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Rajadurai Mani - PeerSpot reviewer
Storage and Backup Administrator at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Easy to manage and provides a centralized management console
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution's most valuable feature is the Prism Central centralized management console."
  • "There is no tagging concept in Nutanix Unified Storage where you can tag the servers."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution more for Citrix profile VDI. We also have some Windows servers running, and we use Nutanix Unified Storage more for the server platform. If I remember correctly, we have more than 1,200 servers running on the Nutanix cluster.

How has it helped my organization?

Our company is a product-based company that performs order processing. Most of our applications are on the web. We also get invoices and a lot of files. It generates a lot of files and keeps them on the server, and the application is posted on some of Nutanix's servers as well.

In my experience, we haven't had any outages so far. The virtualization of the memory is based on the usage, and it consumes a lot. The previous tools were not as efficient as compared to Nutanix Unified Storage.

What is most valuable?

Nutanix Unified Storage is a cluster. Compared to any other virtualization environment, Nutanix Unified Storage doesn't require any downtime to upgrade and doesn't experience storage outages. So, things are going smoothly with Nutanix, and that's the best part of the Nutanix cluster for storage.

The solution's most valuable feature is the Prism Central centralized management console. We have close to eight to nine clusters and also remote sites. Compared to other tools, the solution is easy to manage. I would also like to mention the solution's ActiveDR concept and replication.

We have sites from different locations, and we are in the process of procuring ultimate licensing. Even if one cluster goes down, we can bring it up and have the application operating from the other site. That's the beauty of the tool, which makes it more efficient.

We use Cohesity from Nutanix to protect our organization's unstructured data. We also have a cloud-based Rubrik tool. Cohesity has the same infrastructure as Nutanix Unified Storage. I am an administrator for both Nutanix Unified Storage and Cohesity. We take snapshot-level backups. Since we are implementing ultimate licensing for remote sites, we will use an internal snapshot feature to replicate to the other sites.

The solution's storage and scalability features have improved our data operations. Our storage is increasing daily for business purposes. Nutanix Unified Storage has good scalability. We recently received some orders, and some nodes were added.

I like Nutanix's data locality feature because it improved our data accessibility and availability.

Implementing Nutanix Unified Storage has tremendously reduced the number of storage nodes by around 20% to 30%.

What needs improvement?

There is no tagging concept in Nutanix Unified Storage where you can tag the servers. It is more useful for backups because I manage backups as well. In other solutions, you can group servers in the backup. Although we can do a complete cluster of VMs in Nutanix, we cannot tag the server to a particular tag ID or number you can pull from the backup solutions.

If you call for that number, the server should ideally take the backups irrespective of the cluster in which it is present. We faced issues with those things. We have to protect the entire cluster manually. The server tagging feature could be added to the solution's future releases.

We didn't face any issues in Nutanix after the upgrade, but we had issues with the Cohesity backups. We consistently work with both the vendors, and that has been fixed. So that is the only thing that we had faced up to the upgrade.

Buyer's Guide
Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS)
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the solution in my current organization for four years, and I used it for over a year in my previous organization. So, I have a total of five years of experience with Nutanix Unified Storage.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Nutanix Unified Storage is a stable solution. That's what we need. I see. As a customer, we look for such solutions to stabilize our environment and storage. Our day-to-day business requires that.

I rate the solution’s stability a nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Around 784 users use the solution in our organization.

I rate the solution’s scalability ten out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

The solution's technical support is good and pretty responsive. We contact the support for small issues, and their problem-solving is the highest.

I rate the solution’s technical support a nine or ten out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The solution's initial setup is straightforward. The upgrade from a previous version to the latest version is also easy. I wasn't involved in the solution's initial setup because it already existed when I joined the company. However, I was involved in increasing the nodes, which took around three to four hours. I don't remember exactly because it's been a while since we added storage.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

From what I hear from the management, Nutanix Unified Storage has comparatively decent pricing. I think we are in pro licensing and have yet to get ultimate licensing.

What other advice do I have?

