Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) Reviews

We are using Unified Storage for our hybrid cloud connectivity as well as virtual machine deployment and migrations. We use it to create different tiers where we store our important data, for our data classification policy. Apart from that, we are using it for our production SAP HANA platform. All our use cases are related to our field which is energy and utilities.

The solution has definitely improved things a lot for us. Earlier, we were using legacy infrastructure with a heterogeneous environment with storage platforms from different providers. We had to approach each vendor for every type of work. But after migrating to Nutanix Unified Storage, everything has been streamlined and simplified, through the single-vendor approach. We are able to accomplish whatever we want in terms of operations and migration.

And with the advanced features—the data protection, data tiering, et cetera—we have been able to get rid of data silos.

The features that are most important to us are related to integration with the cloud platforms like Azure and AWS, although it supports Google Cloud as well. But the most important point is the simplicity of the API integration. We can leverage the API integrations and connect our hybrid-cloud network environment with Nutanix's cloud storage.

We also use Nutanix Data Lens to boot our virtual machines and to create zoning. 

In addition, we can manage and run the storage from any location. The solution gives us the capability to operate the complete unified platform from the cloud. We can create the logical chunks in the storage, and we can map the different types of pools to any resource, residing in any environment, irrespective of location.

And for managing unstructured data, like audio, video, and images, we create different types of tiering or pools in Unified Storage. On the basis of those pools, the data is classified and we use the classifications to connect the storage pools to their respective endpoints.

I would like to see the integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies. That could definitely be a major breakthrough in providing a unified, seamless experience for end-users. It could reduce costs as well as human effort.

We have been using Nutanix Unified Storage for about three and a half years.

The stability is perfect. We haven't faced any high-priority or critical issues where the storage platform has been degraded or users are facing difficulties. We are satisfied with the stability and code releases.

In terms of resiliency, with high availability and redundancy, Unified Storage works on a cluster model. With the help of this solution, everything has gone well.

An important point is that this storage is scalable on demand. It's very elastic. We can add and remove clusters without any downtime. We haven't faced any challenges with the flexibility or scalability. We have completed seamless integrations with third-party tools, including monitoring tools.

We have it deployed across multiple locations and have more than 10,000 end-users.

We get tremendous technical support from the Nutanix team, 24/7.

Positive

Previously, we used traditional, legacy storage solutions provided by different vendors, including CommVault and Dell. There were problems because we worked with a very heterogeneous network. We were facing a lot of complexities in terms of compliance and defining processes because we had different types of storage devices in our environment.

We found that Nutanix Unified Storage has a complete and rich set of features that can support a cloud-native platform as well as all the workloads that we operate on different cloud platforms. In addition, it's a very cost-effective and stable solution and includes an extensive set of security features for data protection.

After moving to Unified Storage, we got rid of all those complexities. Everything is simplified. We have a single-vendor approach for all of our storage.

I was involved in the full deployment, including migration, implementation, and operations. The initial deployment was a very straightforward process. We followed the complete life cycle approach suggested by the vendor. With that approach, all the phases went well.

Maintenance of the solution includes patching, checking the efficiency of storage, and checking alerts. These are part of the day-to-day operations. We have about 10 people involved in the maintenance.

We worked directly with the vendor.

We have seen return on investment over the last three years and we are quite satisfied with it.

The solution has reduced our operational, capital, and licensing costs. It has also reduced the human effort and our headcount in managing the operations compared to our old storage models.

Nutanix's pricing is definitely much better when compared to other storage providers. That was one of the main reasons we switched to this platform.

To anyone who is concerned about the price, I would say that Nutanix is very robust, stable, and unified, with a complete set of advanced features. If you look at the features, Nutanix has the upper hand when compared to other vendors.

The licensing model is very easy with Unified Storage and our operational cost has been reduced drastically.

We evaluated another product from a similar vendor whose storage platforms we were already using. The main differences were the cost, simplicity, ease of management, and having a single pane of glass dashboard for each module. The seamless integration and simplified licensing model were also important.

Nutanix also provides very robust security. The encryption is perfect. The data is fully encrypted with an advanced set of encryption keys and policies. We are very satisfied with the encryption and data protection provided by the solution.

My advice to organizations that are planning to migrate to a unified storage solution is to go with Nutanix Unified Storage as this is the most trusted and stable platform I have ever seen.

We haven't had any challenges using the solution. There have been no problems with the implementation, integration, or in terms of operations. That is also true for operational support, technical support, patch management, and license management.

