Sudheer Narayanan - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President Technology at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Ability to seamlessly transition with click of a button means we have no downtime
Pros and Cons
  • "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."
  • "I would like to see more Kubernetes and container-related workflows and multiple cloud-partner management. I would also like to see how they will synergize all these AI/ML functionalities that are available on other platforms."

How has it helped my organization?

Any single server or one-plus-one server is very difficult to manage if there is hardware failure. But with this solution, the transition is seamless because a 10-plus-one redundancy is built into the system.

With the click of a button, we can migrate the services to other servers. We have never had any downtime and we are a 24/7 operation. Production has continued,

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure also helps us to optimize power utilization and the rack space used in the data center, resulting in overall energy savings.

These were immediate advantages because, eight to 10 years back, this was a new technology. We tried it with our less critical operations, and we slowly introduced more production-critical workloads.

Also, we were using Active Directory and other SQL databases on individual servers. We were able to consolidate them into a single database. That helps with ease of operations and enables taking backups from a single place. We migrated all our standard database structures and we don't need a cluster mechanism because the cluster or failover mechanism is built into the Nutanix architecture.

What is most valuable?

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.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see more Kubernetes and container-related workflows and multiple cloud-partner management. I would also like to see how they will synergize all these AI/ML functionalities that are available on other platforms. We need to see those intelligent functionalities included.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been working with Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) for almost eight years.

Buyer's Guide
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)
September 2023
Learn what your peers think about Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2023.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's quite stable. We have never had any downtime.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

For any on-prem or hybrid solution, it is highly scalable and easy to manage. We expect to increase our usage of NCI.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used VMware which was helpful for a lot of things, but in terms of the scalability, the main thing was the central storage architecture. That became a bottleneck. Scaling up the storage was a little difficult. When it came to usability and ease of management, we decided to go with Nutanix.

How was the initial setup?

The initial deployment was straightforward. It took less than a week, including doing the application migration. It was quite easy to create an image of the existing bare-metal infrastructure and migrate that image to the new solution. We always did it on a weekend or during a window of downtime at night.

We have it deployed in a single data center and we have under 100 users.

There is minimal maintenance. Upgrading is quite easy. Adding compute or storage on demand is also quite easy because we get a compute-only node or a storage-only node and add the nodes to meet requests for the CPU or storage requirements. These tasks are managed by the IT infrastructure team.

What about the implementation team?

We used a reseller, and we had four or five people involved from IT and database administration.

What was our ROI?

The primary objective was to reduce downtime. That means we can't assess ROI  in terms of monetary value. It is more an issue of reliability.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is slightly more expensive compared to a standard, on-prem, bare-metal configuration. There is about a 30 percent overhead there. That is the pricing in the Indian scenario.

The single dashboard is an additional cost option.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

VMware is the only competition I can think of.

A standard SAN solution is quite fast in terms of storage, if you size it well, but the main challenge with a SAN solution will be scaling up. If it's not sized and planned well, it will be a big challenge and we would need to invest huge money in the SAN architecture.

What other advice do I have?

It is quite comprehensive, all the toolsets are available, so there aren't many limitations. If you are looking for hybrid or on-prem virtualization, Nutanix is the preferred choice. The things that stand out are the scalability and ease of use. For a CIO, what is relevant is how scalable and reliable the solution is.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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PeerSpot user
Ryan Uy - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Architect at Strategic Synergy Inc
Reseller
Top 5
Our clients are happy with its built-in replication features
Pros and Cons
  • "In addition to the hyper-converged infrastructure, most of our clients are pleased with Acropolis' built-in replication in terms of the DR setup. Our clients also like Prism Central's advanced management and analytics, and many find Nutanix Flow and playbooks incredibly useful."
  • "Nutanix could streamline Acropolis' advanced management to keep pace with its competitors. For example, in VMware vSphere ESXi Hypervisor, you can directly put a host into maintenance mode via the GUI. However, it takes several steps to do this with Nutanix Acropolis, and you need to use the command-line interface for most of the steps."

What is our primary use case?

We deployed Nutanix Acropolis for a school system in a recent use case. One of our clients uses Nutanix for three campus sites. They've implemented multi-site replication, so there is protection on the data center end. Another client is a hospital that uses Nutanix HCI for its medical systems, like PACS imaging servers. We also have clients in financial services and banking.

What is most valuable?

In addition to the hyper-converged infrastructure, most of our clients are pleased with Acropolis' built-in replication in terms of the DR setup. Our clients also like Prism Central's advanced management and analytics, and many find Nutanix Flow and playbooks incredibly useful.