We are not into AI yet. I'm an administrator and not an authorized personnel for those things. We are a product-based electronic components reseller. From what I have heard from management, we will be implementing AI soon.

We are mostly concerned about and focused on security hardening. Some internal solutions, like SentinelOne, have been recommended for security hardening. However, we are not dedicatedly using anything. We are also checking Cohesity DataHawk, and we are still in the process of finalizing it.

The solution is deployed in eight locations. We have multiple nodes in our main data center and DR data center. We mainly use the solution for VDI profiles and server virtualization.

I told my old colleagues that we are using Nutanix Unified Storage, and they were pretty impressed with its features. I would recommend Nutanix Unified Storage to users as a unified storage solution.

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

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
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Storage and Virtualization Infrastructure Engineer at Groupe Smart&co
Real User
Top 20
Makes it much easier for us to manage the corporate system
Pros and Cons
  • "Management-wise, it has made work a lot easier. It is all in one place physically. It is much better now."
  • "When it comes to Nutanix Files, one thing that would be great is a slightly easier way of managing snapshots and restore points, especially when a third party is involved."

What is our primary use case?

We mainly got onto Nutanix Files to replace our existing corporate file system. We had plans to migrate almost 100 terabytes of storage, but due to some optimization, we migrated 60 terabytes and ditched the rest because it was useless data. Luckily, we figured out that we do not need that data anymore. That is our main case, and we have set up five separate instances of Nutanix Files so far.

How has it helped my organization?

Management-wise, it has made work a lot easier. It is all in one place physically. It is much better now.

There is ease of management. We only have one place to go, and we can find all the information and all the data that we need. It also improved the visibility of the actual usage of our resources. We can see how many people are accessing files at all times. That was one of the main drivers through which we were able to see that our users were not using some of the data at all. We were able to archive that data. If we had Nutanix Analytics and Files Analytics in place, we would have gone a step further and automated the archival of cold data. At this time, we do not have that much to manage, but in the future, we will implement that.

It is hard to assess Nutanix Unified Storage for detecting and blocking ransomware threats because I never had a chance to see it in action. It is enabled everywhere. Maybe we were just lucky. We have not had any ransomware incidents since implementing Nutanix Files, but seeing how the policy is set up, I expect it to react very fast. Hopefully, I will never have to verify the accuracy of this claim.

To protect unstructured data in our organization, we use HYCU backups. They are great partners of Nutanix. HYCU has been awesome and flawless so far. These tools are not critically vital, but they do add to the mix. There is plenty of useful information I can get from those tools. I am glad they are there.

What is most valuable?

It is very easy to manage. I am focusing mostly on Nutanix Files because of our use case. I did not have a chance to look at Objects, for instance. We will start looking at Volumes at some point this year. With regards to Files, it is very intuitive. It is easy to manage, and it makes it much easier for us to manage the corporate system. Everything is consolidated in one place rather than having to jump all over Europe, which is how spread it was before. That is a big win for us.

What needs improvement?

It is hard to say what can be better because we have been using Nutanix products for 11 years. We have been with Nutanix for a long time, and it is difficult to find flaws. The moment we find something that is not up to our expectations, we raise a request for a new feature or engage with support. We usually get an answer fairly quickly. There is not much we are missing. When it comes to Nutanix Files, one thing that would be great is a slightly easier way of managing snapshots and restore points, especially when a third party is involved. We have a third party for backups. They look after the data that we are managing. At times, it is difficult to discern which recovery point has been generated. In a new iteration, they can perhaps amend that piece of management. It is a tiny detail. It already works, but if they can implement a more straightforward way of managing those recovery points, it will be a good thing.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Nutanix Unified Storage for about two years now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable. I have not had any issues. Even when we roll updates, nobody notices what is happening in the background, so it is very reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have not had the need or the requirements to scale. It seems that it would be fairly straightforward. It will be as easy. It will be a one-click to deploy a new node or add a new node to an instance or anything like that.

How are customer service and support?

