Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure and VxRail compete in the hyper-converged infrastructure space. Based on my data comparisons, Nutanix has the upper hand due to its ease of deployment and comprehensive feature set.
Features: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure offers high performance I/O, ease of administration, and monitoring through Prism Web UI. It includes non-persistent VDI acceleration and data protection with storage auto-tiering. Its linear scalability and unique data locality ensure optimal performance. VxRail excels with finger-click upgrades, strong VMware integration, and reliable performance, offering a single pane management and flexibility in machine creation and destruction.
Room for Improvement: Nutanix could enhance its networking capabilities and third-party integration, focusing on refining replication and backup features while simplifying usability for beginners. VxRail could improve by offering better automation, enhancing the licensing model to be transparent, and refining support experience to be more streamlined for all marketplaces.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Nutanix is known for seamless deployment across various environments, offering flexibility and reduced complexity. It provides quick response times and knowledgeable support. VxRail, while offering strong deployment options for hybrid and private clouds, often highlights complex upgrade paths and reliance on dedicated support.
Pricing and ROI: Nutanix is considered premium-priced but justifies this with broad features and long-term savings. Its licensing is flexible. VxRail faces criticism for higher licensing costs and complex fee structures but is cost-effective against legacy solutions regarding long-term ROI. Nutanix's ability to use a built-in hypervisor can offer cost savings over VxRail’s reliance on VMware.
The technical support from Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is excellent, deserving a nine out of ten rating.
A key area for improvement for VMware would be response time.
The support is all provided by Dell, and it is quite good.
The scalability of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) deserves an eight out of ten rating, as there is no solution that is 100% efficient and there is always room for improvement.
There are limitations, such as the inability to upgrade from a single to dual CPU in certain configurations.
The scalability is excellent.
Compared to VM, we find it most stable.
Regarding stability, I would rate Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) a seven out of ten.
It is a very stable and mature product, with centralized management and upgrades being perfect for us.
The product is very stable, and I rate its stability as nine out of ten.
They should add AI features in the future.
I would suggest that Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) should develop their own P2V (physical to VM) tools instead of requiring users to rely on third-party solutions.
We hope Nutanix can integrate inside our current license module.
It requires a very clean environment to proceed without issues.
Stabilizing the update procedure further would make it better.
The major issue with VxRail is the razoring process, which can only be performed by Dell.
The pricing is renewed every year, at almost $100,000 per year.
It costs more compared to VMware due to different licensing areas.
It is expensive to move to the cloud.
Previously, the cost was higher, however, recent changes in VMware pricing have reduced it.
The cost varies for us as a large company because we receive special offers from Dell.
Purchasing VxRail is quite expensive compared to a simple Dell server.
When technology development or devops teams request server provisioning, the setup time has been reduced from hours to less than 20 minutes.
The replication method between Nutanix clusters is a valuable feature.
It is easy to use, and it's easy to maintain.
Customers prefer the single pane of glass management and integration with VMware, which makes it easier for them to proceed with decisions involving VMware products.
The features of VxRail that we find most useful for our customers include the easy update mechanism and the support for both VMware and hardware.
Another benefit is the fully automated upgrade process, which is completed with just one click through the VxRail Manager.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| VxRail | 16.1% |
| Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) | 9.5% |
| Other | 74.4% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 91 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 76 |
| Large Enterprise | 82 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 41 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 42 |
| Large Enterprise | 56 |
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:
Outside of these categories, NCI also offers other capabilities:
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:
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Benefits
The product offers various benefits to users who utilize its capacities. Some of these include:
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.
VxRail is a hyper-converged infrastructure appliance co-engineered by Dell Technologies and VMware, designed to optimize VMware environments by simplifying compute, storage, virtualization, and management.
Built on VMware vSAN software, VxRail ensures high performance, reliability, and flexibility. It supports a broad array of workloads, from business-critical applications to next-generation use cases. VxRail simplifies infrastructure management with powerful integration and seamless scalability, offering centralized management and user-friendly interfaces. Streamlined updates, robust lifecycle management, and one-click upgrades facilitate a user-centric experience that minimizes deployment complexity and staffing needs. However, its performance with disk deduplication, integration with public clouds, and processor support can be enhanced, along with pricing and licensing improvements.
What features define VxRail?Organizations across sectors such as finance, telecommunications, education, and manufacturing utilize VxRail for its scalability, ease of deployment, and infrastructure management capabilities. It aids in server and application hosting, storage, and virtualization management, often employing VMware integration. The platform is valued for its ability to consolidate IT components, support VDI solutions, and enhance cloud readiness and resource allocation.
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