Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Reviews

We have a very large deployment of our own, and we also sell a fair amount of it to our clients.

We deliver VDI systems over this and other similar technologies. We only work with hospitals. This is all in healthcare. We've essentially created private CloudOp architecture that we sell to hospitals for specialized VDI environments, and this is the product that we use.

In terms of the version, we have very significant installations of it for our clients. It is part of a product and service for which we work with our clients. I would assume we have the latest versions.

It is less expensive than VMware products. It is also a little bit more flexible, but it really comes down to price for us. 

The software-defined networking should be improved. It is quite substandard as compared to the VMware variant. The software-defined networking is quite limited, and we usually use other products to do that. We're aware that Nutanix is working on that and will be coming out with better solutions, and we can't wait because to do a fully software-defined architecture, the abstraction layer needs not only software-defined storage, which you have, but also the software-defined networking piece.

We have been using this solution for about four or five years.

It is quite stable. We had no problems with it.

So far, it hasn't been a problem for us. It is able to do all the expansions that we've needed.

It is adequate. It is no better or worse than VMware's support.

It was straightforward.

We started with a combination of consultants and Nutanix's professional services group, but now, we're supporting it all internally.

It is less expensive than the VMware alternative.

You need to understand abstraction and virtualization properly to be able to deploy it properly. You should look at it as a real alternative to VMware.

I would rate it as an eight out of 10. It is less expensive than the VMware alternative. I wouldn't say it is better than the VMware alternative. If you consider VMware's software-defined networking piece, VMware has an advantage, but its cost is significantly less. For that reason, I would give it a high rating.

We have a lot of homegrown applications using the solutions within the generation and distribution within the company. These internal teams that develop that software, they are primarily on a different architecture. The ones we use are Java and Oracle with Weblogic as the application server and the other one used is Lan Stack. We have been using this configuration for more than 60 years.

The solution has single-window management, the ability to create VMs and monitor their usage on the fly, and the ability to add more resources if required. There are a lot of tools the solution comes with and the performance is good.

The ability to create clusters faster would be nice to see in a future release.

I have been using the solution for more than one year.

In terms of scalability, adding a number of nodes, I find that it will not be any issues. Upgrades are very easy, I can run compatibly check and then download the upgrades that are available. It is just a mouse click.

I have been quite happy with the support from Nutanix during the past year. They have well-equipped support staff always on the phone when I am in contact. They know my architecture, subjects that are important for me, and the staff is quite conversant with the tool that they use.

The implementation was straightforward and we are currently only using a fixed node cluster. 

The pricing is fair for the package.

In terms of the solution overall, there are positive responses from my side.

I rate Nutanix Acropolis AOS a nine out of ten.

We primarily use Nutanix as our base environment where we host all our database servers. We also host our active directory on it, our mail servers and all our bare metal systems combined to one unit. Then we use Inuvika for the VDI environment on top of Nutanix.

The main reason why we liked it is because of the high availability that we get with it. The platform's extremely stable and other nice things that we like about it is that if we have to move the server or anything, it's not a lot to move and power consumption is a big thing for us as well.

We are not fully in production yet and we are still busy testing Nutanix. A couple of things that it makes a huge difference in is our company's power consumption because we don't have to use computers for all our employees. We can simply put down a Raspberry Pi or a little nook, and in the Inuvika environment, everything is up and running immediately. It gives the users a lot more freedom in connection with what they usually have in a standard setup. With everything operating in the cluster, the chances of losing data is reduced by about 90%. We use this move from one site because we've got about seven sites that we are running from the one Nutanix cluster.
We can move a user from one site to another site without having to move hardware. It is very user-friendly. Another thing I like a lot about Inuvika is the deduplication that you can do on different containers. You don't have to do everything on one container or on one VM itself. 

I definitely find the reduced power consumption very valuable. Another aspect I really like, when one compares Citrix to VMware, is the interface where you talk directly to your VM from the present software. We have found that it is a lot more responsive using VMware compared to Citrix.