What needs improvement?

Nutanix could streamline Acropolis' advanced management to keep pace with its competitors. For example, in VMware vSphere ESXi Hypervisor, you can directly put a host into maintenance mode via the GUI. However, it takes several steps to do this with Nutanix Acropolis, and you need to use the command-line interface for most of the steps.

We also faced another challenge in version 5.15. It wasn't easy to upgrade the firmware. You need to set permissions in your cluster to download it from the Nutanix repository and do it offline. After that, you need to create a dark-site web server and put all the repositories or installers to update there. However, I think they enabled upload mode in the new release, so you can download the firmware directly from the website and manually upload it. I haven't tried it yet, but that should be available in the latest version, according to the press release. 

I also think Nutanix Flow has some room for improvement. It currently only protects east-west traffic — like a mini firewall. You should be able to set a security policy that will let you disallow some ports and subnets. That's the only feature that Nutanix Flow lacks right now. Competing products like VMware NSX and Sangfor are more robust in security at the networking level. I think that's the crucial part, given the security concerns we face. It's not only on Layer 2 but down to Layer 3 and the routing aspects of networking.

For how long have I used the solution?

We're a Nutanix partner in the Philippines, and we've been working with Acropolis for around five years. We started in 2017.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In terms of stability and performance, Acropolis is excellent. We've never gotten any negative feedback from our users. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We've deployed Acropolis for clients of all sizes, but most are small or medium-sized businesses. Some are on the enterprise level. We have some major banks or financial service clients who also acquire Nutanix. 

How are customer service and support?

We offer different levels of support to our clients. When they experience a problem, they go directly to us. If we can answer the question, it's all good. However, we sometimes face a hardware or software issue, so we need to open a case with Nutanix or the hardware vendor.

Nutanix support is excellent. Their support engineers are well trained. But the resolution speed often comes down to the communication between Nutanix and their OEM partner. For example, if Nutanix support finds a problem with the hardware, they need to report it to the OEM vendor, so that can take time. But in terms of experience and skills, the Nutanix support specialists are outstanding.

How was the initial setup?

Deploying Acropolis is straightforward. I can implement it by myself in one day. 
After installation, we do some preventative maintenance, like checking the hardware and upgrading the firmware and software for the hypervisor as well as the OEM hardware, whether it's Dell, Supermicro, or Lenovo.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Acropolis is priced similarly to competing solutions. In my experience, as long as we have properly sized workloads on the Nutanix cluster, Nutanix's price can even be lower than other HCI brands. Some of the features are licensed separately from Nutanix Acropolis AOS. For example, Flow has a separate license. Nutanix Files and Objects are licensed per terabyte.

If you are thinking about implementing Acropolis, my advice would be to properly size your workload and forecast performance utilization so your sizing will be accurate and you can predict the cost.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Nutanix Acropolis AOS nine out of 10. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)
September 2023
Learn what your peers think about Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2023.
734,024 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Senior Manager at RP Sanjiv Goenka Group
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Stable and scalable solution for an HCI platform
Pros and Cons
  • "One of the most valuable features is how well this solution performs. It's stable, aside from some patch issues, but it's great from a virtualization and scalability perspective."
  • "The patch updates of Nutanix Acropolis could be improved. I'm work on the corporate side, but I get feedback from our IT team that patch updates and other updates are taking a significantly longer time. This definitely needs to be resolved. We are in discussion with Nutanix regarding certain configuration issues we are having, so maybe something can be changed to ease these patch updates."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is for moving to HCI architecture. We have plenty of applications which are mainly homegrown in a LAMP environment. We were looking into restructuring our DC and DR environment and moving from the Spark architecture to an Intel-based platform. We started with a sort of POC for some of those applications in the LAMP environment and moved them to HCI architecture, where they have been running for almost two years now. Now we want to move the rest of the applications into similar architecture so it can be auto-scaled. Since we are from a UPT industry, there are certain state-based and country-based regulations that limit our ability to move our data to the cloud. This is why we want an on-premises solution like Nutanix. Right now, Nutanix handles our virtualization and we use Dell for our servers. 

How has it helped my organization?

This solution has helped my company move to HCI architecture. 

What is most valuable?

One of the most valuable features is how well this solution performs. It's stable, aside from some patch issues, but it's great from a virtualization and scalability perspective. 

What needs improvement?

