We use Nutanix Acropolis AOS for many reasons, such as data protection, application, and file services. My customers are mainly in Israel and are mostly government.
IT administrator at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
Beneficial dashboard information, helpful support teams, and easy management
Pros and Cons
- "The dashboard of Nutanix Acropolis AOS allows for simple management. The dashboard has all the information online about what's going on at any given time."
- "Nutanix Acropolis AOS could improve by having an auto-update feature. At this time I have to update each system manually. However, I bought the standard license and I did not buy the maximum license they have available. There could be a certain license that does the updates automatically."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
This solution improves management and maintenance.
What is most valuable?
The dashboard of Nutanix Acropolis AOS allows for simple management. The dashboard has all the information online about what's going on at any given time.
What needs improvement?
Nutanix Acropolis AOS could improve by having an auto-update feature. At this time I have to update each system manually. However, I bought the standard license and I did not buy the maximum license they have available. There could be a certain license that does the updates automatically.
Buyer's Guide
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)
December 2024
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For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Nutanix Acropolis AOS for approximately two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have found Nutanix Acropolis AOS to be very reliable and stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
The people that I'm serving are approximately 23,000 people and I have 300 to 400 users that are using the servers and are connecting to my domain.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is wonderful. They have helped me during deployment and are available when needed.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used VMware. I did not have a problem with VMware, but when I did research I found that Nutanix Acropolis AOS would be a better product for our needs.
How was the initial setup?
Nutanix Acropolis AOS is very easy to migrate. You can migrate from other storage into Nutanix with ease. I deployed VMware to Nutanix Acropolis AOS and I did not have a problem.
The deployment time can vary depending on how large the server is and what kind of storage is being used. The full process did not take long.
What about the implementation team?
We use the help of the Nutanix team for the implementation.
My operation is not very big and I only use one helper for the support of this solution.
What was our ROI?
We have experienced a good overall ROI with the use of Nutanix Acropolis AOS. I have approximately 400 users and I have 26 servers on Nutanix Acropolis AOS and I manage it myself. There are substantial cost savings.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have a three-year license for the use of this solution.
For small businesses, the Nutanix basic standard license is really good and I'm very satisfied with this solution.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We tested this solution against VMware and Nimbus.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others because of the great service and reliability. I have used VMware but I prefer Nutanix Acropolis AOS.
I rate Nutanix Acropolis AOS an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Business Development Consultant at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Offers great scalability and flexibility in adding cluster nodes
Pros and Cons
- "Great flexibility and scalability."
- "Lacks sufficient integration with other vendors and public clouds."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case of Acropolis was for pre-sales on architecting the solution. The company was partners with Nutanix and I'm a business development consultant.
What is most valuable?
I found the most important feature to be the flexibility that the solution offers in adding nodes to the clusters. Nutanix provides a level of scalability and flexibility that you don't get with any other solution on the market.
What needs improvement?
I'd like to see more integration with other vendors and integration with public clouds. The feature is there but it could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I worked with this solution up until a couple of months ago and I used it for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable, it's a key feature.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is not great, but it's good. The main problem is the time it takes to connect with the person you need to speak to.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is quite easy.
What other advice do I have?
I rate this solution nine out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.
CTO Enterprise Cloud at Amanox Solutions (S&T Group)
It delivers full visibility down to a single virtual disk and every hardware component.
How has it helped my organization?
We can troubleshoot customer issues (e.g. crashes, performance issues etc.) very quickly and efficiently since we know exactly how the infrastructure should behave and what performance values are to be expected.
Nutanix delivers full visibility down to a single virtual disk (e.g. a VMDK file) and every single hardware component. Predefined health checks are executed during a support case which will in most cases already narrow down the root cause considerably if not point it out directly.
Most of our customers actually don’t manage their Nutanix environment at all since common tasks such as LUN provisioning, zoning, permission settings etc. don’t apply any longer.
What is most valuable?
- Very easy management (e.g. daily tasks and also major upgrades)
- Simple and fast to implement as a partner
- Very mature and stable with outstanding Nutanix support if needed (we are a L1 and L2 support partner as well)
- Potential to replace 80-90% of all customer use cases we see in Switzerland
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been partners for nearly three years, and have been building Nutanix based customer solutions during that time.
How are customer service and support?