We have a good relationship with our Nutanix account manager. Whenever we have a technical question, we drop it to them. If we are unsure of what to do, we reach out to tech support. They usually get back to us super fast.

Their customer support is very good. They are very knowledgeable. I do not think there has ever been an issue that they could not resolve. If that happens, it is because it may be a new bug. If we find something that nobody else found before, they reach out and tell us that it is something that is going to be fixed in the next three days. They give us a workaround. If they are not able to fix it immediately, they let us know that it is in their roadmap. They would do it in one of the next releases or add it to the list of features that they plan to add because nobody has asked before. In that sense, it is awesome.

I would rate them a ten out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not have anything similar. It was a custom-built or internally-built solution based on the existing features of Nutanix. We just managed it manually.

How was the initial setup?

In terms of implementation, it was as easy as you could imagine. Even migrating the data was very straightforward. It took us plenty of time because of the amount of data that we had to move. Other than that, it was fine.

It was supposed to replace a different solution. It was just a matter of deploying the instance that I was looking for and then slowly migrating the data over. I did not encounter any major issues there.

What was our ROI?

I am saving a lot of man-hours in managing or figuring out issues or finding solutions for the problems that arise. In the past, I would have had to check everything in the chain to figure out what was wrong. It is a lot easier, especially with regard to permissions on a file system. The solution we had in place before was a pain in the neck.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is above my role. I am not the one who makes the calls, but it seems to me that it was very competitive. Other solutions would have required dedicated hardware, so an additional CapEx has to be put in place. In that sense, it was definitely a more competitive option to go with Nutanix Files. We did not get storage for every node just for the sake of adding files, but it was a wider solution for that.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We had other options. We do have different storage devices in place. We decided to centralize on Nutanix because we have been working with them for quite a long time, and we have been very happy with their products. It seemed like a fairly straightforward decision, but then, of course, we tested it. It proved to be a much more efficient way of dealing with what we had in place.

What other advice do I have?

We do not have any data-intensive workloads. Our use case is mainly for the corporate file system. When I start using volumes, I expect the same performance as standard VMs. I will be happy to see a very high performance like everything else so far.

Implementing Nutanix Unified Storage has not resulted in a reduction in the number of storage nodes due to increased storage capacity per node. We implemented Nutanix after purchasing storage-heavy nodes.

We are not using Nutanix Data Lens. We have Files Analytics. I was looking into Data Lens. Unfortunately, it did not fall within the budget for this year. Perhaps next year, we will be able to give it a go.

I would rate Nutanix Unified Storage a nine out of ten. It is not yet perfect. They are going to implement a more consolidated interface. There are basically three products that fall under the storage piece. They are not in the same pane of glass, but it is a very solid product, so I can give it a nine. It meets my needs and resolves all my problems so far. I am sure that when we start implementing volumes, it will prove to be a good solution for that. It is in our roadmap to start using volumes to solve a couple of issues that we have at the moment. I am already confident that it will do so.

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.
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Buyer's Guide
Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS)
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Senior Systems Engineer at a retailer with 11-50 employees
Real User
Top 5
Offers ease of use and management, along with a straightforward implementation
Pros and Cons
  • "The product's benefits stem from the ease of use and management it offers to its users."
  • "The product does not offer one console."

What is our primary use case?

I use the solution in my company since I have two or three users, specifically cloud customers, who use Nutanix Files and subnets for backup storage and for a common shared folder.

How has it helped my organization?

The product's benefits stem from the ease of use and management it offers to its users.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that I like the object sizes. The tool's infrastructure is quite easy to implement. I know that I would like the product's licensing model to be much cheaper, especially if I tried to make another type of cluster. When you have huge data, the tool is cheaper.

Nutanix Unified Storage for detecting and blocking ransomware threats is a good option offered by the tool to users for objects and storage. Users can access the right technologies offered by the product so that it is more secure for our company.

Nutanix Unified Storage offers large space per node. The tool does not help reduce the number of nodes used in my company. Usually, my company needs to expand the number of nodes used.

