Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) Reviews

I'm using the solution for profile storage, home drive, Citrix VDI implementations, and containerization.

Nutanix Unified Storage is adding features for easy migration of files to Microsoft Azure. That's helping us to get old data out of the data center somewhere in cheap storage. That's helping us quite a lot. The solution provides highly available file servers.

The most valuable feature of Nutanix Unified Storage is SMB file sharing. We use that feature for our use cases, including the home drive.

The analytics part of Nutanix Unified Storage is too big and should be made smaller and less resource-hungry. I don't use the solution's object storage because I find that part too complex.

I have been using Nutanix Unified Storage for four years.

The solution provides good stability.

Nutanix Unified Storage's scalability is similar to other products. If we need more resources or capacity, you can easily scale out to have more performance.

There's no better support than the one provided by Nutanix. I had one issue. The customer wanted to switch their data centers. We moved the old cluster to the new data center, which worked fine. However, switching back to the original one didn't work. We contacted the support team, but they couldn't help us.

One of the engineers of the NUS team came remotely into the cluster and fixed the issue after spending 13 to 14 hours straight on it. If the support team cannot help us, they will ensure that someone from their company will assist us.

Positive

We previously used Windows file servers or NFS file storage. We switched to Nutanix Unified Storage because it gives us better performance and requires less maintenance work. Implementation is easy, and it comes with Nutanix's lifecycle management. To upgrade the tool, we do our life cycle management in a couple of clicks.

The solution’s initial setup is easy.

We implemented the solution through a consultant.

If a company has five system administrators, the solution can reduce the number of system administrators because the product is very easy. The solution provides a return on investment by lowering costs on the company's system administrators.

I don't see any issues with the solution's latency for data analytics.

Implementing Nutanix Unified Storage has not reduced the number of storage nodes. The solution's implementation removes the legacy file servers we're using. It doesn't matter if we have Nutanix Unified Storage or traditional file servers.

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

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 store a lot of our R&D-related files in Nutanix Files Storage.

What I like most about Nutanix Files Storage is the way it makes copies of the data. The solution also has high availability, which is excellent.

Another valuable feature of Nutanix Files Storage is self-service, so users won't have to depend on the IT team much. Users can independently work with the solution.

What's missing in Nutanix Files Storage is the support for multiple intranets or VLANs on the same file from different networks and network devices. That feature doesn't exist today, so the Nutanix product team is working on it, as requested by my company.

There's a limitation with using multiple VLANs on the same file. Right now, it's coming from two different network switches, and the product doesn't support it because it expects all VLANs to go to the same physical switch. This isn't tolerable in my company's LAN environment, so Nutanix Files Storage needs this product enhancement or feature.

I've been using Nutanix Files Storage for over two years.

I didn't experience any outage since Nutanix Files Storage was implemented, so stability-wise, it's going well. I'm rating its stability as nine out of ten.

Nutanix Files Storage is easy to scale out. My company had grown, so it expanded the cluster; scalability-wise, the solution is a nine out of ten.

I contacted Nutanix Files Storage technical support about the product enhancement, and the team was proactive and knowledgeable.

I'd rate support as seven out of ten because there was no solution to my issue, though the team took it as a product enhancement request.

Neutral

Before using Nutanix Files Storage, my company used the traditional NetApp-based vFiler solution. There was no self-service feature in NetApp, so you have to always depend on a storage administrator to set things up, versus Nutanix which was certainly easy to set up, configure, and use.

Scaling vFiler was challenging, so you always had extra capacity compared to Nutanix Files Storage.

Nutanix Files Storage is straightforward to set up, so I'm rating it, setup-wise, as nine out of ten.

Deploying Nutanix Files Storage took weeks, but my company had to transfer a lot of data from the legacy system, which took time. Overall, the project went well.

We implemented Nutanix Files Storage through a system integrator, Wipro.

I find Nutanix Files Storage competitively priced, even its feature set. Its price is seven out of ten.

I would advise people new to Nutanix Files Storage to see how often data is being utilized and decide on a storage strategy based on that. If you only need simple file sharing that requires less access, then you have other solutions that can leverage the public cloud, so you won't have to worry about capacity issues. However, if you're focused on latency and performance, then Nutanix Files Storage would be a great fit. The product is self-explanatory and straightforward, so there's nothing to worry about.

Around one thousand people use Nutanix Files Storage within my company.

The solution is heavily used daily.

My rating for Nutanix Files Storage is eight out of ten.

My company is a Nutanix customer and not a partner.

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.

We use Nutanix Files Storage for sharing and storing critical data with different divisions and for various services within the company.

What I found most valuable in Nutanix Files Storage is its high availability and ability to scale out with many VMs.

Nutanix Files Storage lacks a user access auditing feature, and that's the feature I want to be added to the solution.

Managing other storage infrastructure on Nutanix Files Storage is an area for improvement. In particular, I want to add other forms of storage from different vendors not currently in Nutanix Files Storage, to the file server, for better management.

I've been using Nutanix Files Storage for four years.

Nutanix Files Storage is stable, so I'm rating it as ten.

Nutanix Files Storage is very scalable. In terms of scalability, it's a ten.

The support for Nutanix Files Storage is excellent. When I open a case, mainly when it's critical, I get a direct response at a maximum of four hours. The Nutanix technical support team always has a solution. My company has opened many cases with Nutanix, and it always gets a solution for each case.

As the technical support for Nutanix Files Storage is very good, I'm giving it a ten out of ten.

Positive

It was easy for me to set up Nutanix Files Storage. I didn't experience any difficulty with the initial setup, so setup-wise, it's a nine out of ten.

Deploying Nutanix Files Storage took a few minutes. It's a process of adding a new file server, selecting the number of VMs, and taking care of the local storage, DNS, and the network.

I implemented Nutanix Files Storage. I am NCSC-certified. I am a consultant, so I could implement the solution without help from the vendor.

As an engineer, I don't have information on the pricing for Nutanix Files Storage. A different team handles that part.

I've recently updated Nutanix Files Storage, so I'm using the latest version.

I didn't experience any problems updating or maintaining Nutanix Files Storage whenever there's a new version. My company updates and upgrades immediately.

I recommend Nutanix Files Storage to others because it's easy to install and has high availability. It's one of the most useful solutions.

My rating for Nutanix Files Storage is nine out of ten.

My company is a Nutanix customer.

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.

We sell it. We are an MSP. Nutanix Unified Storage is for our customers who need storage outside of our environment that runs on Nutanix. 

The benefit that our clients see is the security of the whole Nutanix platform where they have simplified usage.

Nutanix has helped to reduce our customers' number of nodes because it has a larger storage capability. It definitely helps to save costs. 

The most valuable feature is the snapshots. 

I have heard that there have been latency problems. 

We have used it for two years. 

We haven't had any problems with stability. 

Technical support is superb. They're always there and give our engineer suggestions. They follow up. 

Positive

We use Rubrik and Cohesity to protect our unstructured data. These solutions are very critical because we store customer data.

We chose Nutanix ten years ago and have stuck with them.

The deployment is very easy. It can take one day to deploy and have it up and running. 

The main ways we see ROI is through management and storage space. 

The pricing and licensing could be hard. The customers have a problem with the pricing model. Customers don't understand the core licensing model. 

Most of our data analytics and AI functions are running on a separate system.

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

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.