We are also using Nutanix clusters for our traditional workloads and Prism Element and Prism Central. We are using them because they are a part of hyper-converged technologies and save us a lot of costs. These clusters have unified storage, network, and compute, providing an integrated platform that simplifies management.

We use it for servers and files for internal use. We also use it as a partner because we are also proposing it to clients for S3 anti-ransomware storage and so on.

It is helping us better understand the solution so that we can sell it. We are Nutanix partners, so this is the most relevant for us.

We have not tested Nutanix Unified Storage for data-intensive workloads, such as AI or data analytics, but because we know the latency of the Nutanix clusters, my understanding is that it will be good.

The simplicity of management is valuable because, in more traditional environments, the platform updates are much more complex.

I do not have any input as such. It is a robust and simple solution. Perhaps when it comes to deploying NUS virtual machines on top of CVMs, it should not be necessary for them to be in all of them or they should require fewer resources on the servers.

We evaluated it about two or three years ago and deployed it internally last year.

Its stability is very good.

Its scalability is spectacular.

Nutanix’s support is very good.

Positive

Before Nutanix Unified Storage, we did not work with anything similar.

It is pretty simple. We do not have any deployment strategies.

Infrastructure management is greatly reduced, and that is a quick return on investment.

We are Nutanix partners, so it is pretty good. With the free terabyte that comes with the Nutanix clusters, we have started to build proposals for the clients. The price adjustment with the new policy of Nutanix Unified Storages seems attractive. Let us see if it has results.

We did not evaluate any other solution.

On paper, Nutanix Unified Storage looks very good for detecting and blocking ransomware threats, but we have not tried it. From what we are seeing and hearing, it can be very interesting and powerful.

Implementing Nutanix Unified Storage can result in a reduction in the number of storage nodes due to increased storage capacity per node, but our use case is not very big. We had a more or less small environment, and now with the Nutanix cluster also, it is not very big. It has not affected us in that sense.

For protecting data in our organization, we have backup tools and antivirus tools. We are backing up the clusters with the NAKIVO solution in addition to taking snapshots of Nutanix itself. We also apply the Microsoft security part in the environments. These tools are very important for our functionality to guarantee business continuity in the event of a disaster.

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

I use the solution in my company mainly for file shares and also in conjunction with objects to provide persistent volume claims with Kubernetes.

In terms of benefits, my company has reduced costs by using free trial storage. Cost reduction, along with simplicity, means only fewer hours are required from manpower in configuration and day-to-day administration.

The most valuable feature of the solution is its simplicity because managing installations sometimes involves defining, undoing, and configuring phases, which are not very easy, but Nutanix makes it straightforward. The tool is very stable. It doesn't come to my mind that I have seen the tool in our company's infrastructure for four years.

According to the keynotes announced by Nutanix the previous day or this morning, the data storage for Kubernetes requires improvement as it has a few shortcomings in the area of operations.

I have been using Nutanix Unified Storage for four years. I am a customer of Nutanix.

It is a stable solution.

Scalability-wise, it is quite a simple and straightforward tool. If you need more storage, you just get a new node, and everything gets done in the background, so you don't have to configure anything much.

The technical support for the solution is the best I have seen in my life. I rate the technical support a nine out of ten.

Positive

In the past, my company tried to use an early version of vSAN, and we found that its performance was not good. After my company performed a PoC phase, we deployed Nutanix Unified Storage.

The product's initial setup phase was simple.

When it comes to the product's deployment phase, my company defines the strategy along with the PoC because we are a manufacturing company that has a large and sparse site with more than 100 factories, which we have to take into account. My company started off with the PoC, and then we expanded.

The solution is deployed on a hybrid model, but the majority of the storage is on an on-premises model. My company uses the cloud services offered by Azure.

Nutanix does provide my company with a technical consultant and a pre-sales engineer to help us deal with the implementation part, after which we perform a small test and then go ahead with everything. In Germany and the United States, my company has worked with a third party that Nutanix recommended we approach in order to deploy, install, and configure.

My company pays money for the tool's licensing fees, but we are saving quite a lot of money by getting to have our own resilient storage device.

In my opinion, the product is fairly priced. I would not be surprised if, in the near future, there is a rise in the prices associated with the tool's licensing models.

My company did not evaluate any other solutions against Nutanix Unified Storage. After Nutanix Unified Storage was presented to our company at a meeting, it would be a good idea to do a PoC before choosing the product.

