Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) Reviews

We have a practice of testing different solutions and we completed a POC of Nutanix Unified Storage. 

The capability of Nutanix Unified Storage to store unstructured data is impressive. We have CCTV camera footage from each office location, and we can efficiently manage all the instructional data from a single interface. This is in contrast to Cisco, which represents a more complex system to manage.

Nutanix Unified Storage demonstrates resilience. The solution has the capability to duplicate data across multiple node storages, ensuring that if one node fails, the data remains accessible.

Having the capability to consolidate our storage through Nutanix Unified Storage gives us the assurance that we can oversee all our data under a single management team, rendering it more dependable.

We can utilize mixed storage block-sized objects and combine various databases within a unified interface. 

We can scale up or out without causing any interruptions to our service.

The concept of using the Gflag should not be employed in unified storage, as storage is a particularly sensitive domain. Allowing the use of the Gflag compromises the integrity of the Nutanix system and its established standards. While we do employ the Gflag to meet customer requirements, it's important to note that during maintenance activities, it becomes necessary to reset the Gflag to align with the customer's expectations. Thus, on one hand, the Gflag serves to support the customer, but on the other hand, customers become more reliant on the assistance of the Nutanix support team.

I have been using Nutanix Unified Storage for one month.

Nutanix Unified Storage is stable.

With Nutanix Unified Storage we can scale up and down accordingly.

The technical support is good. Our sole concern arises when we require assistance from them on weekends. We've noticed that the engineers' response time is slower during weekends.

Furthermore, when we ask for feedback regarding the nature of the issue and its resolution, we are only provided with a summary. This leaves us reliant on their support. They do not share internal articles with us; instead, they only provide generally available ones. If they could furnish us with detailed steps, we could address the issues independently, thereby saving time and reducing our dependency on Nutanix support.

Positive

The deployment took two days. We had several dependencies related to the required port openings that we had to satisfy while also adhering to our organizational standards during the process.

Normally we would only have two people involved in the deployment but because it was a new solution everyone wanted to be involved because they were eager to learn.

I would rate Nutanix Unified Storage a six out of ten because my experience is limited to the POC, and I haven't fully familiarized myself with the solution.

We also use Nutanix NCI and Database Service.

The POC involved a total of five people. One person conducted the testing, while the other four observed on Zoom through their screens.

The primary use case is to offer a highly available Linux-based file server to eliminate the security vulnerabilities of a Windows-based file server and the pain point of having a single file server, which means you can reboot it during production hours. Besides the general performance and security improvements, it also adds analytics audit trails and, most importantly, ransomware protection. For example, it’s not uncommon for a client to migrate their Windows file shares to Nutanix Files and then File Analytics detects and blocks dormant ransomware files.

The most valuable feature is that it is highly available, solving the pain-point of delaying updates to Windows-based file servers during production hours. And then the second one would be ransomware protection and analytics. It gives you great visibility and protection on your file shares that are otherwise the most common sources of vulnerabilities.

We would love to see the analytics and ransomware protection extended beyond just file servers to virtual machines, but they have a different product that covers that.

I have been using it for a few years. 

As the solution is highly available, it's infinitely more stable than a single file

server.

It is a super scalable solution.

The customer service team is most excellent, and a primary factor when choosing Nutanix.

Positive

It requires a bit of understanding of how Nutanix works. If you're familiar with Nutanix or a Nutanix partner, integrating is fairly straightforward.

For clients running Nutanix, the licensing cost for Files is a small add-on cost.

It does not require extra maintenance than any other software product. One needs to patch it periodically. Every client we've migrated from Windows file server to Nutanix file servers has said, I wish I'd done this sooner. I recommend exploring this as soon as you read about it. It solves issues left out in the wild by Windows file servers that no one is addressing and does so in a super powerful way.
I rate it ten out of ten.

The primary use case is as our main provider for our infrastructure, for compute and storage for our main and secondary sites. 