In terms of the tools my company is currently utilizing to protect unstructured data, I would say that there is one option that you can use for your data protection. You can have two or three implementations to develop a disaster recovery for unstructured data, especially for the ones on file servers.

What needs improvement?

The product does not offer one console. From an improvement perspective, it should offer one console. With Prism Central, Nutanix tried to manage all the stuff, but I believe that it can be made easier.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Nutanix Unified Storage for three or four years. My company is in partnership with Nutanix.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

My company deals with the product's customers who work in the government sector who use it at a massive level. The product is also used in the banking sector. The product is very stable in general.

How are customer service and support?

The solution's technical support is awesome, quick, and effective. I don't really use the product's support services. Whenever I use the product's support services, it has always been good. I rate the technical support a nine to ten out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Before bringing Nutanix Unified Storage into our company, files and objects were stored in separate products. My company used to use one solution named Nutanix Mine. All the licenses gained by our company work in a different manner.

Some of my company's clients used to use QNAP's NAS solutions. My company's client changed to Nutanix Unified Storage since it offers more reporting options, making it more cost-effective in terms of management.

How was the initial setup?

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The licensing model the tool has is cheaper than an HCI storage solution. You can get a straightforward compression feature in Nutanix Unified Storage, which is better than buying a SAN solution of eight terabytes for 1,000 USD. If you have some complexities and some requirements, or if the users operate in a government agency or in a VDI environment, depending on how you like to use it, it is better to use a solution from Nutanix instead of an all-modern block storage tool.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

As my company is in partnership with Nutanix, we cannot consider another product against Nutanix Unified Storage.

What other advice do I have?

I have never used anything in the tool associated with AI, so I don't know about Nutanix Unified Storage's throughput or latency for data-intensive workloads, such as AI or data analytics.

I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

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: Reseller
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Section Manager for Platform Team at Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission
Real User
Top 20
Removed siloes from our organization’s storage and the life cycle manager help to consolidate different vendors
Pros and Cons
  • "The life cycle managers of the PCMs are very impressive, and I like them. They make our lives easy when managing patches and security updates when they come in. A life cycle manager helps to consolidate different vendors."
  • "Security is an area for improvement. When there are vulnerabilities, there needs to be a faster approval process. The solution needs to automatically target the vulnerabilities and not waste too much time."

What is our primary use case?

We run our VMs on Nutanix Unified Storage. We were trying to reduce the data center footprint and shrink the bandwidths on the number of storage units that we were using. We also wanted to avoid having to deal with different vendors when there is an issue. We have a 700 TB environment.

We use Varonis for ransomware protection. It's very expensive, but it does a very good job. Varonis monitors file pattern changes and maintains well-known dictionary sets.

What is most valuable?

The life cycle managers of the PCMs are very impressive, and I like them. They make our lives easy when managing patches and security updates when they come in. A life cycle manager helps to consolidate different vendors.

Also, because the management is simplified, I can depend on one or two people. We are able to reduce contractors and FTEs. We used to be a team of more than ten people, and now we are a team of six. As such, we are able to save about $400,000 a year.

We have to run mandatory disaster recovery processes every year. It's very important that Nutanix Unified Storage is able to manage and run our storage from any location.

Nutanix Unified Storage removed siloes from our organization’s storage.

What needs improvement?

Security is an area for improvement. When there are vulnerabilities, there needs to be a faster approval process. The solution needs to automatically target the vulnerabilities and not waste too much time.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been Nutanix customers for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

NUS's stability is very good.

How are customer service and support?

Nutanix's technical support is good. They go the extra mile to help us out with health checks as well. Therefore, I would give them a nine out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

NUS's initial setup was straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

Our partner, CAS Severn, helped us with the initial deployment process.

What was our ROI?