The patch updates of Nutanix Acropolis could be improved. I'm work on the corporate side, but I get feedback from our IT team that patch updates and other updates are taking a significantly longer time. This definitely needs to be resolved. We are in discussion with Nutanix regarding certain configuration issues we are having, so maybe something can be changed to ease these patch updates. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Nutanix Acropolis for almost one and a half years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This solution is stable, which is one of the reasons why we are looking to move our entire set of applications into this architecture. There are a couple of issues in terms of patch updates, but overall, the performance is good. Our IT deployment and infrastructure management team is comprised of five or six people, one manager and mostly engineers. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Since this solution is an HCI platform, it automatically scales. The only problem we are running into is that there is a significant amount of software licensing involved. There are approximately 500 to 1,000 people using this solution because one of our key CRM applications is running on it. 

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is quite good. They are proactive and take initiative when it comes to resolving issues. In India, things like these are handled through local channel partners, so I believe that Nutanix support works hand-in-hand with the local channel partner to resolve our day-to-day issues. 

How was the initial setup?

Installation is pretty straightforward. It was initially done by the vendor, but now we are adding more code and our in-house team handles those installations. 

What about the implementation team?

We initially implemented through a vendor team. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Our Nutanix license is for five years. There is a support arrangement there, but that aspect is more or less taken care of during the initial installation. 

With HCI architecture, whenever we do any kind of auto scaling or scaling of servers and resources, there is a significant amount of software licensing involved. This is getting a bit problematic for us, so we are looking into some sort of private cloud appliance of Oracle PCA architecture. A lot of applications that we have—ERP as well as custom developed software—have Oracle as the back end. This means that, for HCI, the number of server codes we are using increases each time we add new applications. Oracle licenses are based on code, so the scaling we do significantly impacts our overall TCO. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate this solution an eight out of ten. I recommend this solution to others, however, if you have Oracle Database or Oracle licensing in general, then you need to think about how many licenses will be required—based on that, your overall TCO may increase significantly. Otherwise, in terms of virtualization, scaling, etc., everything is fine. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Head Of Hardware Department at a university with 201-500 employees
Real User
Top 20
Simple installation, highly scalable, and central management easy to use
Pros and Cons
  • "The best feature of Nutanix Acropolis AOS is the central management of all of our resources. Additionally, it is easy to use"

    What is our primary use case?

    I use Nutanix Acropolis AOS to host all of our electronic services in the university, such as e-services, e-learning system, registration system, library system, finance system, HR system, and clinics.

    How has it helped my organization?

    Nutanix Acropolis AOS has helped our organization run a lot better by allowing us to manage everything from one single location.

    What is most valuable?

    The best feature of Nutanix Acropolis AOS is the central management of all of our resources. Additionally, it is easy to use

    What needs improvement?

    The solution has been more than enough at the moment to manage all of my services.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have used Nutanix Acropolis AOS within the past 12 months.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The solution is very stable at the moment.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Nutanix Acropolis AOS is highly scalable. This is the most important factor that we went to this technology.

    Every cloud distributer went to hyper-converged because of the scalability.

    All of our users have migrated to the new cloud, which is the new hosted at the university. We have approximately 2,000 students, 300 administrators employees, and 150 faculty members. The total is approximately 2,500 users using this solution. The university is still expanding, it is a young institute and we plan to increase usage of the solution.

    How are customer service and support?

    We are still new at using this technology, and till the moment, we did not have any problems. I think you cannot tell if there are any issues with the product for a couple of years. When we start to upgrade our framework, upgrade the main OS, we will see if then we might have issues. At this point as an administrator, everything has been stable, we do not need any support.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We were using Citrix for our servers previously. However, it is hard to compare to Citrix because it is a different technology.

    How was the initial setup?

    When comparing Nutanix Acropolis AOS installation to the traditional solution, you have to bring the servers, deploy the operating system, and then attach them to SAN storage. This newer solution was much easier than the old technique that we used, the installation is very straightforward.

    Once you start it up from out of the box you can start creating virtual machines and migrate your servers. It is very straightforward. The virtual concept is simple, you create the virtual machines and book the resources.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    The one disadvantage is relative, financially Nutanix Acropolis AOS is a little bit more expensive than the old solution.

    Nutanix owns the hosting, servers, and licenses. You purchase the whole product as a bundle,  and you can have support for it.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    We did our homework and we did study the technology in Nutanix Acropolis AOS before choosing it.

    What other advice do I have?