Simplicity has been the most helpful characteristic emerging from a Nutanix-based solution.

From what can I see indirectly from our infrastructure team, I'd say the simplicity of management is the  most useful aspect. Whenever we have some necessity in terms of capacity and expansion of infrastructure, it's like a Lego system where they can just place in some more nodes and our needs are met. They just provision new nodes in a cluster, and everything just goes.

We have noted a reduction in the number of storage nodes. It helps reinforce the simplicity of the solution. There are many capacity problems solved by simply expanding the cluster. 

The reduction in the number of the nodes does have benefits - especially in terms of physical space. We can keep pour racks tidy and use a small footprint. It simplifies the physical infrastructure.

Unfortunately, I do not have information since I did not work directly with the solution. From my point of view, which is indirect, I did not see any relevant defects or needs for marginal improvements.

The pricing could be improved. 

We've been using the solution since around 2017. 

We have not had any issues with stability. 

The scalability is easy. It's simple. They just provision new nodes or set up new clusters. That's all you need to do. It's a great offload for maintaining the infrastructure itself. 

I haven't worked with support directly. I know the team is pretty much satisfied. they will go directly to Nutanix without going through the integrator. They are in direct contact with Nutanix support. 

Everyone seems satisfied. They see value in being able to directly reach Nutanix in order to exchange valuable knowledge. 

The company did use a different product beforehand, however, that was before my time. 

While I did not personally handle the setup, my understanding is it is easy. If we need to scale, we simply order new nodes and provision them, and that's it. 

I do not have visibility on the pricing. My understanding is that the team sees the pricing is fair for what we get. 

We do not use it for any AI or data analytics - yet. That said, we've seen a lot of focus on this area for Nutanix. Likely, we will make use of it more in the future.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. We don't use all of the functionality.

My customers use the solution for storage purposes.

The solution is a repository with redundancy and faster access than the Windows server.

The most valuable feature of Nutanix Unified Storage is redundancy.

The solution should include more protocols to access data.

I have been using Nutanix Unified Storage since 2020.

Nutanix Unified Storage is a stable solution.

The solution’s technical support is very good. The technical support team is fast, competent, and correctly provides technical details.

Positive

I previously used Windows File Server.

The solution’s initial setup and the transfer of the files are very easy.

We have seen a return on investment with Nutanix Unified Storage.

Before choosing Nutanix Unified Storage, we evaluated SUSE.

We don't face latency issues because the solution provides fast access.

Implementing Nutanix Unified Storage has reduced the number of storage nodes due to increased storage capacity per node. We have a six-node cluster, which was double that size earlier.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We use it for daily operations, primarily to store our enterprise data.

In the beginning, when we first started using Nutanix, we wanted a single solution that could handle both file and block-level data. So it's a single platform, and we also needed inbuilt ransomware protection.

So, we found that Nutanix was the best solution for that. We also researched the deployment process and found it to be quite easy. 

Additionally, we had a POC with them and saw that the interface is user-friendly, making it possible to use it without extensive training.

Nutanix successfully adapts to difficult or challenging life experiences

When it comes to resiliency, Nutanix has built-in redundancy. We can create snapshots with detection, de-duplication, and completion of all the data. So, it's very easy to have replications of free data. If any attacks happen, we still have the data with us.

We are able to store a large amount of data without needing multiple solutions. Nutanix can be scaled for storage and computing independently, which makes us more cost-efficient.

It also simplifies data management operations, giving the speed and flexibility to build more modern applications in on-prem, cloud, and edge environments.

It also protects unstructured data from ransomware and other cyberattacks.

Unified Storage has a remote feature that allows you to manage data from various geographical locations.

Our sales representative can direct us to the appropriate resource, whether it's a PSC, an SE with the system, or someone else who can help. Additionally, if we create a ticket directly with their support team, they have very good product knowledge and are really helpful.

