Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Reviews

HQ datacenter workload plus branch offices local datacenter (including small file sharing on Windows VM).

Nutanix simplified administration efforts dramatically and increased the performances of some mission-critical applications.

• One-click upgrade
• Data locality for performances
• Prism central administration console
• Metro availbility.

• Price politics sometimes is not very transparent for the worldwide organization. 
• Better value for money about file share feature
• We feel that the cost for capacity is still more expensive compared to other solutions.

We're using Acropolis as our own cloud platform. FutureTech, my company, has built a cloud which is called Jute Cloud and is offering services to customers in Kuwait, Bahrain, and in Jordan as well. We are offering infrastructure as a service, backup as a service, DR as a service, security as a service. All of that is based on Nutanix Acropolis.

In terms of performance, it is outstanding.

The TCO model of Nutanix is much more mature than other solutions, because everything is consolidated. We're getting the best value for our investments. We're able to build cost-effective solutions, so it helps us to generate better revenue, and better margins as well.

Flexibility. We're able to mix performance nodes with storage nodes easily. Unlike other vendors where, if we start a hyperconverged solution with them, we have to stick to a specific model, to a specific series with specific capabilities, with Nutanix it's very easy to mix and match the best solution, especially for a dynamic infrastructure like ours.

It would be fantastic if there was a built-in layer, in Nutanix, that acted like a cloud interface. So far, we need to integrate a cloud interface on top of Nutanix for billing the usage for specific customers' domains. It would be great if a cloud gateway was built-in, inside Nutanix.

Also, one of the very important things that I would like to see in Nutanix, but I'm not sure if it's in the roadmap or not, is to have some kind of caching optimization at remote sites, to build active-active data centers more easily.

The stability is really outstanding.

One of my biggest customers worldwide is called Agility and they have distributed data centers around the world. In my first meeting, I asked the IT Manager there, "Okay, so what do you think about Nutanix's stability?" He said, "You know what? My only problem with Nutanix is that it's very stable, so I don't know how my engineers, if one day they face a problem, will fix it, because it's very stable, unlike other vendors." 

We literally put the appliance in production, and we forget about it. It's a very stable environment. More than 70 percent of my sales are coming from existing customers. Customers start with a small workload and then they add more workloads because they find the platform very stable and they can depend on it. They can add more workloads to it. And they even refer the technology to other customers as well.

No other vendor in the market today has the scalability options that Nutanix has. We're able to mix different models, different capacity models, different performance models. It can do all of that. Other vendors cannot do that.

The support is very good, because whenever we have a support ticket, even from the virtualization layer, all we need to do is open one ticket with Nutanix, and they solve all of our problems related to hardware or related to hypervisor. We love that because it helps us to maintain our SLAs.

They are very responsive.

We switched to Nutanix Acropolis, because of the 3D architecture. The old architecture has a lot of disadvantages. For example, whenever there is a support ticket that needs to be opened, we used to check with the software manufacturers, and they would point fingers at the hypervisor layer or the virtualization software, so we would have to go open a ticket again with the virtualization vendor. Then, they would say, "No, maybe it's the storage." Then the storage guy would say, "No, maybe it's the SAN switch, not the storage," and we would keep on cycling.

With Nutanix, the best thing is that they support the whole solution. We're getting just one appliance.

One more issue was the storage itself. Regardless of how big the investment was - we could increase the capacity of the storage as much as we wanted - the problem remained in the IOPS. We found a very good solution for this in Nutanix, because whenever we're adding new appliances, not only are we increasing the capacity, but we're also increasing the performance. This is the best solution, especially for a dynamic workload.

Our most important criteria when selecting a vendor are 

• support
• having a decent roadmap
• R&D.

Those are the most important factors. I put support first because maybe they have a very good technical solution but the support is very weak. That would be a very big problem for me, and production. And a vendor that is investing in R&D, it makes a lot of sense for me to use them.

I evaluated Cisco HyperFlex. It was very weak. We also compared EMC2. They have a hyperconverged solution, but I don't remember what its name was. We also evaluated Simplivity, which is now part of HPE. All of them lacked a lot of features compared to Nutanix.

For example, automatic sync is not there. To guarantee the performance in all of them, you have to go with all-flash nodes. Nutanix is more cost-effective because we can mix a hyper solution and still get better performance than all-flash from those vendors.

