the market. 

When comparing features, one of the major advantages is that migration is very fast. It allows for easy movement from one environment to another without the need to purchase any special licenses. In contrast, many other solutions on the market require specific licenses for various activities, such as migration or upgrades. This flexibility makes this solution more accessible and cost-effective.

In terms of security, we primarily depend on the network side. The networking team manages all aspects of network security. As most of our hosts are connected to the network, the primary threats generally originate from this area. We regularly conduct upgrades and apply patches based on our assessment of potential vulnerabilities, which helps minimize risks.

I would definitely recommend this product to others; it is very resilient.

My overall rating for Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) is eight out of ten.

We mainly got onto Nutanix Files to replace our existing corporate file system. We had plans to migrate almost 100 terabytes of storage, but due to some optimization, we migrated 60 terabytes and ditched the rest because it was useless data. Luckily, we figured out that we do not need that data anymore. That is our main case, and we have set up five separate instances of Nutanix Files so far.

Management-wise, it has made work a lot easier. It is all in one place physically. It is much better now.

There is ease of management. We only have one place to go, and we can find all the information and all the data that we need. It also improved the visibility of the actual usage of our resources. We can see how many people are accessing files at all times. That was one of the main drivers through which we were able to see that our users were not using some of the data at all. We were able to archive that data. If we had Nutanix Analytics and Files Analytics in place, we would have gone a step further and automated the archival of cold data. At this time, we do not have that much to manage, but in the future, we will implement that.

It is hard to assess Nutanix Unified Storage for detecting and blocking ransomware threats because I never had a chance to see it in action. It is enabled everywhere. Maybe we were just lucky. We have not had any ransomware incidents since implementing Nutanix Files, but seeing how the policy is set up, I expect it to react very fast. Hopefully, I will never have to verify the accuracy of this claim.

To protect unstructured data in our organization, we use HYCU backups. They are great partners of Nutanix. HYCU has been awesome and flawless so far. These tools are not critically vital, but they do add to the mix. There is plenty of useful information I can get from those tools. I am glad they are there.

It is very easy to manage. I am focusing mostly on Nutanix Files because of our use case. I did not have a chance to look at Objects, for instance. We will start looking at Volumes at some point this year. With regards to Files, it is very intuitive. It is easy to manage, and it makes it much easier for us to manage the corporate system. Everything is consolidated in one place rather than having to jump all over Europe, which is how spread it was before. That is a big win for us.

It is hard to say what can be better because we have been using Nutanix products for 11 years. We have been with Nutanix for a long time, and it is difficult to find flaws. The moment we find something that is not up to our expectations, we raise a request for a new feature or engage with support. We usually get an answer fairly quickly. There is not much we are missing. When it comes to Nutanix Files, one thing that would be great is a slightly easier way of managing snapshots and restore points, especially when a third party is involved. We have a third party for backups. They look after the data that we are managing. At times, it is difficult to discern which recovery point has been generated. In a new iteration, they can perhaps amend that piece of management. It is a tiny detail. It already works, but if they can implement a more straightforward way of managing those recovery points, it will be a good thing.

I have been using Nutanix Unified Storage for about two years now.

It is very stable. I have not had any issues. Even when we roll updates, nobody notices what is happening in the background, so it is very reliable.

We have not had the need or the requirements to scale. It seems that it would be fairly straightforward. It will be as easy. It will be a one-click to deploy a new node or add a new node to an instance or anything like that.

We have a good relationship with our Nutanix account manager. Whenever we have a technical question, we drop it to them. If we are unsure of what to do, we reach out to tech support. They usually get back to us super fast.

Their customer support is very good. They are very knowledgeable. I do not think there has ever been an issue that they could not resolve. If that happens, it is because it may be a new bug. If we find something that nobody else found before, they reach out and tell us that it is something that is going to be fixed in the next three days. They give us a workaround. If they are not able to fix it immediately, they let us know that it is in their roadmap. They would do it in one of the next releases or add it to the list of features that they plan to add because nobody has asked before. In that sense, it is awesome.

I would rate them a ten out of ten.

Positive

We did not have anything similar. It was a custom-built or internally-built solution based on the existing features of Nutanix. We just managed it manually.

In terms of implementation, it was as easy as you could imagine. Even migrating the data was very straightforward. It took us plenty of time because of the amount of data that we had to move. Other than that, it was fine.

It was supposed to replace a different solution. It was just a matter of deploying the instance that I was looking for and then slowly migrating the data over. I did not encounter any major issues there.

I am saving a lot of man-hours in managing or figuring out issues or finding solutions for the problems that arise. In the past, I would have had to check everything in the chain to figure out what was wrong. It is a lot easier, especially with regard to permissions on a file system. The solution we had in place before was a pain in the neck.

It is above my role. I am not the one who makes the calls, but it seems to me that it was very competitive. Other solutions would have required dedicated hardware, so an additional CapEx has to be put in place. In that sense, it was definitely a more competitive option to go with Nutanix Files. We did not get storage for every node just for the sake of adding files, but it was a wider solution for that.

We had other options. We do have different storage devices in place. We decided to centralize on Nutanix because we have been working with them for quite a long time, and we have been very happy with their products. It seemed like a fairly straightforward decision, but then, of course, we tested it. It proved to be a much more efficient way of dealing with what we had in place.

