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Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs VMware Cloud Foundation comparison

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Buyer's Guide
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs. VMware Cloud Foundation
March 2024
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) and VMware Cloud Foundation based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs. VMware Cloud Foundation Report (Updated: March 2024).
Download the complete report
768,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
EttoreSpigno
Researched VMware Cloud Foundation but chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI): Simplifies orchestration, reduces cost, and offers excellent visualization
We managed a critical DB where different agents have to interoperate to make it easy for the technicians who are not skilled in IT. With Nutanix,... Read more →
NiteshKumar1
Offers automated deployment features that enhances operational efficiency and simplifying complex tasks
VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) simplified hybrid cloud integration. In the current environment, most customers have their applications and... Read more →
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"It gives us a single dashboard to control multiple sites and multiple zones. It helps to do things on a single platform and data sharing is quite easy. The network and the security are easy to manage.""The most valuable features of Nutanix Acropolis AOS are ease of management, hyper-convergence platform, and it has robust operations.""The simplicity when it comes to building your own automation has been excellent.""It offers very useful data protection.""Scaling is very easy and no limitations are set.""Nutanix Acropolis AOS makes it easy to use and manage projects and it has a good reputation.""It is 100% stable. It's the most stable infrastructure that we have.""Simplified management: It provides us more time to work on other tasks."

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"The most valuable feature of this solution is the disaster recovery software.""VMware Cloud Foundation's most valuable features are password and certificate management. The SDDC manager tool is the front tool we are using to manage the entire VCF stack. In the SDDC manager, we can able to rotate, and update the passwords of all users. Anything in the VMware portfolio, we can manage from a single dashboard and we have various data centers. We have connected everything into one Federation. From one single place, we are managing our entire virtual interactions.""The most valuable feature is the ease of migrating from on-premises infrastructure when transitioning away from older systems.""The product enables flexibility in network structures.""VMware Cloud Foundation provides us with the vSphere dashboard through which we can manage, monitor, schedule, and spin up your virtual machines. We can manage, monitor, and get reports of your infrastructure.""The stability is good.""They have in release 4.0 features from vSphere and Cloud Suite. It's a complete data center.""The most valuable aspect of VMware Cloud Foundation is you can manage everything from area."

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Cons
"The productivity and work efficiency of Nutanix Acropolis AOS could improve.""The ability to create clusters faster would be nice to see in a future release.""The latency needs improvement""We could always use a performance upgrade, or simplified management.""There is a need is to be able to consume Nutanix storage from outside the cluster for other, non-Nutanix workloads.""One thing to keep in mind is that only experts can use it. It has to be in the proper hands, instead of going to XYZ people just for some cost savings. So lift-and-shift and migrations might be tricky, because it is not like a VMware.""The product requires a lot of resources.""Could have better visibility with the main OEM backup integrators."

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"The documentation could be easier to read""I would like to be able to connect the APIs.""The price could be better. VMware Cloud Foundation is overpriced, but I think we get what we pay for. It would be better if it were cheaper because it would be easier to go to customers and get them to buy it. We'd get more projects, and that would be great.""The pricing could be a bit less expensive.""Working on features that could include the capability to migrate workflows from non-VMware environments would be highly beneficial.""Cost is a challenge when convincing clients, especially for large deals.""The customization has room for improvement.""Life cycle management is an area for improvement."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Able to grow with smaller, more linear increments of investment"
  • "The basic license that comes with the box allows basic virtualization features but advanced automation features would require an upgrade of licenses."
  • "I know Nutanix and VxRail have similar prices and licenses. Nutanix is a go-ahead if AHV is used as hypervisor because it is already embedded in the price."
  • "While cost may seem higher than your traditional 3-tier architecture, you need to look at the bigger picture. You're not just buying hardware here. You're buying a complete environment."
  • "Setup cost is minor, pricing is quite a bit (we have a 7-node-cluster for about 450K EUR with 2 vGPU-nodes for Citrix) but that includes hardware, software, and support."
  • "The price is good but I think there is still room for improvement on the price."
  • "Extra features should not be so expensive. We would love to be able to use or even just try some of the extra features without having to buy them. Buying those features is just as expensive as buying vSphere licenses, so the cost savings is nullified."
  • "Work close with your InfraTeam and discuss with Nutanix the best way to achieve sizing and price that are right for you."