Do a demo. Don't just depend on the theoretical information in the information sheets, but go for an actual demo. Once you see a demo in action, you know exactly what the features are and how to do it.

I rate Nutanix Acropolis a 10 out of 10 because we're getting superior performance, support is very good, and it's a very cost-effective solution.

It is now our single most powerful server that is easily scalable and has an HTML5 site that manages all aspects of the system.

Hyper-convergence is the most valuable feature for me as it allows me to scale the hardware according to project requirements.

It would be great if it could emulate some of the features that their competitor VMware has, for example port mirroring or Netflow output at hypervisor level.

We did not encounter any issues with stability.

We did not encounter any issues with scalability except for cost and feature requests.

Local support has been wonderful so far in my case, but I didn't have many support requirements for my projects.

I was using a standard server infrastructure previously and found an offer for Nutanix so we switched.

The setup was handled by our local IT vendor hence you can say it's convenient.
However I was there to observe how it was done and I can say that you need network experience to link the hardware together as the nodes inside the hardware communicate using TCP/IP.

The software is set up on the get-go (off-the-shelf) but due to my project requirements I have to customize the software, hence the complexity.

If you're willing to spend on hyper-convergence technologies be prepared to pay more and be locked down to a specific hardware vendor.

The basic license that comes with the box allows basic virtualization features but advanced automation features would require an upgrade of licenses.

Before the purchase we were evaluating VMware only.

Please be prepared to be locked down on the hardware.

Our 125 seat VDI implementation went from barely usable, to a good alternative, to desktops. The performance of our server apps has never been better.

One-click upgrade and data locality are valuable features. The one-click upgrade provides simple management and upgrades. Data locality provides super-fast data access and ultra-low latency.

The focus on performance improvements over new features is more important to me. It is always fun to play with new buttons in the platform.

In reality, it is hard for me to find flaws in this platform because it is without comparing. For me, the fact that I run all of my workloads on Nutanix, which is a software defined datacenter platform, the biggest advantage for me is performance increases with updates. I was once asked what does "Software Defined" mean to me. My response was "a platform that allows for your next feature or performance upgrade to be as easy as a software patch or update."

To receive a performance enhancement by merely clicking the one button upgrade is the true value of the platform and what I look forward to the most. I do understand that new features provide the wow in the platform and I completely understand this value. However, for a datacenter admin, performance increases without cost, and sometimes unexpectedly delivered, is real wow.

There have been no stability issues so far.

There were no issues with scalability. It's built for scale.

Nutanix support is second to none. There has never been an issue when interacting with them.

We previously used Vblock, a converged solution. We switched for many reasons. Footprint, power, cooling, savings, and support time.

I did the setup myself in less than 45 minutes from box to data.

You get what you pay for here.

We evaluated VMware VXRail/Rack and SimpliVity. We did PoCs. The hands-down winner was Nutanix!

Do a PoC and judge for yourself. It costs nothing but time.

Nutanix Acropolis AOS is used for server virtualization. It replaces the three-tier traditional architecture.

The most valuable feature of Nutanix Acropolis AOS is it has centralized management.

The GUI of Nutanix Acropolis AOS could be improved that can be done from the OEM side. It's a very basic stable web browser that they're using. It is not very inclusive.

Nutanix should provide its customers with the documents for predictive workload analysis and other performance metrics, such as compression. This would be a great benefit.

I have been using Nutanix Acropolis AOS for approximately one year.

Nutanix Acropolis AOS is a stable solution.

I have found Nutanix Acropolis AOS to be scalable.

We have two to three clients using this solution.

The initial setup is straightforward. The time for the process depends on the size of the cluster.

I rate the initial setup of Nutanix Acropolis AOS a three out of five.

Our customers typically do the implementation of the solution themselves. They have the trained resources. I personally have not had the opportunity to do the implementation.

One engineer and one architect are required to do the implementation.

The price of the license for Nutanix Acropolis AOS is less expensive than the competition. There is a favorable cost saving. Having only the need to deal with a single vendor, the management of the customer's entire stack is cost-effective.

I believe Nutanix has started a subscription-based model. We will need to pay separately for parts of Nutanix. However, I have not explored it and it could still only be a non-subscription-based model at this time.