One thing I've noticed is that, when you do a shift from VMware to Nutanix, it opens the setup of the VM that's currently running. If people from another site double click on it, it opens the VM instead of the setup of the unit. So I would suggest that this could perhaps be switched. That is so far the only change I would like. I would like it if they could fix the instance where you double click on a VM and it opens the VM instead of the setup. That's the only thing that's a major bother to me.

The easiest way to explain the stability of Nutanix is to start it up and forget about it. We haven't had any problems with this solution. We've done a couple of tests and restarts and we've moved VMs from one machine to another machine. We tested the availability and we didn't have any problems with that either. The performance and stability of Nutanix is so good, it is almost unbelievable. 

This product is very scalable. We currently have 60 users. One of the things I like about it is that you can add extra nodes without any problem. Something we are currently looking at for the future is to put a smaller cluster on each side, where we can then, overnight, replicate the data from the site to the primary cluster. That's one of the other reasons why we looked at Nutanix instead of VMware and Citrix.
At this stage, we haven't transferred our SQL database as of yet. We're waiting for the software providers to come in and do the transfer from the old server to the new server. All our documents and all our data must be transferred. 

We had only one query so far, and the support team was excellent. They came back to us immediately and their service was excellent.

We used a different solution before we started using Nutanix. We ran three sites on EXSi from VMware. After doing some research, I saw the feasibility of Nutanix. Not only on costs, but on scalability as well. Although I'm a big VMware fan, I've found that one only has a certain amount of time to build your setup with VMware, and if you don't do it in that time, you must start again. One of the main things I liked of Nutanix, is that I can add an extra node or four extra or nodes if needed within a period of two years.

The initial setup was really straightforward. We had a little trouble with the nicks. Also, under the software setup, it doesn't give you the version of the software. It only shows as 'unknown'. So we had to dive into the setup to find out which version it was to update correctly. The entire setup took us half a day. We used a consultant for the deployment. The service I received from them is unbelievable.

One of the major problems with IT in South Africa is that licensing fees are 14 times more expensive than anywhere in the world. This is due to the rand/dollar exchange rate. If I remember correctly, our licensing fee on the total setup was about R900,000. 
There are no additional costs. The only additional things we added to the system was Commvault for additional backup services for the cluster.

We looked at other options like VMware and Citrix, but Nutanix was the only solution that offered us scalability and the option to add extra notes without any problems. 

Nutanix is an extremely cost effective product for the stability that you get without having to install additional hardware to get everything up and running. No other product out there can compare with Nutanix. 

I would rate it a nine out of ten.

I use the virtualized component of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure to host some of my applications. We also use it for disaster recovery and replication. We're using Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure to run our CRM software, HR solutions, and databases.

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure has reduced our infrastructure management costs. The solution helps us eliminate downtime. We haven't had any downtime in the past two years—even during the updates. Upgrades are smooth and easy, but we still need to plan ahead because there is a reduced workload while the updates are happening. 

The solution helped us consolidate applications because we were previously using a three-tier architecture with different sets of servers, storage, and networking. Now everything is on Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure. We also save on rack space and power cooling. We are in the process of modernizing other applications and setting up DRs. 

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure has a simple, user-friendly GUI, and I also like the remote recovery capabilities. It provides a single platform for managing databases. They have Nutanix-validated designs for databases that optimize them for performance. They have some guidelines and designs for best practices. It has helped us improve the performance of transactions.

In a hybrid cloud setup, we should be able to port our floors from on-premises to the public cloud and from the public cloud to on-premises.

I have used Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure for two years.

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure is reliable. 

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure is a scalable solution, but our organization won't have any need to scale for another two years or so. It's easy to add computing power and storage on demand. 

I rate Nutanix support an eight out of ten. 

Positive

We also use VxRail.

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure is deployed on-premises in Mumbai. The Nutanix professional services team deployed the solution. The deployment was straightforward but required some upfront planning. We need to design a solution for our environment. We completed the deployment in under a week. It took us one week to plan and another to execute. Only one person is required to administer and maintain the platform. 

We have calculated that we will see an ROI within three years of implementing Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure. 