I believe that we have seen an ROI.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend trying Nutanix Unified Storage. I rate it a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
IT Admin at a sports company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Top 10
Cut our TCO in half while improving the overall performance of our infrastructure operations
Pros and Cons
  • "I like Nutanix Prism Central. The primary benefit is that we can manage everything from the same page."
  • "The GUI is easy to use, but it's complex to do tasks from the command line. That is one way they could simplify things for the engineers. People tend to use a graphical interface more than the command line interface. If anything goes wrong, we need to do troubleshooting from the CLI. It would be nice if there were more ways to fix issues within the GUI."

What is our primary use case?

We have a local data center here that isn't connected to the Internet because of the nature of our organization. It does not have any external communications. Last year, we had a disaster when we ran out of storage space in the clusters assigned to the storage containers. We had around 10 TB allocated for files across five clusters. One of our clusters was hosting critical files, so we had to rate the machine consumption from that cluster, and it can expire because the application that the customer was working on was transferring pictures with enormous sizes. 

We realized that we also had the file license, so why don't we go ahead and use it? We contacted Nutanix, and the managers and system engineers suggested we have meetings. We discussed it and then started providing these storage services. Soon, we will expand with node storage, and that will be another option. We're currently looking at best practices because I think there is a limit on the file sizes. We cannot go beyond 10 TB.

How has it helped my organization?

The Nutanix solution has improved the overall performance of our infrastructure operations. Nutanix unifies our block file and object storage. It's like a separate service we can provide for the critical applications we are running, but I can ensure each application is secure against ransomware or other vulnerabilities. I will recommend my team to go further with the block and object storage.

What is most valuable?

I like Nutanix Prism Central. The primary benefit is that we can manage everything from the same page. It also gives you the data in graph form on the main page, so you can keep a close eye on what is happening. You can watch for high utilization and see the disks and reports in the central console. It's a resilient and highly stable application 

The modernized infrastructure and data services feature is the most beneficial to me as an administrator. We derive business value in terms of storage because we have the option of using Windows Firewall.

Nutanix Unified Storage allows us to consolidate our data platform within the Nutanix cluster itself without using external storage. You can work with all types of unstructured data seamlessly with Unified Storage. There should be no problem with that. There are no issues with audio, video, uploads, downloads, etc. 

It's a flexible solution. This is what I understood as I was reviewing the documentation today. Nutanix is trying to simplify storage and has many options for scalability. 

What needs improvement?

The GUI is easy to use, but it's complex to do tasks from the command line. That is one way they could simplify things for the engineers. People tend to use a graphical interface more than the command line interface. If anything goes wrong, we need to do troubleshooting from the CLI. It would be nice if there were more ways to fix issues within the GUI. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Nutanix is highly stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scaling can be a challenge. Once you order a block with a specific size, it will need to be changed to a different node to scale up. We have to expand the cluster and have the nodes ready to increase the storage size. We cannot go ahead and add an extra hard disk if the slots are full.

How are customer service and support?

I rate Nutanix support nine out of 10. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used VMware. Nutanix is faster, but the two solutions offer the same level of security.

How was the initial setup?

A typical deployment could probably be completed in a day or two, but our data site required a lot of approvals and an on-site review by our engineer, so our deployment time was around a week. One person is enough to deploy the solution. It doesn't require much maintenance if the clusters are upgraded correctly. 

What was our ROI?

Switching to Nutanix Unified Storage reduced the total cost of ownership by nearly 50 percent. You can go on the Nutanix website and see a cost comparison of how much you can save over three to five years. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Nutanix is priced a bit higher than some of its competitors. A lot of Chinese companies like Huawei are entering the Saudi Arabian market trying to provide similar solutions for a lower price. It offers good value, especially the support. Nutanix has a highly competent team. The after-sales support is excellent. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Nutanix Unified Storage nine out of 10. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
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reviewer2183823 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
MSP
Is cost-effective and efficient, and has good performance
Pros and Cons
  • "The initial setup is pretty straightforward. With a few clicks, you can stand up your storage. It reduces the overall life cycle of deployment within the ecosystem."
  • "Nutanix needs to improve their cybersecurity options at the storage level."

What is our primary use case?

