Welcome to part three in my series on the state of the virtualization market. If you missed parts one and two, you can find them at the links in the text. In part one I covered the Broadcom acquisition of VMware and what it does (and doesn’t) mean for their existing customers, including a discussion of their newly announced licensing and solution packages along with the considerations customers may want to take when deciding on their future plans whether internal to the VMware ecosystem or elsewhere. In part 2 I discussed the Microsoft offerings around server virtualization including Azure Stack HCI and their long-established Hyper-V offering along with the considerations for adoption. In this final installment I will focus on Nutanix.
Nutanix provides an interesting foil to the other two product sets I’ve covered thus far. To many in the industry Nutanix may feel like a relative newcomer, and to a degree they are, having been founded only 15 years ago. But in terms of the hyperconverged market, they are credited with being the “OG” introducing the first hyperconverged offering to the market in 2011 and iterating continuously ever since. Nutanix’s business model has revolved around its HCI offerings, unlike VMware which focuses on its core virtualization tools, software defined data center, and multi-cloud offerings. Or unlike Microsoft which focuses heavily on its Azure based strategy including in the datacenter with its Azure Stack HCI and Windows Server Hyper-V offerings. In fact, unlike Microsoft (S2D) or VMware’s (vSAN) homogenous offerings, Nutanix AOS (Acropolis Operating System) supports both VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V, running on top of it in a hyperconverged configuration. Thus, what Nutanix brings to the table isn’t always a “this or that.” Sometimes it can be an “and.” With that being said, Nutanix has begun shifting its messaging and business model from simply HCI to being a multi-cloud platform in a manner that resembles how VMware is approaching the multi-cloud world.
The very first decision point you’ll need to consider when looking at Nutanix is whether you are you ready to move to hyper-convergence for the on-prem portion of your hybrid cloud environment. That may sound trivial, but given that hardware refresh cycles of both server and storage span years (and don’t always align to where you are in that cycle), that can influence adoption of a new platform and operating model. In a VMware or Microsoft world, it is a bit more straightforward to step into gradually. Once you’ve made the decision that you are comfortable going the HCI route for your on-prem infrastructure, you can start evaluating the solution in more detail.
As previously stated, Nutanix is now taking a multi-cloud approach to their strategy aiming to be an application platform that allows customers to span clouds while leveraging the same set of tooling (regardless of where the workload resides). Nutanix has really stepped up its game by making enhancements to the ecosystem surrounding its solutions, including solutions for K8’s management (D2iQ), software defined networking and associated security (Flow), and the ability to spin up Nutanix clusters in major public clouds (AWS & Azure). They tie it together with a centralized multi-cloud manager in its Prism offering. From a cost perspective, if you are planning on leveraging the AOS software defined storage platform, AHV is included at no additional cost and its other services look to be in-line with the market for similar offerings from its competitors.
The driving factors for those considering Nutanix as a virtualization platform really come down to:
- the ability and desire to run your environment in a hyperconverged model.
- the potential cost savings obtained by leveraging AHV over vSphere.
- the need to be in a multi-cloud model rather than an Azure hybrid model with Microsoft.
In summary, from a purely “server virtualization” perspective the reality is that the major players in the marketplace have (to a great degree) achieved feature parity. It becomes a discussion of what the ecosystem around their offerings which provide the proof points to be considered when determining your corporate strategy. Most organizations, have at a minimum, begun planning for their long-term hybrid and/or multi-cloud strategies. Any conversation to be had around server virtualization quickly becomes wrapped up in that context.
To that end, Gartner has come up with a new classification for its Magic Quadrant ratings – “Distributed Hybrid Infrastructure.” Its report from September 2023 had both VMware and Microsoft called out as leaders in the space with Nutanix as a challenger in a race that is surely to tighten. The “right” or “wrong” answers when choosing your path come down to your business goals, economics, organization skillset, comfort with organizational change, and your belief (or disbelief) in the direction of the providers being considered. In the long run, I don’t believe any of these organizations are disappearing and all have the capability to deliver on their vision for the virtual and hybrid world.
If you would like to dive deeper (and it can go a LOT deeper) into the technology here or would like to discuss your organizational strategy, we at Summit Technology Group would love to have additional discussions with you. Thanks so much for taking the time to read through these blog posts!
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