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure could be cheaper. It's costly to upgrade the solution. There are no additional costs aside from the license. 

I rate Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure an eight out of ten. Initial planning is critical when you deploy a solution like this. You need to plan in terms of capacity, sizing, and environment. It's essential to understand your requirements. With appropriate planning, you won't face problems in the future.

The solution allows us to make use of high IOPS requirements.

We used to go with a traditional architecture, storage and server. Now, with Nutanix, we have 30,000 IOPS, up from 1,000. 

A great feature involves real-time hardware changes. There is no need to shut down any VM during the hardware changes.

The solution does not lend support when we connect with a few dongle licenses. There is a need to make use of certain third-party USB switches through which we can have USB access. USB dongle-based licenses do not allow us to directly locate the USB ports on Nutanix. Other than this, I have no complaints.

We have been using Nutanix Acropolis AOS for the last four years.

The solution is certainly stable. 

The solution is scalable. 

I do not recall contacting Nutanix's support within the past four years. Nutanix sends us daily alerts and messages. A year-and-a-half ago I encountered a RAM failure, but there was no need for me to log a case with Nutanix, as the call was automatically logged and an engineer was sent to deal with the problem. 

We previously made use of Scale Computing and HPE SimpliVity.

The initial setup was quick. Previously, the operations involved three days of downtime but, with the solution, the initial migration from traditional architecture to Nutanix lasted three hours, instead of three days. It was so much quicker. 

We handled the implementation on our own. 

The pricing is quite good in comparison with HPE SimpliVity, Nutanix Scale, and even traditional architecture. We found Nutanix's pricing to be the best. We did not incur license fees as we did with HPE Simplivity's VMware licenses, so this kept the costs down. 

I rate Nutanix Acropolis AOS as a nine out of ten. 

We have three clusters of Nutanix. We are using Nutanix Clusters for all of our Intel-based workload. The majority of applications are Oracle databases, application servers, our file services, email hosting, etc.

The machines provisioning times have reduced drastically. The single pane of glass management provides ease of management.  Storage 

There are a lot of features in Nutanix that are different from other hyper-converged solutions, such as site-to-site replication. VM-based site-to-site replication is bundled with the software licensing. For the DR, it has the availability groups, which is one of the key features that Nutanix provides.

Its performance management is pretty good, especially the software-defined storage that Acropolis provides is pretty good.

As far as the availability is concerned, it has RAID nodes, so the availability is pretty good. In case of failure, the system automatically shifts machines from one node to another. Their failure debugger is very good.

The only problem is that not many operating systems are supported on the AOS hypervisor. They need to probably increase the support on multiple operating systems. As of now, a very limited number of operating systems and patch levels are supported on AOS.

In terms of additional features, a lot of backup solutions have integration with AOS, but not many backup solutions provide a solution for VM backup. So probably, in the next release, they can make the backup solutions compatible with AOS for VM backups. It would be great.

We've been using this solution for the last three years.

The solution is rock solid, no software issues or compatibility issues may be because we are using it over 

It is primarily a scale out solution. New nodes can be added pretty easily and workload can be divided on the fly including that of Software Defined Storage that comes with Nutanix Hyperconverged Solution. 

I am very satisfied with their support. Nutanix has probably one of the best support in the hyper-converged industry. Whenever there is a problem, they usually fix it within hours.

VMWARE and Hyper-V are good alternate solutions but if you are using AOS on a Nutanix Hyperconverged solution, than AOS provides better integration with the solution. If the requirement is to fully leverage Nutanix Hyperconverged solution than AOS is the go to hypervisor.

Its setup is very straightforward. You just have to plug in the nodes and power them up. That's it. It will automatically rebuild itself and be available. It is shipped pre-configured.

There are three variants in AOS pricing. 

The Evaluation included VMWARE and Hyper-V. The software defined features required including software defined storage, Performance throughput, scale out architecture etc which were not directly related to hypervisor selection but more geared towards Software Defined Data Center put Nutanix Hyperconverged and to fully leverage its functionalities put AOS in front.

I would rate Nutanix Acropolis AOS a nine out of 10. It is pretty good.