    We have contacted more than one partner regarding the hyper-converged system. They sent us their solution from HP, for instance, they have their own hyper-converged system. They are using the DL Series DL380 and I went back to Gartner reports and other review sites, and then compared the specs to others. There is a hyper-converged solution from Dell but I think the leader in this technology right now is Nutanix. It is important to do a proof of concept.

    The Patriarchate that owns the university is also in charge of multiple educational institutions. What we are thinking is to migrate all our services, to have our own private cloud, instead of being hosted separately into multiple hosts in our university. That's why we are planning to increase our nodes and to move all of the nodes, and all of the e-services related to our institute, inside our campus.

    My advice to others is this solution is great and I highly recommend it. It's much better than the other technology or the deployed traditional solutions.

    I rate Nutanix Acropolis AOS a ten out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Giovanni SHOLAY - PeerSpot reviewer
    System Engineer at MUA`
    Real User
    Top 20
    Easy to manage with a centralized dashboard and fast restore capabilities
    Pros and Cons
    • "The solution is very stable. We haven't had any issues."
    • "It does not have good backup feature tools, like having templates or being able to back up every two or three days."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use the solution in a growing industry where the expansion of servers is critical. The expansion power is pretty accomplished. I can add a node or change hardware easily.

    How has it helped my organization?

    The web application on the servers has been a game changer. It was expensive before. It used to be a headache. It used to take weeks if we had a crash. Now, we can fix everything and put everything as it was within hours. 

    What is most valuable?

    The management is very easy. You can see everything within a single platform to manage your databases. Everything is there on a single dashboard. 

    NCI's features helped our organization reduce downtime greatly. We use it effectively for replication as well. 

    The ability to restore within seconds is great. It takes a few seconds to rewind back to a previous marker and have everything up and running again. 

    We migrated other services over to Nutanix. For example, we migrated over from Microsoft Hyper-V. This allows us to manage everything from one single platform and to save on licenses. We no longer have to license all of these different types of hardware. 

    It's easy to launch on demand if you are using a newer OS. 

    What needs improvement?

    The feature that is lacking right now is the backup. It does not have good backup feature tools, like having templates or being able to back up every two or three days. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've been using the solution for almost five years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The solution is very stable. We haven't had any issues. 

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    We have the solution in one central location. Everyone connects to it remotely. the number of end users fluctuates. It could be 200 to 300 users. 

    It's very easy to scale. It's the main reason we chose it. It's easy to add nodes and resources. 

    How are customer service and support?

    They assign you according to the time you call. If I'm calling after hours, I'll be assigned to someone in another country.

    How would you rate customer service and support?

    Positive

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We used to use XenServer, Hyper-V, and vSphere among other solutions. We decided to consolidate everything under one console to save on licensing and having to check multiple places. It makes manageability and the ability to extend easier. 

    How was the initial setup?

    I was involved with the deployment. There were five people involved. The deployment itself was pretty straightforward. That said, it did take some time. We gradually moved the servers. We kept both operating to make sure everything was running, then moved off the older servers slowly.

    In the case of hardware failures, we'd inform the supplier. Otherwise, the software is upgraded every six months. There is very little maintenance required beyond that. 

    What about the implementation team?

    We did use a reseller to assist us with the initial setup. Our experience with them was very positive. 

    What was our ROI?

    We can easily provision servers and add nodes on the fly without shutting down. There are no limitations either, beyond having the proper licensing. It's the easy extension of resources where we see the ROI. 

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    They were pretty aggressive coming into the market and the solution started as a cheap option, however, the price is now going up as they mature. 

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    We looked into Simplivity. The main difference was the cost between the two options. 

    What other advice do I have?

    I'd rate the solution nine out of ten overall. 

    I'd advise people to try it out. However, ensure that you lock in your price over the next three to five years so that incremental changes do not affect your contract.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Hybrid Cloud

    If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

    Microsoft Azure
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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    PeerSpot user
    IS Assistant Manager at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees
    Real User
    An all-in-one solution that reduces our footprint and provides ease of management
    Pros and Cons
    • "It is all-in-one. The compute processing, storage, and network altogether make it convenient. We don't have to have different modules for expansion."
    • "I would like to see them utilize the spare storage that they use as a redundant space. I feel that now a lot of resources are wasted just for standby purposes because we are using data protection. Instead of utilizing those resources only when something happens, they can have an alternative so that we can utilize these resources all the time."

    What is our primary use case?

    It is primarily used as our data management application. It is for data management and storage.

    How has it helped my organization?

