Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Reviews

The most valuable features are Prism and Acropolis, as they simplified our jobs and give us the opportunity to lower operational costs without reducing the current day-to-day operation performance.

We are using VMware 3-TIER architecture since 2006. Up until this day we’re still using the architecture until we could not expand the cluster anymore. Thus, we need to find a way to migrate our VM servers before it’s too late. The architecture using old traditional SANS storage and AMD processors platform. We’re stuck with VMware version 5.1 and can’t be upgrade to latest version due to the hardware limitation. Maintaining this architecture is not cheap also, as we need to pay annual maintenance to hardware vendors and VMware. It keeps increasing every year.

Our customers demand more processing power and more storage, and then we came across Nutanix, which could solve all burden that we have.

1. We hosting a lot of SAP wintel apps, and this kind of apps is storage and processor hungry. We keep facing downtime when we hosting the VM servers on our old architecture. When we decide to migrate the VM servers to Nutanix , we no longer facing the issue and no more complaint from our customers.

2. The maintenance contract is lower compared to annual maintenance/support contract that we must pay to VMware and hardware vendors. We will get the ROI back in short time if we move to Nutanix.

3. Can be manage through one single console (PRISM) oppose to SAN switches , SAN , VMware , Hardware consoles on old architecture.

4. We experienced a nightmare in term of support on old architecture, where we need to gather VMware engineer and Hardware vendor to solve an issue, and it takes a long time to solve. Nutanix assure us that they can solve Hypervisor and hardware issues within a single call log.

5. Nutanix offer features like data deduplication on its storage, which are not available on our old SANS storage.

6. We hosted our DC on 3rd party DC (leasing based on square feet), we can decom a lot of old servers (which can fill up the space and increase the rental) when we moved to Nutanix. 3 racks of old servers with SAN storage can be consolidate to one rack (still have a lot of spaces to put Nutanix boxes).

As opposed to before, the Nutanix platform allows us to pay as we grow instead starting with a large scale. Management seems to like this idea, as it will save us from overspending the budget. We can improve IT utilization and reduce costs by consolidating application infrastructure.

We're thinking about hosting SAP HANA on the Nutanix platform, but we are still unsure about the path as SAP still has not certified Nutanix to host SAP HANA yet. Nutanix should make SAP a close partner and certify their product with SAP so that the consumer has a choice to migrate their existing platform to Nutanix platform.

As far as I'm concerned, and we already ran the test on an actual Nutanix box, Nutanix can host the HANA without issue. However, without certification from SAP, it looks like we don’t have a guarantee from SAP itself. That will cause us to question whether we should go with the Nutanix platform.

I have been using it for about five months, and we just got approval from our management to expand the cluster and buy additional hardware from Nutanix.

So far, the operation has gone smoothly without any big issues, although there was a small bug when we tried the one-click update to upgrade all nodes’ firmware. Some nodes did not finish the update. We are resolving it with Nutanix support, so it's fine. It did not impact system uptime.

I have not encountered any scalability issues at all. We can easily scale this platform as we need.

Technical support is 9/10; only one call to local support and then if it hasn’t been resolved, a Nutanix engineer will help to resolve either hardware or hypervisor issues. It gives us really good assurance and we can sleep peacefully at night.

Previously, we used three-tier architecture, which has lots of points for failure and a lot of consoles need to be attended. It's so tiring and most of the time, we are firefighting to make sure the operation can continue as business as usual. It required a lot of skills and a large sum of money to maintain and to scale, which were painful for us.

Initial setup was straightforward. It takes only one day or less to build up the cluster and provision the virtual machines.

The pricing is good for us and just what we are looking for. We can cut off the VMware license and maintenance support, and migrate to Acropolis instead.

We evaluated SimpliVity and HPE solutions. Both failed us in term of economical cost and did not offer features that Nutanix has.

You have an option to start small instead of going big at first, which will capitalize your budget. You can ask for a loaner unit from Nutanix to play with; to check and verify their performance and match it to your requirements.

Nutanix treats us well. We can say we are happy with the Nutanix offering.

We provide server consultations and help customers reduce their footprint and begin their FTDC journeys with this solution.

Nutanix has the best virtual desktop infrastructure.

I believe that improvements could be made in regards to the DR in addition to deduplication and integration with others platforms. They also do not offer opportunities for network virtualization so it would be nice to see that in the future.

I have been working with Nutanix for three years.

I think this solution is stable.

Scalability opportunities are great with this solution.

I have not yet required technical support.

