Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) Reviews

Our primary use case is for running an EMR through Citrix.

The reliability and availability are the most valuable features. Reliability is important because it can run my workloads. I need to be able to take advantage of the VMs that are executing on the storage. It has to be reliable. It's also important to have the storage available for scaling VMs on demand. 

We size them accordingly but there's unexpected demand. It's much easier to scale a Nutanix node. Traditional storage doesn't scale so well but Nutanix aggregates it all into one single layer. 

A lot of times we use Golden Images through Citrix and the ability to make those Golden Images available through that entire storage stack is important to us. 

In terms of its ability to remove silos in our company storage, we still need traditional storage but NUS provides availability and single unification. You can scale much more easily versus traditional storage.

I think Nutanix does a very good job with unified storage and they continue to innovate. As they innovate it, there are new features that you can take advantage of. There was something called Shadow Clones that didn't exist with other storages. This feature is relevant for me with what I do with Citrix using the Shadow Clones. It accelerates and makes things more efficient for me.

We don't have issues with the storage. We have had to deal with some infrastructure and general cluster issues but these issues don't impact storage. 

I have been using Nutanix Unified Storage for seven years.

Their support is excellent. They are still engaged even when something isn't their problem. That's one of the biggest asks from a support perspective. I would rate them a ten out of ten. 

Positive

I would rate Nutanix Unified Storage a ten out of ten. We haven't had any problems with them. 

Our primary use case is for Nutanix Files and Nutanix Objects. The product has worked well, it has worked as indicated. We are also in the certification process for Nutanix Files.

We have been testing it the most for data availability and integration with backup tools such as Veeam.

I find that Nutanix’s resilience is the most valuable because it is a feature that is not found in other technologies. 

The throughput and latency of Nutanix Unified Storage for data-intensive workloads, such as AI or data analytics are excellent since we have tested it and it has worked correctly as indicated for Objects. It has worked well with Veeam backups. It has been integrated without problems. The API has worked correctly and there were no problems when it came to integration. I think it is one of the features that we liked the most.

It detects and blocks ransomware threats well. The data lens themes where we have the detection of unwanted files and the exclusion policies for files that we do not want in our data work well. Perhaps it could be improved by integrating other security solutions that can improve the detection of those files.

We haven’t used Nutanix Data Lens that much but I believe the organization started using it because of the issue of counter-threats and the intention with endpoint protection solutions. As far as I have tried it, it seems to work well. The extension exclusion policies feature seems to be very valuable and the “WORM” function that keeps the data consistent as is. It seems to me that it is one of the most interesting functions it has.

I believe that one of the most complicated parts of Nutanix Unified Storage is the configuration of the DNS issue in Active Directory. Sometimes it is a bit complicated to troubleshoot or detect an error when integrating it with Active Directory.

I've been using Nutanix Unified Storage for about a year or so.

It is very stable.

It seems to me that scalability is one of its stronger points. We do have plans to extend its use in the future.

Support is very good since Nutanix has a support presence in Mexico and for this reason, it is easier to communicate with Nutanix.

Positive

The setup was a little complicated when it came to integrating it with Active Directory, but later it was easy to integrate it into backup tools. We didn't have any specific strategy, we just followed the official guidance forms.

The data security, data intelligence, and above all availability with the resilience of Nutanix itself is the ROI that we see.

It seems to me that the price difference from a traditional infrastructure is a little high, but I do believe that it is totally worth the investment.

I’m pretty sure that this was the first solution we evaluated and it has worked well.

We haven't seen a reduction in nodes or servers, but there’s greater ease in maintaining the infrastructure and managing it.

I would rate Nutanix Unified Storage a nine out of ten. I wouldn't give it a perfect ten out of ten because of the complexity it has when it comes to integrating it with Active Directory.

My company uses the solution for the filing system purpose. My organization also uses the tool for the application and the APIs installed in Kubernetes to synchronize with the workload services.

The product was useful for my business since it allowed for syncing between the on-premise and the cloud applications, which helped us in a very good way. With the tool, my company was able to have applications that were highly available.

My company has the product installed in a hybrid environment.

Nutanix Unified Storage's throughput or latency for data-intensive workloads, such as AI or data analytics, is good and perfect. The capacities or abilities of the product are based on the configuration and use cases that my company deals with, and I see how the product already works well for us.

