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Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Rackspace OpenStack comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructur...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
200
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Storage (SDS) (5th), HCI (2nd), Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) (1st), Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms (5th)
Rackspace OpenStack
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.2
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Storage Solutions solutions, they serve different purposes. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is designed for HCI and holds a mindshare of 9.1%, up 8.9% compared to last year.
Rackspace OpenStack, on the other hand, focuses on Converged Infrastructure, holds 7.4% mindshare, up 4.2% since last year.
HCI Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)9.1%
VxRail10.4%
VMware vSAN8.5%
Other72.0%
HCI
Converged Infrastructure Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Rackspace OpenStack7.4%
FlexPod XCS12.5%
HPE ConvergedSystem11.1%
Other69.0%
Converged Infrastructure
 

Featured Reviews

JD
Dsi at OFFICE PUBLIC DE L HABITAT DE ROUEN
Hyper-converged storage has improved performance and now supports high redundancy for our VMs
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) was transparent because we were on a regular infrastructure before. We went on NCI and were able to improve performance, but it did not really change how things worked. The performance was really better for applications and access times to the data. I regularly looked at the analytics to see what was going on in my servers and what it was saying to optimize performance. It was pretty interesting because it could analyze and give insights on how to get things working better. In the latest versions, the Prism interface has been replaced by Prism Central. This requires another machine to be deployed to manage the servers.
Bilal Inamdar - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Linux Administrator at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Flexible virtual infrastructure has supported complex KVM workloads and accelerated SAP-ready hosting
For Rackspace OpenStack security features, we currently opted for ShapeBlue one, which will be installing CloudStack. ShapeBlue is helping us in training. So, we are moving away from Rackspace OpenStack to CloudStack because CloudStack has most of the features that we require, and it is also lightweight. Rackspace OpenStack does not provide that thing. The product has all the things included, you can say like that. But the thing is, if you are a company, if you are a hosting company, you will require at least three to four people with higher expertise to install and get going with Rackspace OpenStack. It is very hard; you have to understand bits and many things about it, how it works. It is not something you just tinker around with. The second thing is we are moving to CloudStack because it comes as just a single package that I can install in a VM and I am done with it. I just need to configure it the first time, and everything, the experience out-of-the-box is very good with CloudStack. But Rackspace OpenStack is very assembled parts, you can say. Would you prefer an assembled PC or would you prefer an HP-provided PC, a branded PC? It depends on you. The main thing about Rackspace OpenStack is that it is totally built on many modules. It is approximately 30 to 40 modules, you can say. You have to learn and understand that, which there is a very steep learning curve. If I am not wrong, there is a very steep learning curve. There is not one way to install Rackspace OpenStack; there are several ways, approximately three to four ways. But it depends on who deployed it. Suppose a person deployed it in a different style; after one or two years, he got changed, and another person comes. He does not know about that style, then it will be very hard to navigate. Currently, Kolla-ansible, which we have, is very hard to navigate for me. Although it is very easy to install, it is very hard to operate because it works on Docker. So, there are too many moving parts. If you say to me, there are too many moving parts, and the visibility is low on that. It is very hard to have any issue with it. It is a very stable product.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable features of Nutanix Acropolis AOS are ease of management, hyper-convergence platform, and it has robust operations."
"We like that the size of the box is 1U or 2U only, and all the servers are fit into that box. The ease of operation is there. All the servers and the SAN storage are inside the box."
"It is a good solution and it is easy to work on their platform."
"So, if you want to Hyper Converged, please Hyper Converge responsibly."
"The return on investment of Nutanix Acropolis AOS is better than other solutions."
"We have been running Nutanix since 2019 and it has been a day and night difference from our old infrastructure."
"The main reason we decided to implement the Nutanix solution was the ease of use of the environment."
"If you are looking for flexibility, space-saving, power-saving, and the best ROI, this is the solution to use."
"The most valuable feature is the customization, and with the customization you can really give the customers what they want."
"The documentation was plentiful and very helpful.​"
"Rackspace OpenStack positively impacts my organization by making processes easier since I do not need to manage all servers manually because it efficiently manages server operations and maintains proper data, which saves time."
"OpenStack allowed for mass uploading of images to Akamai cloud services."
"The open-source nature of OpenStack provides significant value."
"The most useful opinion about Rackspace OpenStack is that it is very flexible, first of all, and the most important feature is that it is feature-rich."
"The solution is stable."
"Rackspace OpenStack is stable and reliable, often compared favorably against other solutions."
 