I would rate the price of Nutanix Acropolis AOS a three out of five.

We evaluated other solutions before choosing Nutanix Acropolis AOS, such as VMware VxRail.

When comparing Nutanix Acropolis AOS to VMware VxRail, in terms of features, VMware VxRail provides a lot of options, such as integration with block storage and other products. The GUI for the browsing product or the console for the VMware VxRailis very simple.

A lot of people have VMware expertise, they don't feel many challenges while using the VxRail platform, it's quite easy. However, the cons with VMware is that you need to buy a license for every feature that you add on. It's not a full-fledge bundle license. Many features have extra costs and licenses.

I would recommend this solution to others.

My advice to others is to do some kind of POC, try and test it themselves before selecting any HCI solution. They should not purchase anything until they have confidence in their abilities. I would suggest they use a demo to receive some hands-on experience, evaluate, and compare both the technologies simultaneously, and then decide which is best suited for purchase.

I rate Nutanix Acropolis AOS a six out of ten.

We migrated over our AD finance applications, HR applications, DFS, et cetera. We used the product for a whole lot of different purposes. 

One of the nicest features was the migration tool. Being able to take any application and migrate it over even while it was in use, and then cut it over without any downtime was very helpful.

Everything ran pretty smoothly, from what I recall.

The initial setup was quite straightforward. 

The solution was very stable. 

I found the pricing to be very reasonable.

I'd always like to see a bit of a drop in pricing. Everyone would. 

I only worked with the product for roughly a year, and it worked well. I don't have any thoughts on improvements at the moment.

We did have some integration issues. We did have a problem with a Veeam integration. We ended up using Wasabi instead.

I used the solution at my previous job, less than a year ago. I only worked with it for about a year.

We found the stability to be quite good. Any performance issues were tied to our network and bandwidth, however, we resolved all of that. It was never an issue with the product itself.

We never hit the edge of the scalability potential. My understanding is that the product is plug-and-play. We could add more modules if we needed to. The expansion was never an issue. 

We had around 200 users at our organization using the product.

We did use technical support when we needed help with a couple of questions regarding our forest environment. We were a little outdated in some areas. They were a very useful resource.

They had used VMware and it became outdated and we couldn't get it to the latest version. The pricing was also a little high, which was why they wanted to switch.

The initial setup was not overly complex or difficult. It was a straightforward process and easy to manage. 

The pricing is very reasonable. In contrast, VMware's Smartnet contract is rather expensive.

I was just a customer and an end-user. I used it at my previous organization.

We were using the latest version of the solution at the time, however, I am unsure of the exact version number. It was a brand new install. The included new servers and a new environment. Everything was new. 

I'd rate the product at an eight out of ten.

I would recommend the solution to others. It worked well. Installation was quick or very helpful. Management was pretty streamlined. And most importantly, that migration tool was very impressive.

• Compression, deduplication, and erasure coding
• Central management using prism
• Capacity management and planning using prism central
• One click upgrade to the Nutanix OS as well as for hypervisor
• Easily scalable with no downtime
• Provides WAN optimization for replication to remote sites

• Centralized monitoring of infrastructure
• Easy and quick deployment of VMs
• Single SME for all domains like storage, OS, and hypervisor
• Compression deduplication and erasure coding have improved storage usage by almost three times
• Protection domain allows you to compress data and transfer over WAN and helps you to move a VM to DR with a single click
• Centralized management helps you monitor storage and compute resources at the cluster and VM level in a single plane

I would like to see improvements in monitoring parameters, RTO, and access control. Currently, memory utilization does not show as per the actual. This is in pipeline for the next release. The current RPO for DC-DR is high due to the limitation of the replication strategy which will be fixed by next quarter.

We have used this solution for three months.

I did not encounter any issues with stability.

As of now, we haven’t required support, but it is good.

The installation is simple. You can more or less plug and play.

Depends upon what OEM you factor for hardware and the relationship between them. The software license seems to be pretty simple.

We evaluated Cisco HyperFlex and SimpliVity.

You can have optimal results from ROI and the infrastructure deployment perspective if the solution is designed properly. I would suggest that you spell out your requirements clearly before Nutanix starts building the solution.