Nutanix Unified Storage detects and blocks ransomware threats very well. I rate the tool's ability to detect and block ransomware threats an eight out of ten. The product needs to work a bit more on its ransomware detection capabilities.

In terms of false positives, I would say that I think it is a stable tool that is growing in the right direction. I think that within one or two years, it will be a fully flexible tool.

Implementing Nutanix Unified Storage has resulted in a reduction in the number of storage nodes used in our company, and I think it is possible due to an increased storage capacity per node. With less capacity, the tool can support more applications. In my company, we have been able to save around ten nodes using Nutanix Unified Storage, and such a reduction has been helpful in terms of cost savings.

The solution's most valuable features are its support and speed. In case of any support cases, the tool's technical team provides help seamlessly. The product is very light, so adopting the technology is very easy.

I don't know how the product can be made perfect. Till date, my company has not faced any significant issues with the tool. Considering that my company is already an existing partner of Nutanix, if we plan to scale up, then some improvements are required on the pricing front and the scalability feature offered by the solution.

I have been using Nutanix Unified Storage for two years.

The product is stable.

Scalability-wise, the solution is very nice. The scalability feature of the product is actually available as an add-on which allows users to scale the existing environment by allowing one to put more nodes, more applications, while being able to move it between cloud and on-premises, which is something very great.

In a short period of time, the support team provides a proper solution. I rate the technical support a nine out of ten.

Positive

My company used VMware in the past. We switched from VMware to Nutanix Unified Storage because of the seamless stability offered by Nutanix. Nutanix products are scalable in a nice way, and we can move the tool from the cloud to an on-premises version and vice versa.

The product's initial deployment phase was neither hard nor easy, making it a neutral process for me.

In case, anything happens during the tool's implementation phase, you can open a case with the support team and they can provide a fair resolution.

The solution can be deployed in a span of forty days.

Using the tool, my company has saved around 30,000 USD.

My company did not evaluate any other options against Nutanix Unified Storage.

I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

The solution helps our organization to store very critical data.

Implementing Nutanix Unified Storage has resulted in a reduction in the number of storage nodes by 13%.

Nutanix Unified Storage is a stable solution that provides good storage and efficiency.

I have been using Nutanix Unified Storage for three years.

Nutanix Unified Storage is a very stable solution.

The solution's technical support is good. We opened some cases on the website, and the support team responded very quickly.

Positive

The solution’s initial setup is easy.

We implemented the solution through an integrator company, named Microdata.

The solution's pricing is better compared to other products.

Before choosing Nutanix Unified Storage, we evaluated other solutions. We chose Nutanix Unified Storage because of its quality.

Overall, I rate Nutanix Unified Storage a nine out of ten.

Nutanix Objects is reliable.

The management is pretty clunky, in my opinion. It could be a little bit better.

I've been working with Nutanix Objects for a couple of years.

It was unstable when we first started because we didn't have the correct firmware versions, but support updated all the necessary components. After that, it worked fine.

Our configuration is already using three nodes, and I don't think the customer has tried to implement beyond that. I can't tell you if it scales well beyond three nodes.

Nutanix has great tech support, but sometimes you have to get to tier 2 or tier 3 for help with newer products. When we were implementing Objects, we were among the first users. The first-line support couldn't help us. 

They had to escalate it to a person who was a consultant or someone who uses it all the time before we got the answers we needed. We had to send engineering logs, so the technicians could tell us to update the firmware and stuff. They couldn't fix it in a couple of days. It was more like a week or two.

Objects was a fairly new solution when we got it. Not everybody was trained on it. You can't throw everybody into a scene and expect them to know everything about all the real-world situations.

Nutanix Objects is difficult to set up, but it's easy to use once deployed. It's not something you implement on a whim. You have to put some thought into it. 

I don't like that I have to pay for Objects. It's an add-on that doesn't come with the OS. 

I rate Nutanix Objects eight out of 10. You have to find a need for it. If it's right for you, go ahead and do it. After working with other Nutanix solutions, I can say that everything has a purpose, and it is pretty bulletproof. 

Our file share infrastructure was all messed up with several different solutions in place such as; Windows file servers, Hitachi NAS devices, Linux NFS repositories, and DFS. We were looking for a solution to replace and consolidate all our file share repositories in one single place and the Nutanix Files was the chosen solution.