The throughput or latency of Nutanix Unified Storage for data-intensive workloads, such as AI or data analytics, is not an area my company considers a use case in our infrastructure. In our company, we are exploring and migrating some AI and LLM models while also testing them on an on-premises model in order to have a little more control of the data that we are training and so that we can reduce some costs associated with the public cloud, but in general, it is a medium-term project we have in our operations. The product is also capable of working with big projects.

My company has not faced any use cases where we had to use the product to detect and block ransomware threats.

Implementing the tool has certainly resulted in a reduction in the number of storage nodes due to an increase in storage capacity per node. I don't have the specific number because storage is not my main area, but I say from the top of my head that it could be at 3:1 or 4:1 consolidation. You should not take my word for granted because it is not my main area. The aforementioned area has affected my company's operations and business, especially in terms of simplification, by allowing us to save hours for our providers in the storage area for our administrators while also covering a reduction in incidents.

I don't have any idea about Nutanix Data Lens, but in the future, I am interested in working with the cybersecurity team to have a look at the tool's PoC phase, if possible. I think it could be a good use case for us.

I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

We store a lot of our R&D-related files in Nutanix Files Storage.

What I like most about Nutanix Files Storage is the way it makes copies of the data. The solution also has high availability, which is excellent.

Another valuable feature of Nutanix Files Storage is self-service, so users won't have to depend on the IT team much. Users can independently work with the solution.

What's missing in Nutanix Files Storage is the support for multiple intranets or VLANs on the same file from different networks and network devices. That feature doesn't exist today, so the Nutanix product team is working on it, as requested by my company.

There's a limitation with using multiple VLANs on the same file. Right now, it's coming from two different network switches, and the product doesn't support it because it expects all VLANs to go to the same physical switch. This isn't tolerable in my company's LAN environment, so Nutanix Files Storage needs this product enhancement or feature.

I've been using Nutanix Files Storage for over two years.

I didn't experience any outage since Nutanix Files Storage was implemented, so stability-wise, it's going well. I'm rating its stability as nine out of ten.

Nutanix Files Storage is easy to scale out. My company had grown, so it expanded the cluster; scalability-wise, the solution is a nine out of ten.

I contacted Nutanix Files Storage technical support about the product enhancement, and the team was proactive and knowledgeable.

I'd rate support as seven out of ten because there was no solution to my issue, though the team took it as a product enhancement request.

Neutral

Before using Nutanix Files Storage, my company used the traditional NetApp-based vFiler solution. There was no self-service feature in NetApp, so you have to always depend on a storage administrator to set things up, versus Nutanix which was certainly easy to set up, configure, and use.

Scaling vFiler was challenging, so you always had extra capacity compared to Nutanix Files Storage.

Nutanix Files Storage is straightforward to set up, so I'm rating it, setup-wise, as nine out of ten.

Deploying Nutanix Files Storage took weeks, but my company had to transfer a lot of data from the legacy system, which took time. Overall, the project went well.

We implemented Nutanix Files Storage through a system integrator, Wipro.

I find Nutanix Files Storage competitively priced, even its feature set. Its price is seven out of ten.

I would advise people new to Nutanix Files Storage to see how often data is being utilized and decide on a storage strategy based on that. If you only need simple file sharing that requires less access, then you have other solutions that can leverage the public cloud, so you won't have to worry about capacity issues. However, if you're focused on latency and performance, then Nutanix Files Storage would be a great fit. The product is self-explanatory and straightforward, so there's nothing to worry about.

Around one thousand people use Nutanix Files Storage within my company.

The solution is heavily used daily.

My rating for Nutanix Files Storage is eight out of ten.

My company is a Nutanix customer and not a partner.

I am not using it currently. I tested a few things a while ago. This is something that we will probably adopt mid-term.

I am not a storage guy. I am a Nutanix guy. I got a question from my boss about what Nutanix can offer, especially for the Nutanix environment. There is a limitation that Nutanix is not able to use any other storage solution or external storage solution. It is NFS inside the VM. We wanted some block storage, so I started to experiment with the Nutanix solution.

There is ease of use. We use other third-party solutions in our environment for storage. The challenge that we have is that we do not have enough people. If someone is going on a vacation, I have to take care of a few things in this area, such as configuring new NFS storage, and trust me, some of the other vendors are very complicated. It is hard to deal with simple things, whereas the solution from Nutanix is simple and intuitive. If I show it to a colleague just once, he will be able to do things easily. It is very good.