Cons

"I don't feel that I am receiving the performance which I am paying for."
"In terms of automation, I know there are ways to do it, but it's not very user-friendly. I've been working for the last three years with Nutanix and I've managed to automate certain things, but it's a somewhat more complex job than it should be. I would like to see more documentation or knowledge base articles."
"While their overall Nutanix Bible is good, they are lacking good descriptions for particular scenarios that might be helpful to many users."
"The cost of the solution is too expensive. There are other options, such as VMware, that are offered for less money. In Latin America, it seems to be overpriced for the market."
"We ran into an issue as a managed service provider because Acropolis isn't designed to be used the way we are running it. For example, if we want to deploy a Kubernetes service, the customer networks need to reach our protected cluster network. We have isolated our customers in separate VLANs. However, our customers' networks must access our cluster network to get features like iSCSI or Kubernetes to run. It's challenging."
"One thing I would like to eventually see from Nutanix is the ability to install the Nutanix OS on any hardware, making it hardware agnostic instead of depending on their expensive servers."
"We could always use a performance upgrade, or simplified management."
"Nutanix has a complex infrastructure, we have customers that consider VMware instead. Additionally, the performance could be better."
"OpenStack is difficult for the novice in terms of beginning to use cloud tools."
"The deployment process could be easy."
"The pricing of Rackspace is quite high in the Vietnam market."
"So for the main stability, there have been a couple of issues that I've experienced."
"As a beginner, I find some difficulties in understanding Rackspace OpenStack, as it can be complex without a foundational grasp of cloud and networking concepts."
"The seamless integration between MySQL services and the rabbitMQ database can be revised during the debugging phase."
"It should have a single dashboard for cloud management and on-premises systems"
"VMware has a side-to-side replication feature, which is still more mature than Rackspace OpenStack's which can't be used in a production environment."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price is fine. I can't really complain about that."
"The license is quite clear to me. It's much clearer than what we had with our previous virtualization environment. The licensing is not complex to understand."
"The initial cost is affordable but the renewal fees are high."
"We got the renewal done recently, and there was no cost involved."
"The pricing is very competitive when compared with other vendors. As long as Nutanix goes forward with the same price and same type of offering, it will definitely have a large number of customers adopting the same solution very soon."
"Work close with your InfraTeam and discuss with Nutanix the best way to achieve sizing and price that are right for you."
"Able to grow with smaller, more linear increments of investment"
"It's a cost-effective solution"
"I use it as an open-source tool."
"The pricing is low."
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Comparison Review

it_user244362 - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Consultant with 51-200 employees
Aug 30, 2015
Nutanix vs. VMware EVO:RAIL vs. FlexPod
Originally posted at www.storagegaga.com/dont-get-too-drunk-on-hyper-converged/ I hate the fact that I am bursting the big bubble brewing about Hyper Convergence (HC). I urge all to look past the hot air and hype frenzy that are going on, because in the end, the HC platforms have to be aligned…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Construction Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business93
Midsize Enterprise76
Large Enterprise88
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

How do I choose between Cisco Hyperflex HX Series and Nutanix Acropolis AOS?
Cisco HyperFlex HS series vs Nutanix Acropolis AOS Cisco HyperFlex gives extended hyper-convergence functions from core to edge and multi-cloud environments. It helps IT and OT teams deploy hyper...
What makes Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) worth using?
NCI is a product with many tools and services but the one that, in my opinion, makes it better than similar products and worth using, is the full-stack lifecycle management. This capacity allows u...
Have you received reliable help from Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure's support when you contacted them?
NCI is one of the best out there. For any software, no matter how good it is, technical support makes it or breaks it for me. You may have an amazing product but if there is not anyone to help you ...
What needs improvement with Rackspace OpenStack?
For Rackspace OpenStack security features, we currently opted for ShapeBlue one, which will be installing CloudStack. ShapeBlue is helping us in training. So, we are moving away from Rackspace Open...
What is your primary use case for Rackspace OpenStack?
I mainly use Rackspace OpenStack for my virtual environment, for the KVM environment, such as hosting VMs. That is what we use it mainly for. You can say it is just like VMware; we are using Racksp...
What advice do you have for others considering Rackspace OpenStack?
I help my clients with Rackspace OpenStack as a consultant. I work with my clients as a consultant with Rackspace OpenStack. I am not involved in the purchase process of the platform. The pricing f...
 

Also Known As

Nutanix Acropolis AOS, Nutanix AOS, Nutanix Acropolis
OpenStack
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

St. Lukes Health System, the City of Seattle, Yahoo! Japan, Sligro, Empire Life, Hyundai AUS, and many others.
X.commerce
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