We do not have any data-intensive workloads. Our use case is mainly for the corporate file system. When I start using volumes, I expect the same performance as standard VMs. I will be happy to see a very high performance like everything else so far.

Implementing Nutanix Unified Storage has not resulted in a reduction in the number of storage nodes due to increased storage capacity per node. We implemented Nutanix after purchasing storage-heavy nodes.

We are not using Nutanix Data Lens. We have Files Analytics. I was looking into Data Lens. Unfortunately, it did not fall within the budget for this year. Perhaps next year, we will be able to give it a go.

I would rate Nutanix Unified Storage a nine out of ten. It is not yet perfect. They are going to implement a more consolidated interface. There are basically three products that fall under the storage piece. They are not in the same pane of glass, but it is a very solid product, so I can give it a nine. It meets my needs and resolves all my problems so far. I am sure that when we start implementing volumes, it will prove to be a good solution for that. It is in our roadmap to start using volumes to solve a couple of issues that we have at the moment. I am already confident that it will do so.

We use it for daily operations, primarily to store our enterprise data.

In the beginning, when we first started using Nutanix, we wanted a single solution that could handle both file and block-level data. So it's a single platform, and we also needed inbuilt ransomware protection.

So, we found that Nutanix was the best solution for that. We also researched the deployment process and found it to be quite easy. 

Additionally, we had a POC with them and saw that the interface is user-friendly, making it possible to use it without extensive training.

Nutanix successfully adapts to difficult or challenging life experiences

When it comes to resiliency, Nutanix has built-in redundancy. We can create snapshots with detection, de-duplication, and completion of all the data. So, it's very easy to have replications of free data. If any attacks happen, we still have the data with us.

We are able to store a large amount of data without needing multiple solutions. Nutanix can be scaled for storage and computing independently, which makes us more cost-efficient.

It also simplifies data management operations, giving the speed and flexibility to build more modern applications in on-prem, cloud, and edge environments.

It also protects unstructured data from ransomware and other cyberattacks.

Unified Storage has a remote feature that allows you to manage data from various geographical locations.

Our sales representative can direct us to the appropriate resource, whether it's a PSC, an SE with the system, or someone else who can help. Additionally, if we create a ticket directly with their support team, they have very good product knowledge and are really helpful.

If we are stuck a problem – not necessarily a bug, but just need help navigating something – do we contact our sales representative first, and they can route us to the right resource.

If bugs occur, they work on them and release fixes as early as possible.

First of all, we like the user interface, which is quite easy. And it helps our day-to-day operations very easily; we can do it very easily. 

And afterward, the pre-sales guys are very supportive whenever you get stuck in anything. They will help you on that day. I really have good hands-on experience with the product, and also the support team is very strong.

The flexibility is great. We can easily integrate it with other products as well. Like, it is designed to scale up and scale out easily, allowing the organization to store as much capacity as they need.

We can easily store and manage unstructured data, such as audio and video, in Unified Storage without any extra work.

From a management side, the one thing I would prefer is if it were a bit less expensive for smaller enterprises. It's a bit costly. 

If they provided flexible modules where you could pick and choose features, and only pay for what you use, that would be an improvement.

I've been using it for about two and a half years.

We've observed some occasional lagging when transferring large amounts of data – many GBs at once. This could be due to network factors or something else, but it's not severe. 

For smaller datasets, the transfer happens in real time with no lag.

Nutanix has a good team of people on the technical support side. Usually, when we log a ticket, a support engineer promptly assists us through a remote session or email. 

One thing I want to highlight is that they have excellent product documentation available on their portals, written in simple, easy-to-understand language.

Positive

We used a storage solution from Dell. My company has a policy that requires us to change our security products every five years. 

So, we were looking for a stable and superior product, and after thorough research on the community, we found that Nutanix offered the best solution with its single-platform approach.

We also use the Nutanix Hypervisor (AHV). However, we haven't done the integration because we keep our storage separate.

We had a POC first. During the POC, we worked closely with the sales team alongside the engineers, and it was pretty easy to deploy. 

Once we decided to purchase, the full deployment only took about one or two months. If all prerequisites are ready, it can even be done in under 20 days.

We use the cloud deployment model.

On the Nutanix team, we probably needed around two people. We also had support from our network and security teams, in addition to someone managing the Nutanix deployment itself.

Every product needs maintenance, but with Nutanix, it's mostly about software upgrades. They provide an excellent user interface, and with every release, they resolve issues from previous versions.

It is worth the price. Your investment will be in safe hands. 

The pricing is a bit too high. I would like more flexibility. 

We considered Commvault, but our management and overall team felt that Nutanix was a better solution.

On a scale of ten, I'd give Dell an eight out of ten for security features. And Nutanix a nine out of ten rating.

I'd definitely say go for it. It's a great product. My main advice is to negotiate the pricing with the vendor. Beyond that, it integrates well with your current network environment and should work without needing major changes or disrupting your existing setup.

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

It is a great solution for small enterprises looking for storage options. While it is a bit expensive, the value provided by Nutanix justifies the investment. Your investment will be in safe hands.

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.