I could not test it much for resilience, but overall, we never had any issues with the Nutanix products that we use. We never had data loss or any data-related issues. The performance is also very good. Even though my testing was not deep enough, I am confident it is a great solution. It is a very easy one.

Nutanix Unified Storage is great for helping manage and run storage from any location.

I like that we can have Nutanix clusters for VMs and files. That means we have data locality when we use the NFS storage somewhere else. When you use an external vendor, you do not have the data locality.

The interface is quite simple. It is very good. It is easy to configure. It also has a powerful CLI. In the few hours that I was playing with it, I did not explore the power of it, but I noticed that CLI has potential. Because of its simplicity, the interface can lack some options, but I am pretty sure that any lack of features in the UI can be compensated by the CLI.

Its interface is very simplistic. It is a good thing for people because of the ease of use, but at times, I find it too simplistic. It is hard to find advanced options. They should eventually expand it and provide additional drop-down lists or menus with advanced feature sets. They should expand it with some additional menus and options so that we can do more. Currently, Nutanix is too simple, whereas, with other vendors, you get lost among all the buttons and menus. Nutanix is doing all that simply, but if you keep it too simple, you miss the options to do things through the UI.

The routing of their support cases could be better.

I had a test cluster for two weeks, and I was logging in from time to time. It was more of experimenting than testing. I had my test cluster, and I played around for a few hours.

It was a great experience to use it for files for two weeks.

I can rate it a ten out of ten for stability, but I need to fully test it to provide real feedback.

I did not test it in a big environment, but looking at how Nutanix works, I would say it is scalable. You just add more nodes and storage to expand, and this is familiar with the concept. I am confident in its scalability.

We are a company with about 700 people. We had two people testing it. It was me and my colleague, but he barely tested it.

I have mixed sentiments. If my case reaches the right person, it goes well. It is not about the people. It is about the way the case is routed. We are based in Europe. Usually during the day, our case lands in Asia or EMEA. The India team works till One o'clock our time. If I raise a case an hour before their shift ends, it still goes to them. That is not okay. They are going home. Why assign the case to them? These kinds of things bother us.

I would rate their support a seven out of ten because I know that the others are very bad. As compared to other companies, Nutanix is still doing better. Otherwise, I would have rated it a five out of ten.

Neutral

Its deployment is simple. It took a few days because I was installing it for the first time, so I had to read more, but the second time, I will be able to deploy it maximum in a day.

Nutanix Unified Storage consolidates block, file, and object storage. It is a great idea. I like it, but I am a bit reluctant to put everything into the same cluster. If you have virtualization and storage with all its features, such as block, file, and object, in one cluster, I am not sure what the impact will be in case of any kind of failure. For me, it would be too much. It is nice to have it all, but I am wary of putting too many things in one box.

I would recommend Nutanix Unified Storage. I am also in discussion with my manager to start using it.

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

We sell it. We are an MSP. Nutanix Unified Storage is for our customers who need storage outside of our environment that runs on Nutanix. 

The benefit that our clients see is the security of the whole Nutanix platform where they have simplified usage.

Nutanix has helped to reduce our customers' number of nodes because it has a larger storage capability. It definitely helps to save costs. 

The most valuable feature is the snapshots. 

I have heard that there have been latency problems. 

We have used it for two years. 

We haven't had any problems with stability. 

Technical support is superb. They're always there and give our engineer suggestions. They follow up. 

Positive

We use Rubrik and Cohesity to protect our unstructured data. These solutions are very critical because we store customer data.

We chose Nutanix ten years ago and have stuck with them.

The deployment is very easy. It can take one day to deploy and have it up and running. 

The main ways we see ROI is through management and storage space. 

The pricing and licensing could be hard. The customers have a problem with the pricing model. Customers don't understand the core licensing model. 

Most of our data analytics and AI functions are running on a separate system.

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

We normally use it to create servers and manage them. We use four nodes. We have one cluster with four nodes for our production servers, Active Directory, etc.

Nutanix Unified Storage has helped us digitalize. Our mission is to digitalize the administration in Morocco. It has helped us to apply our strategy very fast, and it has been very helpful.

We have not had any issues with the throughput or latency of Nutanix Unified Storage. I am satisfied with its throughput and latency.

We have not had any ransomware attacks. It seems to be doing great at detecting and blocking ransomware threats.