I do not have experience with the installation process with Nutanix, but I believe that it would be pretty easy - similar to VMware or SimpliVity.

Nutanix price is high because it bundles all the components into single deals rather than allowing you to select the features that you want/will use.

I live in Sri Lanka, which is a developing country, so the cost is especially high for us.

I would rate this a five out of ten.

Acropolis' main advantages are high performance and availability.

I would like to see Acropolis add the ability to migrate VMs between storage containers. I don't know if they've added this in the latest versions, but I haven't seen it yet. It's mainly about AHV. When we use VMware, we can move between storage containers. In VMware, it's just like regular storage, and we can move it.

I've been using Acropolis for more than five years.

I haven't seen any stability issues.

Setting up Acropolis is straightforward.

SonicWall is more expensive than some competing solutions like VxRail and vSAN. That's its main disadvantage

I rate Nutanix Acropolis AOS 10 out of 10. I think it's a perfect solution. I can't think of any improvements that could be implemented or disadvantages. My advice is to buy Acropolis, not vSan.

The most valuable features of this solution are the storage feature on the File Server. 

The hyperconvergence service, as well as the DR solution, are game-changers for Nutanix.

Some of the features in the user interface can only be accessed through the command-line interface.

It would be great if they could improve the GUI features.

I have been working with Nutanix Acropolis AOS for more than five years.

The stability of Nutanix Acropolis AOS is very good. In the five years that I have been working with this solution, I have not had any issues with stability.

The scalability is good. I have created many clusters.

The technical support is excellent. I've never received this level of service from another vendor.

I have only worked with Nutanix Hyperconverged solutions.

The initial setup is easy, especially when compared with other products.

When compared to the competitors, the price is reasonable.

I am a technical administrator. I am responsible for the installation, configuration, and management of Acropolis. 

They must consider all of the requirements for implementing this solution; otherwise, they will have stability issues.

I would rate Nutanix Acropolis AOS an eight out of ten.

We are using Nutanix Acropolis AOS for running applications.

Nutanix Acropolis AOS is easy to use, integrates with other hardware configurations, and is simple to manage.

I have been using this solution for approximately four years.

I have found the solution reliable.

The solution is easy to scale and upgrade.

We have approximately 30 clients using this solution.

The technical support is excellent for Nutanix, they are very responsive.

The installation difficulty depends on the environment but it typically is simple.

There is a license required for this solution and my clients usually purchase a two-year license with extended support. The price of the solution could be reduced, it is more expensive than competitors. You are able to receive some discounts if you meet certain criteria that make the price more comparable to others. However, the discounts tend to be difficult to qualify for. 

I rate Nutanix Acropolis AOS a nine out of ten.

• Prism 
• One-Click

Now, we can worry less about the technology and focus on other business value initiatives.

A fantastic product that could spend a bit more time in QA between releases.

Five years.

None.

Compatibility issue with Nutanix and Zerto.

None.

Customer Service:

10 out of 10.

Technical Support:

10 out of 10.

We switched from a legacy 3-2-1 solution to HCI due to its ease of use and scalability.

Very straightforward; no issues.

We implemented through a vendor team, although the setup was so easy that we could have handled the process in-house.

We have realized a 3:1 ROI.

The upfront cost can be higher than traditional solutions, but the ROI can be quickly realized for most organizations.

SimpliVity and Dell EqualLogic.

A great product from a great company with world class support.

It is now our single most powerful server that is easily scalable and has an HTML5 site that manages all aspects of the system.

Hyper-convergence is the most valuable feature for me as it allows me to scale the hardware according to project requirements.

It would be great if it could emulate some of the features that their competitor VMware has, for example port mirroring or Netflow output at hypervisor level.

We did not encounter any issues with stability.

We did not encounter any issues with scalability except for cost and feature requests.

Local support has been wonderful so far in my case, but I didn't have many support requirements for my projects.

I was using a standard server infrastructure previously and found an offer for Nutanix so we switched.

The setup was handled by our local IT vendor hence you can say it's convenient.
However I was there to observe how it was done and I can say that you need network experience to link the hardware together as the nodes inside the hardware communicate using TCP/IP.

The software is set up on the get-go (off-the-shelf) but due to my project requirements I have to customize the software, hence the complexity.

If you're willing to spend on hyper-convergence technologies be prepared to pay more and be locked down to a specific hardware vendor.

The basic license that comes with the box allows basic virtualization features but advanced automation features would require an upgrade of licenses.

Before the purchase we were evaluating VMware only.

Please be prepared to be locked down on the hardware.