We are very happy with it, as we were able to migrate hundreds of Windows file shares, Linux NFS, and the files seating on the Hitachi NAS to Nutanix with almost zero impact.

It is very fast, reliable, scalable, stable and It comes with very nice features, such as; built-in HA, analysis reporting, audit reports, DR replication, one-click upgrade, and some other cool features.

Now, we have much more control over our File Share environment. It is much easier to manage, and we've reduced the IT infrastructure footprint by 70%.

The built-in file analysis feature is also helping us a lot on the audit requests, as we can generate several different reports right away.

We were able to increase the file share environment's overall performance and availability. 

The HA feature (minimum of three instances), as well as the replication to another site using Nutanix Protection Domain (LEAP), is also a great addition to it.

The management interface is great and you have handy access to several details about your file shares. We didn't have any of that in our old file share environment.

The only thing I would say is missing for us it is FTP protocol compatibility. We still have some systems that use FTP to send and receive files, and we are missing that feature. The solution would be perfect for us with the FTP support, as we also have a lot of legacy FTP solutions in place spread across several different servers and platforms.

We have been using Nutanix Files for more than one year.

The migration process was really smooth with minimal outage and disruption.

In summary, we have been using Nutanix Files for more than one year and we are very happy with it.

We hope Nutanix can add the FTP protocol to the Nutanix Files so we can also leverage all of the great AOS capabilities in the FTP environment, as well.

Our clients usually use the product in the financial industry for application servers.

The solution is very easy to manage. The replication almost always works without fail.

The solution is very expensive. It is very network intensive.

I have been using the solution for six years.

The solution is very stable. I rate the stability a nine out of ten.

The product is scalable. I rate the scalability a seven out of ten. The scalability could be better for a very large deployment. Our clients are mostly medium-sized, but there are a couple of enterprise clients.

The installation is very user-friendly.

The deployment takes days, and the number of staff depends on the number of servers we install. Four engineers can do a medium size installation of 20 servers in about five days. 

When we have a problem with the solution, it may require maintenance, but Nutanix actively supports its systems. Since support is very good, maintenance is minimal. We need two people to maintain and monitor 20 servers.

I rate the pricing of the product an eight out of ten. The product has an annual licensing fee. There are no additional costs associated with the product.

I am using the version that was released before the latest version. People planning to buy the solution must make sure that whatever software they put on it is licensed in a way that is friendly for moving block storage in Nutanix. Some products like Oracle Database are not licensed in a way that is friendly for Nutanix products. It is very expensive to license these products.

Technically, it is a very good product with good support, but it is very expensive. Other alternatives might require a little bit more technical support, but their prices are very friendly. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

We mainly use the solution for consolidated file servers.

The solution's valuable features include reporting, a management dashboard and file analytics. Through the file analytics feature, we can detect any file anomaly.

They should integrate additional security with Multi-Factor Authentication. Also, if they can add an integrated DLP feature, it would be great.

We have been using the solution for four years.

It is a very stable solution as it has already inherited the HCI hardware resiliency and high availability of the HCI infrastructure. 

The solution's scalability is a ten as there's no limitation yet regarding its capacity. It automatically expands another VM node if you want to increase capacity. Presently, our organization has around 100-150 users of the solution.

The solution's tech support is very good. The customer service executives of all Nutanix products are active and responsive. It is easy to open a case.

The solution's setup is straightforward. You need to upgrade the installer, and then it follows the wizard. Next, you have to integrate an active directory service, and it's good to go.

If you already have a Nutanix HCI environment, add per-terabyte licensing. That would be cheaper than acquiring new Nutanix files. It is expensive otherwise, as it comes with three-tier underlying hardware. I rate the solution's pricing as a seven.

We have compared the solution with LenevoNetApp. They have a unified storage that supports file services and block services. But we found Nutanix's features availing richness of reports and dashboard more promising. We are able to get  dashboard and granular reports on how our data is accessed and used with Nutanix Files Storage compared to traditional unified solutions. Also, in terms of hardware redundancy during deployment, Nutanix Files is much better. In addition, Nutanix Files Storage is deployed on top of the HCI service. That makes the software-defined in terms of protection resiliency. In the case of traditional file storage, if we want to have redundancy and resiliency, we need to buy two appliances and enable them to get that resiliency.

I rate the solution as an eight, with room for improvement.