Customer Service:
The Nutanix customer service is outstanding and easily the best from all vendors we work with. Usually an answer is provided within the first 10 minutes and the staff is very skilled. thanks to the high degree of standardization we are able to quickly resolve most issues (we know the whole stack).
Technical Support:
Outstanding! We get an answer usually within 30 minutes often this solves the issue or at least show progress.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Our company is fully committed to new technologies and ways to build data centers using hyper convergence, software defined networking etc. We did not (and have no plans) to sell traditional solutions.
How was the initial setup?
It used to be more work about one and a half years ago. Today, the whole installation process is fully automated and orchestrated. Since NOS 4.5 everything needed is pre-installed at the factory and only the desired hypervisor image (ISO files) need to be uploaded. Then, the cluster will stage itself automatically. The size of the cluster is secondary to the implementation time except for rack and stack of course.
What about the implementation team?
Since we are a Nutanix partner we implement and give support ourselves for customers directly and for other partners as well.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I don’t have any figures available at the moment. Nutanix is most attractive when comparing the full cost (TCO) including CAPEX and also OPEX. Regarding licensing, we most commonly sell the pro license which covers the vast majority of customer user cases.
It is especially interesting to see the development of customers starting to see the included KVM based hypervisor (Acropolis) which results in significant cost savings for hypervisor licensing (e.g. vSphere or Hyper-V) depending on the customer use case.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
As a VMware partner we also evaluate VSAN in our lab as a possible alternative but this solution lacks many of the Nutanix advantages. I compared VSAN to Nutanix some years ago when Nutanix was purely a storage layer.
Today, Nutanix offers end to end management, visibility and standardization which offers maybe the biggest benefit. I am personally also not a big fan of the VSAN object storage approach (as opposed to the Nutanix or EMC ScaleIO block based implementations) which causes many bottlenecks and architecture limitations.
What other advice do I have?
This is the Nutanix management web interface.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are a partner
IT Administrator and Sr. VMware Engineer at a retailer with 501-1,000 employees
Easy to use, flexible, robust, and includes a free hypervisor
Pros and Cons
- "One of the most valuable features that can be found, is the inclusion of a hypervisor for free."
- "While the customer support is truly incredible, for Spanish speakers it would be appropriate to have support in their native language to further improve problem-solving conditions."
What is our primary use case?
The main reason we decided to implement the Nutanix solution was the ease of use of the environment. More than anything, it's a completely robust software environment. We not only migrated our servers from VMware, but we also moved from vSphere to AHV and Acropolis. The change was incredible in every aspect.
Our team managed to complete this migration in just three days and all of our workloads will start to run amazingly after the migration. It is a robust environment that runs smoothly. For example, our SQL Servers increased their performance dramatically after migration.
How has it helped my organization?
The biggest change we had was the time it took for our IT team to perform all the tasks of administering and automating the environment. Although everything worked before, with Nutanix, things work even better, almost without administration, since it is a software that allows you to analyze down to the last detail. Tasks that were previously performed manually can be automated.
On the other hand, our development team can consume its customized resources from our datacenter without our intervention, and the Acropolis integrations via API with other environments turn the software into a complete and flexible solution.
What is most valuable?
One of the most valuable features that can be found, is the inclusion of a hypervisor for free. This allowed us to direct the investments and the budget towards other types of aspects, generating a lot of added value.
With the cost we saved on hypervisor licenses, we were able to invest in more nodes and blocks for our platform. In this way, our environment is now prepared to grow much more without having to re-invest in hardware. On the other hand, automation managed to redirect the time of IT staff to other projects, thus increasing productivity.
What needs improvement?
There are few areas in which I think this Nutanix product should be improved, but to name a few I can decide that there should be support for more languages natively. This could apply to the main AOS and Prism environment, as well as the help channels that Nutanix offers.
Except for these points, I don't think there is much more to improve.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have used this solution in our company for three years.
How are customer service and technical support?
While the customer support is truly incredible, for Spanish speakers it would be appropriate to have support in their native language to further improve problem-solving conditions.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did a full migration from VMware vSphere and vCenter to AHX and Acropolis.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
AHV is free! This is a great feature that should be taken advantage of.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Beforehand, we evaluated using vXRail as a hyper-converged solution, but the cost and usage issues made us opt for Nutanix.
What other advice do I have?