We are a managed services provider, and we customize solutions for every use case. For example, we have a client who built up file servers on Azure and found it very cost prohibitive. Thus, they wanted to move back into Nutanix Unified Storage to reduce costs. Our clients have seen a 7% to 10% reduction in storage costs. We have been able to achieve a 4:1 compression using Nutanix Unified Storage.

We have one client who is currently doing a POC with Nutanix Data Lens.

What is most valuable?

We have been able to improve efficiency metrics such as performance, dedup, and energy savings by using Nutanix Unified Storage.

One of our clients has 14 different locations, and having a single pane of glass with Nutanix Unified Storage would be a great help for them. We would not have to create 14 different consoles.

What needs improvement?

Nutanix needs to improve their cybersecurity options at the storage level.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been working with this solution for a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have not seen any issues with the stability of the solution.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. With a few clicks, you can stand your storage up. It reduces the overall life cycle of deployment within the ecosystem.

What was our ROI?

We have seen an ROI. When we build a solution for a five or six-year contract, we factor in the total cost of ownership. The total cost of ownership for Nutanix is very competitive.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Compared to other solutions, Nutanix Unified Storage is cost-effective and efficient. It also has good performance.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend Nutanix Unified Storage and rate it a ten out of ten. You will be able to bring in scalability and flexibility. 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Technology engineer at Dicegsa
Real User
Top 20
The throughput is excellent, especially the data analytics
Pros and Cons
  • "The best Nutanix Unified Storage features are its recovery and data speeds. It has resolved the issue of accessing information quickly."
  • "Perhaps Unified Storage could be improved by including artificial intelligence to make searches more effective. Also, if someone has access who shouldn't, it could automatically update, so I do not need to physically remove permission. The platform could do it automatically. AI could make it more self-service."

What is our primary use case?

We use Unified Storage for file sharing, application access, and backups.

How has it helped my organization?

The model at Dicegsa involves many sellers storing their information on Nutanix Unified Storage from different places in various ways. Nutanix allows us to avoid silos of information by consolidating everything into Unified Storage, so no data is lost and users have high trust in it. Phones, laptops, etc. get lost, but the data remains protected. 

Nutanix Unified Storage has enabled us to reduce the number of storage nodes. When it comes to renewing the technology, I prefer to buy NUS because it works better than traditional storage. In terabytes, we have reduced about 80 terabytes into two little boxes. It has affected us positively in that we do not have any outages. We have lost devices but the information is still available. 

What is most valuable?

The best Nutanix Unified Storage features are its recovery and data speeds. It has resolved the issue of accessing information quickly. NUS's throughput is quite good. However, our model still requires optimization for better results. It isn't the solution's fault but rather how our data is organized. The throughput is excellent, especially the data analytics, it has many conversions. A lot of information comes and goes, which is analyzed differently. The result is perfect.

It has immutability functionality within the backups that is out of the box. Nutanix delivers it and offers us an additional layer of security. I did not know the feature existed, I was pleasantly surprised when I found out about it.

What needs improvement?

Perhaps Unified Storage could be improved by including artificial intelligence to make searches more effective. Also, if someone has access who shouldn't, it could automatically update, so I do not need to physically remove permission. The platform could do it automatically. AI could make it more self-service.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have used Unified Storage for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In the three years we've used Nutanix Unified Storage, we've never had any issues aside from the ones we've generated. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We are not yet at our limits, and what we purchased still supports our data, but I believe Nutanix Unified Storage has no problems scaling. It's a highly stable platform.

How are customer service and support?

I rate Nutanix customer service nine out of 10. It's only nine because I do not believe in perfection. This is a critical subject for us. Normally, our suppliers deliver and leave. However, we have maintained a relationship with Nutanix for three years. We started with a single solution and decided we wanted to continue working with them. 

We recently renewed three other servers and will continue to grow with the same provider. We know each other, so it's easier to trust someone you've known for a while. Indeed, a community is growing and more clients join every day.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously had a Dell that was expensive and incomplete. We would have to complete it with something else that made it even more expensive and have the dependency on a resource. This was ultimately reduced thanks to NUS.