    • More Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "This solutuion can be expensive for small and medium-sized companies."
  • "The pricing can be more competitive."
  • "The licensing is expensive compared with Hyper V and Unitech's platform."
  • "If our customer has the option to buy a server for $4,000 or $5,000, but VMware asks for two-person licensing $7,000 to $8,000, which is more than the hardware price. So sometimes, the customer cannot pay for it because it's too expensive."
  • "There is an annual license required to use the solution."
  • "VMware Cloud Foundation is overpriced, but I think we get what we pay for."
  • "The price of VMware Cloud Foundation is a bit high. However, it comes with a lot of useful features and can handle a lot of operational complexity. Overall the price can be seen as being fair for what it offers."
  • "The pricing of VMware Cloud Foundation could improve, it is expensive."

    • More VMware Cloud Foundation Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Comparison Review
    Anonymous User
    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 and congruent to the organization’s data architecture and business plans. The announcement of Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant on Integrated Systems (read hyper convergence) has put Nutanix as the leader of the pack as of August 2015. Clearly, many of us get caught up because it is the “greatest feeling in the world”. However, this faux feeling is not reality because there are many factors that made the pack leaders in the Magic Quadrant (MQ). First of all, the MQ is about market perception. There is no doubt that the pack leaders in the Leaders Quadrant have earned their right to be there. Each company’s revenue, market share, gross margin, company’s profitability have helped put each as leaders in the pack. However, it is also measured by branding, marketing, market perception and acceptance and other intangible factors. Secondly, VMware EVO: Rail has split the market when EMC has 3 HC solutions in VCE, ScaleIO and EVO: Rail. Cisco wanted to do their own HC piece in Whiptail (between the 2014 MQ and 2015 MQ reports), and closed down Whiptail when their new CEO came on board. NetApp chose EVO: Rail and also has the ever popular FlexPod. That is why you see that in… Read more →
    Questions from the Community
    What is the biggest difference between Nutanix Acropolis and VMware vSphere?
    Top Answer:We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interface that allows you to talk directly to your VM from the present software. We found… more »
    Read all 7 answers   →
    How do I choose between Cisco Hyperflex HX Series and Nutanix Acropolis AOS?
    Top Answer: 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… more »
    Read all 2 answers   →
    Which would you choose - Nutanix Acropolis AOS or VMware vSAN?
    Top Answer:We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interface that allows you to talk directly to your VM from the present software. We found… more »
    Read all 4 answers   →
    What do you like most about VMware Cloud Foundation?
    Top Answer:VMware Cloud Foundation provides us with the vSphere dashboard through which we can manage, monitor, schedule, and spin up your virtual machines. We can manage, monitor, and get reports of your… more »
    Read all 19 answers   →
    What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Cloud Foun...
    Top Answer:I rate the tool's pricing a seven out of ten.
    Read all 12 answers   →
    What needs improvement with VMware Cloud Foundation?
    Top Answer:Cost is a big factor. Clients want a reduced price. Ease of use is definitely there – the VMware interface is user-friendly. But cost is a challenge when convincing clients, especially for large… more »
    Read all 19 answers   →
    Ranking
    3rd
    out of 15 in Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms
    Views
    447
    Comparisons
    153
    Reviews
    27
    Average Words per Review
    952
    Rating
    8.6
    2nd
    out of 15 in Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms
    Views
    3,195
    Comparisons
    2,167
    Reviews
    13
    Average Words per Review
    545
    Rating
    8.2
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Nutanix Acropolis AOS, Nutanix AOS, Nutanix Acropolis
    Learn More
    Nutanix
    VMware
    Overview

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is a top-ranking HCI software, cloud management tool, and Software Defined Storage (SDS) tool that is marketed as the foundation for users' hybrid clouds. It offers a powerful and secure hyperconverged infrastructure to deliver all data and applications at any scale and on any cloud. The solution offers a complete software stack that allows users to unify their hybrid cloud infrastructure. 

    NCI’s services include computer, storage and network, hypervisors and containers, and deployment in public or in private clouds. The product also comes with built-in resilience, disaster recovery capabilities, self-healing, and high-security capacities. It provides further deployment flexibility through several software and hardware options and platforms. NCI includes a full set of enterprise capabilities. It can also be deployed on a wide range of servers from popular manufacturers.