If we are stuck a problem – not necessarily a bug, but just need help navigating something – do we contact our sales representative first, and they can route us to the right resource.

If bugs occur, they work on them and release fixes as early as possible.

First of all, we like the user interface, which is quite easy. And it helps our day-to-day operations very easily; we can do it very easily. 

And afterward, the pre-sales guys are very supportive whenever you get stuck in anything. They will help you on that day. I really have good hands-on experience with the product, and also the support team is very strong.

The flexibility is great. We can easily integrate it with other products as well. Like, it is designed to scale up and scale out easily, allowing the organization to store as much capacity as they need.

We can easily store and manage unstructured data, such as audio and video, in Unified Storage without any extra work.

From a management side, the one thing I would prefer is if it were a bit less expensive for smaller enterprises. It's a bit costly. 

If they provided flexible modules where you could pick and choose features, and only pay for what you use, that would be an improvement.

I've been using it for about two and a half years.

We've observed some occasional lagging when transferring large amounts of data – many GBs at once. This could be due to network factors or something else, but it's not severe. 

For smaller datasets, the transfer happens in real time with no lag.

Nutanix has a good team of people on the technical support side. Usually, when we log a ticket, a support engineer promptly assists us through a remote session or email. 

One thing I want to highlight is that they have excellent product documentation available on their portals, written in simple, easy-to-understand language.

Positive

We used a storage solution from Dell. My company has a policy that requires us to change our security products every five years. 

So, we were looking for a stable and superior product, and after thorough research on the community, we found that Nutanix offered the best solution with its single-platform approach.

We also use the Nutanix Hypervisor (AHV). However, we haven't done the integration because we keep our storage separate.

We had a POC first. During the POC, we worked closely with the sales team alongside the engineers, and it was pretty easy to deploy. 

Once we decided to purchase, the full deployment only took about one or two months. If all prerequisites are ready, it can even be done in under 20 days.

We use the cloud deployment model.

On the Nutanix team, we probably needed around two people. We also had support from our network and security teams, in addition to someone managing the Nutanix deployment itself.

Every product needs maintenance, but with Nutanix, it's mostly about software upgrades. They provide an excellent user interface, and with every release, they resolve issues from previous versions.

It is worth the price. Your investment will be in safe hands. 

The pricing is a bit too high. I would like more flexibility. 

We considered Commvault, but our management and overall team felt that Nutanix was a better solution.

On a scale of ten, I'd give Dell an eight out of ten for security features. And Nutanix a nine out of ten rating.

I'd definitely say go for it. It's a great product. My main advice is to negotiate the pricing with the vendor. Beyond that, it integrates well with your current network environment and should work without needing major changes or disrupting your existing setup.

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

It is a great solution for small enterprises looking for storage options. While it is a bit expensive, the value provided by Nutanix justifies the investment. Your investment will be in safe hands.

We primarily use the solution for storage. We've migrated all over all file servers and systems over to Nutanix Unified Storage. 

We had 10 VMs with older technologies. I'm happy to use this as it is really simple and complete. 

The high availability of the storage is important. We have some customer data and it's crucial for us to be able to maintain and secure the data. 

It's a complete product. It works well. 

The security is very good.

We use clusters, and these are not only dedicated to storage. We have VMs, containers, and other types of storage.

The performance has been very good.

We were able to save 20% of our time by using this solution. 

I haven't had any issues with the solution so far.

I've used the solution for three years. 

The solution is really stable. I'm really impressed by the product. 

We've started with three VMs. We now have five VMs in our operations. We have no issues when we try to scale. 

Technical support is good. We've opened cases with them, and my experience has been really good. They are very fast, and they have very good technical knowledge. They come to the calls prepared. 

Positive

We did not previously use a different solution. 

The deployment is very easy. It's no problem to implement it.

I do not have visibility of the pricing and licensing. 