We've implemented Nutanix as part of a hardware refresh project. We've replaced two chassis with 28 Server blades, two storage devices, and four SAN switches by 12 Nutanix nodes.

First, we had moved some development and test workloads before sending production workloads. The first wave was successful and we couldn't wait until moving more workloads to Nutanix. We were anxious because this HCI was something we have never experimented with before and at the end of the day, it was the best thing we've done in our infrastructure.

We couldn't have chosen better, as we were able to reduce our data center footprint by two-thirds, reduced the management tools and teams, eliminated the SAN complexity, increased the IOPS metrics, and increased the overall performance by 40%.

We were also able to reduce our support contract with a third-party vendor that manages our environment due to the footprint reduction and also the SAN and Storage decommissioning.

The virtualization environment is now much easier to manage and maintain, there is only one vendor to call in case of issues and one single console to manage everything.

There are lots of great built-in features such as the one-click upgrade, data protection, data locality, very fast and non-disruptive snapshots, single pane of glass, etc.

We are applying patches and upgrades every quarter using the one-click upgrade feature and we have never run into an issue. The updates go smoothly with no outages at all, and we do everything including firmware updates, AOS updates, foundation updates, hypervisor updates, all at once and it goes perfectly fine.

The data protection is also a great feature that is very easy to set up and includes lots of options for snapshot retention. The consistent snapshots are great for Windows application and database servers.

I think some of the tasks that must be done using CLI could be added to the web interface.

I think it is kind of frustrating, opening a CLI session going through all the CLI commands you have to run to accomplish that task and then get back to the web console to continue doing what you were doing. It would be much easier to have that same setup option available on the web console.

Also, I believe that running several different commands through a CLI can increase the chance of typos/mistakes, resulting in a bigger issue.

We have been using Nutanix Acropolis AOS for one year.

We used a different product before this one, and we moved to reduce complexity.

The setup cost, pricing, and licensing are very competitive and TCO is very low compared to three-tier solutions.

We evaluated VMware vSphere with VSAN and NSX, as well as Azure Stack.

We like that the size of the box is 1U or 2U only, and all the servers are fit into that box. The ease of operation is there. All the servers and the SAN storage are inside the box. So there are no wires, cables to manage. Secondly, since it is a hyper-converged infrastructure, we can scale up very easily. Suppose, for example, we were using 24 TB SAN last year, and now we are increasing up to 96 TB SAN. That is very easy to do with Nutanix. Just install the hard disk, enterprise-grade SAS or SSD, and expand that particular SAN. So within a short span of time, we can increase the capacity of the RAM or the hard disk. With how compact the equipment is it saves us a lot of space in the racks. 

In previous years we had six to seven server rooms, those are consolidated to only one server room now. We have only one server room and the space of that server room is hardly is 200 square feet. Cooling is easy, the amount of cooling needed is also reduced, so the administration becomes very easy. Reports are generated very easily. Additionally, we can configure the machines, we can create the VDI, for example, at a fast pace. Within four, five minutes, we are able to create the machine.

Pricing and varieties of options could be better. I represent an educational Institute, higher education. So, the cost is a major concern. Secondly, we have the 1000 and 3000 series. So we would like to see that graphic virtualization. It should support all the open standards as well as Nutanix. If the other vendor brought some SAN or NAS, it should be very compatible with that. I would rate it at a nine on a scale of ten.

We have been using Nutanix Hyper-Converged Infrastructure for three years. We use the 1000 series.

It is very stable and scalable also. So even if we are facing the power problems, the machine restarts immediately after the power is resumed, and the machine is a rugged one. So definitely a stable machine.

It is very scalable and easy to scale quicly.

The technical support is also very nice. They have partner support and direct Nutanix support.We are getting better support from Nutanix. So I can rate them with an A grade.

The Nutanix Hyper-Converged Infrastructure is easy to install. Initially, it took around one and a half days to understand the complete setup, but now once we understand the setup, we can install the complete setup within two to three hours.

I strongly recommend the product.

I would rate it a nine out of ten.