How was the initial setup?

Deploying Nutanix Unified Storage was simple for the IT team, and we quickly integrated it in compliance with the minimum security mechanisms. We updated, migrated, and implemented it, so it wasn't too chaotic. There was a learning curve, but it wasn't so bad because our IT staff members aren't rookies. They already understand the concepts and how things are implemented, so it was fast.

We started with certain important people, focusing on the business aspects, not technology. We took advantage of technological renewal, the fact that it was time to renew and change components. In every deployment, people always react differently to change. At first, you don't trust the technology, but once you start realizing its potential, things become much more fluid. 

What about the implementation team?

A consulting integrator called Mtsolutions, which is in Latin America. The name of the integrator was Ronald Paniahui, the experience was very positive.

What was our ROI?

It is difficult to say because we have never measured the ROI of Nutanix Unified Storage, but I can provide a concrete example. For example, a salesperson had a problem in January when her laptop stopped working. That loss of information costs a lot of money. We implemented Unified Storage in March, and something similar happened to another person in May, but they didn't lose their information. There was only minimal physical damage to the device.

We know there is operational efficiency and the information is easier to recover. If we were working the same old way, we would have needed people dedicated to many issues. Maybe this measurement has not been from a human resources perspective of how long it takes for a person to recover their information, where they do it, what they recover, etc. The business flow would not be the same if we still used another solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price can always be improved. As a customer, you always seek reasonable solutions within your budget, and they give us little to do a lot. My IT team always has to justify that we are choosing an optimal solution, so the price could be a little lower.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Nutanix Unified Storage nine out of 10. The platform sells itself without forcing you to like it.

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.
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reviewer2059110 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Systems Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
MSP
Top 5Leaderboard
Boasts impressive flexibility, is resilient, and removes silos
Pros and Cons
  • "The real-time alerts generated by this system enable us to swiftly address and mitigate such threats."
  • "The feature request I have is for the consistent improvement of how user account permissions are assigned in Nutanix Unified Storage."

What is our primary use case?

Our NetApp storage array, nearing its end of life, prompted us to seek a replacement. We aimed to migrate NFS, CIFS (SMB), and SIP shares to a new platform. Initially, we considered a Windows file server, but the Nutanix Unified Storage file offering proved more appealing. However, setting up Nutanix files required a dedicated server, and we used Robocopy jobs to transfer workloads to the new platform.

How has it helped my organization?

Nutanix Unified Storage boasts impressive flexibility. It offers extensive capabilities and built-in continuity, ensuring minimal disruption to workloads during updates. Unlike Windows servers, where applying updates or security patches necessitates rebooting and potential user downtime of five to 30 minutes, Nutanix Files seamlessly handles updates. During an update, user requests are automatically directed to another node while the original node reboots and sequences, ensuring a smooth and transparent experience for users.

Resiliency is about maintaining functionality despite setbacks. During our installation, we had three different file servers built with redundancy. When we tested this by powering down one server completely, users didn't experience any change in file accessibility.

I've seen demos of Data Lens, but it's not currently deployed in our environment. Nutanix United Storage is holding it in development and testing until additional features become available. However, I recognize its potential, particularly for specific notifications like unusual file activity, such as encryption or large-scale downloads. The snapshot technology offers the advantage of swift recovery within hours or minutes, compared to days or weeks with traditional methods.

One of the key advantages of Nutanix Unified Storage is its resilience, which allows us to perform updates without causing disruptions to users. This is crucial for our global organization, as any downtime would affect employees accessing files anywhere from Great Britain to India. With Nutanix, we can perform maintenance without worrying about complaints due to inaccessibility. We initially encountered the benefit of this resilience when we first implemented updates. While it was still in a testing phase and files weren't accessible to the entire company, we grasped the power of seamless updates for our globally distributed teams.

Unifying everything to Nutanix makes great sense. We no longer have to deal with multiple vendors. For us to have different workloads running. At one time, we had three different storage vendors for different application uses.