It is a robust solution that also has integrations and a complete suite of solutions for multi-cloud environments.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Enterprise Technical Consultant at Datacentrix (Pty) Ltd
Has a simple interface and is easy to deploy
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature would be the ease of deployment. That is the most significant feature for me because I've worked with multiple vendors and it's always been very complicated to install the software and get everything running."
- "If they can simplify the software slightly for the installation, that would make all the difference."
What is our primary use case?
I had a customer that was a bank. The bank needed to deploy eight nodes at one site and eight nodes at another. Nutanix was great. We consolidated the whole infrastructure because they had heard about the solution and they bought it straight off the top, and they believed in it.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature would be the ease of deployment. That is the most significant feature for me because I've worked with multiple vendors and it's always been very complicated to install the software and get everything running. It has better software to get everything up and running.
It has a simple interface.
What needs improvement?
They should lower the price. If they did they would fall into a more competitive market because the price does scare a lot of potential customers away when they get the quote. Otherwise, I never had to call tech support. I actually met up with one of their consultants just three days before I went for deployment. It was the very first time I'd actually tested the software, and that was enough for me to go to the site and get all the work done.
There's one area in which they should make the software simpler with the deployment. If they can make it just a few steps easier, it will be unbeatable. I'm technically experienced so it was simple, but others who aren't as experienced might struggle. If they can simplify the software slightly for the installation, that would make all the difference.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Nutanix since last November.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability is unquestionable, it's seamless. It's 100% uptime.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The way this device can continue scaling is mind-blowing. I did 1/50th of what it can grow up to and the fact that it can do compression and has all of this amazing software, you don't need it to scale that high. You can just quote for a small solution and it will be significant, which is where they enter the market.
How are customer service and technical support?
We haven't had any issues that required technical support but I would say that the technical resource who taught us the software and told us how to plug it in and how to install it was amazing. He knew absolutely everything. He had an answer for every question.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was very straightforward. I've only been in enterprise as a technical consultant and presales for eight years, which is not so much time relative to a lot of people. The initial setup was simple for me. I never ran into anything that was too complicated. I didn't spend that much time learning the software. I just decoded twice with one of the representatives and that was as much as I needed.
They gave one week to deploy to allow enough leeway for complications, delay and whatsoever. I was finished in three business days. That goes from unboxing each and every device, racking, inspecting and setting it up to walking out of your environment and telling the customer they can take over.
We only require two staff members for the deployment and maintenance, a technical colleague and me.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise someone considering this solution to go with it. We deal with multiple vendors. We're actually partners with a lot of vendors. Most of the enterprise vendors are in the top 10 but I'll say that this is the best that I've worked with.
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
I have to strongly disagree. While ease of deployment is really nice it is an ease in a seldom executed action. But whenever problems arise you have to rely on a good support. Nutanix Support is second to none. None I came across however in the last 25 years. So lowering the price would just do what? They get a LOT more customers with a lower margin and support cases would soar only to be backed with less funding. So they either would up the pricing or cut costs (most likely on support). You. do. not. want. that.
System Adminstrator at Twin Disc Inc
It removes wait times in getting tasks done
Pros and Cons
- "Simplified management: It provides us more time to work on other tasks."
What is our primary use case?
We run our primary data center on Nutanix. We run an on-prem Exchange environment along with multiple application servers. We have about 200 VMs and about 20TB of raw storage on the appliance.
How has it helped my organization?
Simplified management: It provides us more time to work on other tasks. We were able to replace two SANs and two blade centers with a single 2U Nutanix appliance.
What is most valuable?
Simplified storage management. Therefore, we do not have to rely on others to manage storage, which removes wait times in getting tasks done.
What needs improvement?
Extra features should not be so expensive. We would love to be able to use or even just try some of the extra features without having to buy them. Buying those features is just as expensive as buying vSphere licenses, so the cost savings is nullified.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
System Administrator at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees
Being able to upgrade our entire cluster with the click of a button during business hours with zero downtime has made managing our infrastructure so easy
Pros and Cons
- "Being able to upgrade our entire cluster with the click of a button during business hours with zero downtime has made managing our infrastructure so easy."
- "Nutanix now supports four hypervisors but they are not all at feature parity."
How has it helped my organization?
Processes that used to take hours to complete have been drastically improved due to the nature of Nutanix. Data locality means things complete faster and our users now have more time to complete their work rather than having to wait for a certain job to finish before they can continue on.
What is most valuable?