    The capabilities of the product are categorized into three main groups:

    • AOS storage
    • Flexible and open compute
    • Automated and secure networking

    Outside of these categories, NCI also offers other capabilities:

    • Integrated disaster recovery
    • Full-stack lifecycle management
    • VMware with Nutanix
    • Intelligent operations

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Features

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) offers its customers various features and tools in each of the previously mentioned categories. The available features for users currently include:

    • High-performance: This set of features utilizes hardware advances such as NVMe and RDMA to accelerate users' most demanding applications with consistent performance. The tools in this feature category work alongside data locality to ensure successful results.

    • Foolproof resiliency: These Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure features protect data and keep it available by facilitating advanced distributed consistency algorithms. Users can utilize these features to protect their data from issues like bit rot, hardware failures, and even entire site failure.

    • Flexibility: This set of features allows storage to be sized for the needs of each organization and expanded promptly and easily so that the organization and its data can grow. The features offer flexibility to users in terms of applying storage policies logically on a pre-workload basis, instead of being tied to hardware.

    • Hypervisor choice: Users can choose from the leading hypervisors - Microsoft Hyper-V or VMware ESXi. They can also leverage the built-in hypervisor AHV that Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) provides.

    • Integrated virtualization: These features offer simplified automation and AHV streamlined operations. The services in this category are optimized for high performance and reliability.

    • Kubernetes: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) offers features to build and deploy cloud-native applications on intelligent distributed infrastructure. Apps can be integrated with cloud-compatible storage and both building and deployment can be achieved within the same platform.

    • Microsegmentation: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) offers features to prevent malware spread and reduce attack surfaces by leveraging machine learning (ML).

    • Virtual networking: This set of features allows users to easily implement multi-tenancy in their environment or stretch networks across clouds.

    • Centralized network management: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) provides organizations with a way to manage networking configurations centrally. Users can utilize it across their human-computer interaction (HCI) environment with simple virtual switch management.

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Benefits

    The product offers various benefits to users who utilize its capacities. Some of these include:

    • NCI reduces technology sprawl and frees up technical resources to allow organizations to focus on other activities, potentially reducing costs for the business.

    • The product allows customers to deploy, scale, and bridge to the public cloud to be able to react in evolving business environments.

    • Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure improves data availability while simultaneously protecting it against several kinds of failures and attacks.

    • The solution offers high-performance, resilient distributed storage for all workloads.

    • Working alongside Nutanix Cloud Platform, NCI offers simple management of data from one console.

    • Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure works by the zero trust philosophy, protecting users' apps and data through specially designed security protocols.

    Reviews from Real Users

    According to Gerhard J., an IT manager at Q4 Fuel, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) provides serious reliability and stability across the entire system makes for ROI.

    A solutions architect at a computer software company describes NCI as a stable, straightforward to set up, and scalable solution.

    VMware Cloud Foundation makes it easy to deploy and run a hybrid cloud. VMware Cloud Foundation provides integrated cloud infrastructure (compute, storage, networking, and security) and cloud management services to run enterprise applications in both private and public environments.

    Sample Customers
    St. Lukes Health System, the City of Seattle, Yahoo! Japan, Sligro, Empire Life, Hyundai AUS, and many others.
    ricoh, dell technologies, sky
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Comms Service Provider10%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization26%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Government6%
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider33%
    Computer Software Company33%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Retailer8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Government9%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise30%
    Large Enterprise33%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise36%
    Large Enterprise47%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business26%
    Midsize Enterprise4%
    Large Enterprise70%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise67%
    Buyer's Guide
    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs. VMware Cloud Foundation
    March 2024
    Free Report: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs. VMware Cloud Foundation
    Find out what your peers are saying about Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs. VMware Cloud Foundation and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
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    768,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is ranked 3rd in Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms with 194 reviews while VMware Cloud Foundation is ranked 2nd in Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms with 23 reviews. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is rated 8.6, while VMware Cloud Foundation is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) writes "A powerful solution with easy deployment, upgrades, and management". On the other hand, the top reviewer of VMware Cloud Foundation writes "Reliable with good hyper-converged sizing flexibility and an automated setup". Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is most compared with VMware vSAN, VxRail, HPE SimpliVity, VMware vSphere and Hyper-V, whereas VMware Cloud Foundation is most compared with Azure Stack, Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2), AWS Outposts and Google Anthos. See our Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs. VMware Cloud Foundation report.

    See our list of best Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms vendors.

    We monitor all Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.