Three years ago, I was frustrated with the user permission management process for Nutanix files. It necessitated using an MMC plugin for Windows. Thankfully, newer versions, like our current version 4.4, have streamlined this management by unifying and integrating it into the overall solution.

Nutanix Unified Storage helps our organization remove storage silos. It allows us to create diverse file repositories, eliminating the need for separate tiers of storage. Additionally, we can set distinct policies based on the specific storage requirements of each repository.

Nutanix Unified Storage integrates seamlessly with other Nutanix solutions, presenting a unified view through Prism Central's single pane of glass. This centralized console simplifies operations, eliminating the need to navigate across multiple interfaces for information or management tasks.

What is most valuable?

With the current version of Nutanix Unified Storage, we've implemented a new feature called Data Lens that provides powerful capabilities for reporting file usage and identifying abnormal trends. These trends could include unusual file deletions, large-scale file access events, or potential indicators of cyberattacks like ransomware. Additionally, this data lens can help detect malicious insider activity, such as a disgruntled employee downloading sensitive company information before termination. The real-time alerts generated by this system enable us to swiftly address and mitigate such threats.

What needs improvement?

The feature request I have is for the consistent improvement of how user account permissions are assigned in Nutanix Unified Storage. While there have been vast improvements over the last three years since I began using it, there's still some additional functionality I'd love to see. I believe their team is working towards those goals, but I understand that not everything can be implemented at once, and progress takes time.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Nutanix Unified Storage for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I've only experienced one instance of downtime, and even that wasn't caused by Nutanix. It was a network issue. This underscores the stability of Nutanix Unified Storage. I haven't encountered any other problems with it. If any concerns arise, we can always reach out to support for a health check. They typically respond quite promptly.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Nutanix Unified Storage is indeed highly scalable. With just a few clicks, we can deploy another worker VM, and the solution seamlessly scales to meet our growing needs.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is generally quick to respond to P3 requests. Their standard response time is within eight to twelve hours, although I usually receive responses much sooner than that. The benefit of their global support network is that even if we call from the US at midnight, there's a good chance we'll reach someone in Australia who can help and is happy to do so.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were previously using NetApp for our storage needs. However, when we decided to switch to a hyper-converged platform as part of a broader platform change, we needed to move away from NetApp. Finalizing our purchase with Nutanix was an easy decision because it streamlined the process considerably. The fact that Nutanix offered file services was also a significant factor in our choice.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward. While some network and firewall configuration was necessary, the installation wizard clearly outlined the steps. I was able to complete the installation myself within an hour, thanks to the helpful Nutanix documentation.

The migration, however, took several months due to the large amount of data involved and the need to coordinate with other departments and teams. Since the data resided in existing storage, we continued running our Robocopy jobs to maintain synchronization. This meant we had to carefully choose downtime windows compatible with business operations for the cutover, which ultimately extended the migration timeline.

Two people were involved in the full deployment process.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was completed in-house.

What was our ROI?

Using Nutanix as a whole, I've seen a significant return on my time investment. I spend significantly less time troubleshooting, configuring, and updating. It's been much easier, and it's allowed me to reclaim my nights and weekends.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Nutanix Unified Storage pricing is reasonable.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We were initially considering VMware as a hyper-converged solution, similar to Hyper-V. However, the licensing costs for VMware were significantly higher than what we found with the Nutanix solution.

What other advice do I have?

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

I find the security of Nutanix Unified Storage to be on par with industry standards. Additionally, the various security reports and analytics offered by Nutanix help me ensure that we are following best practices and maintaining a secure environment.

For those considering Nutanix Unified Storage for their organization but concerned about the cost, I recommend visiting the Nutanix website to test drive the solution. For specific pricing information, speak with the local reseller to explore available options.

The only maintenance required is for the software updates.

I recommend reading the documentation and taking advantage of the free test drive before migrating your existing storage to this new platform. Be sure to create a migration plan to ensure a smooth transition.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor. The reviewer's company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: December 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.