- One-Click upgrades
- Software defined storage
- The capacity savings
One click upgrades are an absolute godsend. Being able to upgrade our entire cluster with the click of a button during business hours with zero downtime has made managing our infrastructure so easy. Previously, we had to schedule downtime to perform upgrades on our infrastructure and that quickly becomes painful and time consuming.
Because the entire Nutanix system is contained in a VM, we don't have to reboot physical hosts to apply patches. It's just a restart of a guest VM and we're off. This also brings amazing space saving capabilities (given that it's software-defined) across the hot and cold tiers by way of compression, deduplication, and erasure coding.
What needs improvement?
Given all the amazing features, there is room for improvement around the support ability of different hypervisors. Sure, Nutanix now supports four hypervisors but they are not all at feature parity. If you want all the benefits of Nutanix, you need to be on AHV. For some businesses, that's just not an option. I find we miss out on some of the great features due to being on ESX.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No issues at all with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
This is where my experience varies. Previously, I had deployed Nutanix with Dell hardware, and currently, I have deployed Nutanix on Nutanix hardware.
Customer support through Nutanix is excellent. Regardless of the level of priority, I usually hear back from Nutanix support in less than three hours from when I submit a support request.
With Dell kits, you have to call Dell support first who then liaise with Nutanix support. So, there is a bit of a breakdown and resolution that takes a little longer because you don't have direct access to Nutanix support.
Technical Support:
Again, my experience varies.
Nutanix support, amazing. I can't fault them. They know the product and can resolve your issues fast.
Dell support, not as great. Mainly because they aren't Nutanix employees. It's because of this that they aren't as knowledgeable and have to hand off to Nutanix support for more complex issues.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
In both organisations where I worked, which migrated to Nutanix, we were on traditional 3-tier architecture. We switched over to Nutanix for the ease of management, scalability, and performance gains. In both organisations, we were on aging hardware and it needed to be refreshed.
How was the initial setup?
It is very straightforward. The deployment process is extremely easy thanks to the 'foundation' process. A simple WebUI that guides you through the deployment process and imaging of your new nodes.
What about the implementation team?
Both implementations were done by me. With the ease of deployment, I didn't feel it necessary to engage a vendor.
What was our ROI?
I haven't calculated it yet.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
While cost may seem higher than your traditional 3-tier architecture, you need to look at the bigger picture. You're not just buying hardware here. You're buying a complete environment that not only is super-fast to deploy, it's amazingly easy to manage. I find that I'm spending less time managing my infrastructure and more time listening to the businesses needs and tailoring our infrastructure to their needs.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We looked at SimpliVity and VMware vSAN.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Assistant Technical Manager with 51-200 employees
Our IT administrators are more efficient because of the simplicity of the management interface.
What is most valuable?
There are many features that catch our attention. The most valuable one is it’s distributed file system with the data protection and storage auto tiering. This feature promise a high redundancy for our data while maintaining the high IOPs for traffic intense applications.
How has it helped my organization?
For the business it saves our rack space and maintenance costs, which is also applicable to most of our customers. The simplicity of the management interface of the product has increased the efficiency of our IT administrators, and given us a better planning direction for our storage and server expansion.
What needs improvement?
The product is quite promising, and is sufficient for daily IT/business operations at the moment.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this product for two to three years, since it first launched in Malaysia in 2012.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
No issues encountered.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The good thing about Nutanix is that there is zero-downtime for expansion, and the process is just too simple to be believe.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Nutanix also supports the dynamic expansion, with which different models can be mixed and matched for future expansion.
How are customer service and technical support?
I would say their support team is awesome. Nutanix hires a multiple-skill set support engineers, which can solve my issue no matter what system I am using on the box. Also, their respond time is an ace.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we were using traditional servers, and storage products, which are common in the market. This product has no SAN concept, which totally simplified the whole architecture of server storage, and is a big credit to them. It was this that led us to this product.
How was the initial setup?
I would say that the deployment is quite simple and straightforward. In fact, it was very straightforward, they have their own installation VM which has just a few simple steps to get the whole system up. It took no more than one hour.
What about the implementation team?
We have done the implementation a lot as we are a vendor. My advice is simple, just following the setup guide will do, there are no hidden steps inside.
What other advice do I have?
I would encourage you to try out this product. I believe you will not regret it because of the stability of the technology, and the other benefits you can get from Nutanix.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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We have been using Nutanix as our Datacenter solution for 2 years. It is an outstanding remarkable product.