Implementing Nutanix Unified Storage has not resulted in a reduction in the number of storage nodes. It is the same.

I like its interface. It is very interactive and simple to use.

Its licensing can be better. They can make it easier for us to scale our infrastructure.

I have been using Nutanix Unified Storage since 2021.

It is very stable. We rarely faced any bugs or errors. It happened only a couple of times in three years, so it is good.

We are trying to do that. We have not done it before. We want to add two or three nodes. We will see.

I used their support twice. It was very fast. I am satisfied with the troubleshooting method that they use. I would rate them a solid nine out of ten.

Positive

We did not use any other solution previously. This is the first one.

We are using it on-premises. We are a governmental organization, so we want our data to be very safe.

Its initial setup was a little bit complex, but with the help of our partner, it went smoothly.

We did not have any implementation strategy as such.

We used a partner. They are a reseller and integrator. Their company is called MTS. Our experience with them was very good.

We have not yet seen an ROI.

The licensing should be more flexible.

Its cost is a little bit more than what we want, but if we consider the quality and the price, it is okay. It is fair.

We evaluated other solutions. While deciding, we first considered the cost and whether it could meet our needs. We then tried to choose the best one for us. 

To protect unstructured data, we are using a backup solution. We try to make redundancy for every server. We also take snapshots regularly to make our data safe in any disaster.

I would rate Nutanix Unified Storage a nine out of ten because I feel comfortable using it. I feel comfortable with the support and scalability, but its price stops it from making it a ten. If they decrease the price, it would be a ten.

I use the solution in my company mainly for tax data, which we use for some user orders.

The tool is easy to use. My company preferred Nutanix Unified Storage to replace old storage systems, which is good for our company's purpose.

The solution's most valuable feature is the range of files we use it for in our company. My company also uses Nutanix Volumes.

The aspect of the product that I like the most is its simplicity.

The throughput or latency of Nutanix Unified Storage for data-intensive workloads can be handled by the tool, but our workloads are not so intensive since they consist of data, some user files, and so on, but it works fine. The tool does a good job with what you need to do with it.

In our company, our second session with Nutanix Unified storage involves using it to detect and block ransomware threats and then using Nutanix Data Lens. I can monitor with the tool's help, which is an interesting part.

I do not use Nutanix Data Lens, but I plan to use it in the future.

The tools that we currently use to protect unstructured data in your organization revolve around the area of disaster recovery for some of the other sites in our company, along with its use for backup. My company is in the healthcare industry, a reason why I believe that the aforementioned tools are important for my organization.

From an improvement perspective, maybe some features can be rolled out in the GUI, especially the ones we can do only in CLI as of now. There are some processes, like if I like to change the data storage to another place, I have to use CLI, and I don't like it since I believe that it could have been simpler in GUI.

I have been using Nutanix Unified Storage for about five and a half years.

It is a stable solution. I don't remember any crashes when it comes to Nutanix Unified Storage.

It is a scalable solution. My company has multiple file instances, and the tool has the minimum amount of file servers, which is available for free. In our company, whenever we need, we can scale up, but our use is not so intensive, so it works fine for us from the beginning.

The solution's technical support is good, especially compared to other vendors. When you raise the ticket with Nutanix's support team, they reply quickly with a solution. I rate the technical support an eight or nine out of ten.

Positive

I have experience with Dell PowerScale (Isilon). My company switched to Nutanix Unified Storage from Dell PowerScale (Isilon) as the latter had reached the end of the support phase at a time when we had to renew the license.

The product's initial setup phase was simple.

My company did not have any strategy while deploying Nutanix Unified Storage since it was the first time that my company had deployed it.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model. My organization is in the healthcare business, so we are allergic to the cloud.

My company deployed the product with the help of the product's partner, Proact. Nowadays, the tool is installed by our company's sales team.

The ROI I have experienced from using the solution revolves around disaster recovery,, which is good since if one of the sites goes down, it serves as an easy and quick tool to recover it.

The product is neither cheap nor expensive, making it a solution offering a price range that is in the middle. The use of licenses offered by the product is an area that is complicated, especially since my company has so many clusters, for which a couple of different licenses are required for different companies with different licenses. With so many clusters in place, the licensing part gets complicated. Previously, with EBX, my company had to deal with license-related expenses from the US end. My company is learning how to deal with the tool's licensing model so that it can be made easier for us to deal with in the future.

I rate the tool an eight out of ten.