    It has greatly reduced our footprint because it is all-in-one. It is a hyper-converged technology. So, in a way, it reduces our server room footprint and provides ease of management.

    What is most valuable?

    It is all-in-one. The compute processing, storage, and network altogether make it convenient. We don't have to have different modules for expansion.

    What needs improvement?

    They have improved over the years. They can probably improve more of their software offerings or their innovative upcoming technology.

    I would like to see them utilize the spare storage that they use as a redundant space. I feel that now a lot of resources are wasted just for standby purposes because we are using data protection. Instead of utilizing those resources only when something happens, they can have an alternative so that we can utilize these resources all the time.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using this solution for the past two to three years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    It is stable.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    I believe there is no limit to scalability. The only weak point is that Nutanix is basically a software company. They are very dependent on the hardware and vendor, and because the hardware is always moving ahead quite fast, they are having difficulty in catching up with the technology. If I'm going to scale my current Nutanix cluster, I may have an issue with the newer hardware because it may not be compatible with the older hardware that I already have. That is one of the issues we encountered, but we still manage to sort out the licensing and the hardware requirements with our partners and Nutanix.

    In terms of usage, basically, our whole company uses it because it is our central data storage. It is being used quite extensively. We upgraded just recently.

    How are customer service and support?

    Their technical support is good. Their communication is good, and their technical knowledge is good. The time they take to get back to us is also good.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We were using another solution. I believe we switched because Nutanix provides the failover capability for RPO and RTO. It means RPO and RTO are close to zero because we have the failover data protection from Nutanix as well.

    How was the initial setup?

    I have support from vendors, so it was not too complex for us. We actually enjoy a good supporting and working relationship with Nutanix.

    It was actually quite a straightforward implementation because it was a brand new setup. The migrations were done by our application team and infra team. The complex portion was that they are very dependent on how the network was being set up. Prior to that, our network infrastructure was quite old, so some of the requirements were not met in the first place, but we managed to sort things out.

    What about the implementation team?

    We used an integrator. We work with a partner. They help us to deploy it.

    We have internal staff for its deployment and maintenance. We need two people.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    We got the renewal done recently, and there was no cost involved.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    The only comparison was VMware site replication. 

    What other advice do I have?

    I would advise having a good and stable network base. Mine is on-prem, and I'm not sure what is the requirement for the cloud solution, but for on-prem, make sure that the network infrastructure is very stable, and there are no hops or drops from the network. It needs a very stable network.

    I would rate Nutanix Acropolis AOS an eight out of 10.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Owner at a computer software company with 1-10 employees
    Reseller
    Our customers have consolidated all external data in Nutanix clusters, reducing footprint and power consumption
    Pros and Cons
    • "The snapshots, cloning, and replication are all effective in helping to reduce downtime. It can replicate cluster data for disaster recovery and it provides high availability in case a node or a disk fails."
    • "They could improve the graphical user interface."

    What is our primary use case?

    One of the municipalities in Istanbul uses it for virtual servers in their data centers. They have about 150 virtual servers.

    How has it helped my organization?

    Before Nutanix, our customers were using VMware with external storage from HPE, IBM, and others. They have been able to consolidate all the external data in the Nutanix clusters. That has reduced their server footprint as well as power consumption, which is important for the environment.

    Nutanix has a very rich feature set and product solutions that are good for our customers. Instead of using different types of solutions, Nutanix covers all of them. That is a very big advantage. Often, to get the best feature sets, you need a lot of vendors, each one having different products. Vendor management, in that case, is difficult. But with Nutanix, everything comes from the same vendor, making vendor management easy.

    What is most valuable?

    There are a lot of features but the main ones are related to storage. Nutanix provides a software-defined storage solution for virtual servers.

    It also has a lot of available services when it comes to infrastructure, and our customers use most of them. It provides a redundant set of data. The snapshots, cloning, and replication are all effective in helping to reduce downtime. It can replicate cluster data for disaster recovery and it provides high availability in case a node or a disk fails. Nutanix's availability feature set is bigger than that of other solutions.

    What needs improvement?

    They could improve the graphical user interface. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been working with Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure for two years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    It is a robust and very stable solution.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    It's also very scalable.

    How are customer service and support?

    They are very responsive and provide quick resolutions.

    How would you rate customer service and support?

    Positive

    How was the initial setup?

    The setup is automated and very easy. The time it takes to deploy depends on the project, but in most cases it will take several hours. One person is enough to do the deployment.

    Our deployment is on a private cloud, but you can use public cloud because Nutanix has agreements with Azure, Amazon, and other public cloud services.