We did look at other solutions. We were able to validate Nutanix against other solutions. It has a complete ecosystem, which is important for us. We wanted more options to extend our environment if we needed to. 

We do not use the solution for AI and data analytics or for preventing and blocking ransomware. 

We have not tried to integrate it with other products. However, I have tried to integrate it with a backup solution, and I didn't have any issues.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.

I do not use it myself. My technicians use it for their work. They look at the portal every day. It is open on their desktops all day.

We have time savings and scalability.

It is unified. This is the best thing that Nutanix gave to the world. You can do everything from one point.

It is very easy to use, and we also get the best customer service from Nutanix.

It is a good solution, but every solution can be better. I would like Nutanix to provide a solution for virtual disks. This is the main problem for which we want a solution.

I have been using Nutanix for six or seven years.

Their customer support is great. They provide the best support and service. Nutanix is the best in this aspect.

Positive

I hope that it will stay the way it is. We have seen the changes in VMware and what happened to them. I have heard that Nutanix will raise the prices, but I hope that they will not do that.

When we did the PoC about seven years ago, we found Nutanix infrastructure better for us. It helps us with Kubernetes.

I would rate Nutanix Unified Storage a ten out of ten. We are very satisfied with all the solutions that Nutanix provides us.

The first use case, we mainly want to use it for our Citrix profiles. So that will be the main usage of files and maybe also other applications. 

Before, we had the classic Windows file server. Because Windows file server is just that, one alone, and we want to be able to replicate, recreate it, etcetera. So we tried to use Nutanix Files. Our use case is also that we can then fulfill files replicated on Rubrik.

We also use it for objects, because we can't back it up on a Rubrik, we have another cluster, which then functions as the backup for the object storage.

We haven't already seen the benefits because we're still in the engineering phase. The main focus is that we have failover in place. We always have access to the data, and we're not blocked in case of that.

The best feature is that it's on Nutanix itself. In comparison, if Windows file server gets killed, then all the data is gone but for Nutanix, it's on another layer. 

It gives more security that the data isn't going to get lost. 

The replication is better solved if we have Nutanix Unified Storage because one file site storage solution has at least three VMs. If one VM doesn't work, it gets replicated on the other two, which means we always have access to the data in comparison to Windows File Server.

It's a little bit slow because there's so much in the underlying layers that even after talking with Nutanix support, I couldn't really grasp it. 

There's still a little bit of a learning curve, but the support was really helpful.

We only started engineering with it this year. Our project is now in the phase where we engineer Nutanix Unified Storage, mainly files, but also a little bit of objects.

We have issues with stability sometimes. I found one specific issue kind of bizarre where in one of our clusters, the underlying inode was full.

I thought, for example, the inode, after some time, would delete all data so that it doesn't get full. But in that case, it was full. Then, the whole cluster shut down. It also deleted one of the other files that Nutanix needed to work. Even the support guys didn't under how it happened but they were able to fix it. 

The tech support is very good. One time, I didn't have the Zoom session on my computer. So the guy I talked with told me what I had to do, and I could also ask questions about the template, in terms of how it works or what it is exactly. 

It was really helpful to be able to show the person on the other side what exactly was happening when I asked questions. They were helpful.  

Positive

Initially, we deployed everything through Prism Element, where it functioned perfectly.

Our Nutanix partner told us to do it over Prism Central because if you do it over Prism Elements, then it's tough. You have problems managing it from Prism Central. 

Our focus is not on detecting and blocking ransomware because the Nutanix cluster we are building doesn't have access to the Internet. To be able to go to the server itself, they have to overcome a lot of clogs or boundaries.

I had to do with the licensing for Nutanix Objects Storage (NOS). While NOS comes with one terabyte of free space, if you actually want to use it, even just for development reasons, we have to buy some terras, or otherwise, it wouldn't work.

Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten. With the migration from Prism Element to Prism Central, some things don't really work, but they are always trying to modify it and make changes.