    In terms of maintenance, it's easy to update Nutanix because you can download hardware/firmware upgrade sets and deploy all of them. I worked with VMware for at least 15 years. You can upgrade VMware products, but you can't upgrade hardware firmware with VMware. You need to contact the hardware vendor or support sites. They are separate things. But with Nutanix, you can deploy hardware firmware and software updates together.

    It is also very easy to add compute and storage on demand with Nutanix. You can put a disk into an empty slot and, in several minutes, it's working.

    In addition, you can get training very easily with Nutanix University and there are certifications. When you complete Nutanix University courses, they provide free certification exams. If I can compare it with VMware, I attended a conference and I passed a VMware certificate exam, but they didn't give me a certificate and said I had to attend a VMware class that costs about $2,500.

    What was our ROI?

    Our customers see ROI with Nutanix. Using it, they have very efficient infrastructures. They benefit from the reduced footprint, lower power consumption, and easy management. It also gives them efficient data storage with compression, deduplication, and easy snapshot features to reduce the data footprint. All of these things make it worth the licensing costs.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    It's a bit expensive, but it's worth it.

    What other advice do I have?

    Nutanix has a lot of products and solutions to provide a complete cloud-integrated infrastructure. Our customers use some of them, but not all of them.

    My advice is to use Nutanix, without hesitation.

    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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    PeerSpot user
    Faisal Shaheen - PeerSpot reviewer
    Systems Administration Manager at Elsewedy Technology
    Real User
    Top 5
    Flow Network Security for microsegmentation helps with security, and scaling is very easy
    Pros and Cons
    • "The most valuable aspect of Nutanix is the performance of the storage, which is excellent. And controlling compute, storage, the network, and security all together in one box is very efficient for us. It gives us a single platform to manage our all infrastructure."
    • "They need to improve the look and feel of the interface. The functionality is fine, but the appearance could be better."

    What is our primary use case?

    We have four Nutanix clusters at different sites and we are using it as our hyper-converged infrastructure solution.

    How has it helped my organization?

    By using more than one cluster, if any node is down, the VMs can be moved to a remaining node, and that helps us to work without any downtime. A node can be moved, online, to another node, which minimizes downtime as much as possible.

    Flow Network Security for microsegmentation also helps in maintaining security. For example, we can protect servers with policies between an application server and a database server.

    Previously we had our own storage, stand-alone servers, and stand-alone network. For any new project, it would take us at least six months until we could provide a new server. Now, when we have a new product, we can avoid that long wait and provide a server in hours. 

    We have also moved all our servers to Nutanix and have been able to eliminate our legacy servers and infrastructure.

    And it keeps our IT staff informed by email regarding any error or alert. They log in and get a full view of all our servers, including memory, storage, and CPU usage. It helps our IT staff to be more productive.

    What is most valuable?

    The most valuable aspect of Nutanix is the performance of the storage, which is excellent. And controlling compute, storage, the network, and security all together in one box is very efficient for us. It gives us a single platform to manage all our infrastructure.

    It's so easy to configure anything on Nutanix. We have had Nutanix for more than five years and all our products are on it. It's really easy to manage them. We can monitor our servers and get notified if there is any issue with a server and correct it before a problem happens.

    What needs improvement?

    They need to improve the look and feel of the interface. The functionality is fine, but the appearance could be better.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    We have been using Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) for five years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    It's very stable. We haven't had any issues with Nutanix.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    It's so easy to scale out or scale in our infrastructure.

    How are customer service and support?

    If we have any issue, we contact their support and they solve it within the SLA time. They are very helpful and respond to us as soon as possible.

    How would you rate customer service and support?

    Positive

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We had another solution, VxRail. We did a comparison between Dell VxRail and Nutanix and we found that Nutanix is more compatible with our organization.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial deployment was easy.

    We installed Nutanix in multiple locations: at three sites in Egypt and one in Indonesia. We have the main site and a DR site in Egypt. There are three people on our IT team who administer the four clusters.

    We have had to do maintenance on the hard disk two times in the last four years. And upgrading our Nutanix servers takes one click. We have upgraded our firmware and AHV and it is so easy. It's also very easy to add compute and storage. We just click to expand a cluster and add new nodes.

    What was our ROI?

    Nutanix has helped us to reduce the cost of the operations in our company.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    The price of Nutanix is lower than other products.

    What other advice do I have?

    My advice is to purchase Nutanix. It will help with your infrastructure.

    Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: September 2023
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.