Nutanix Database Service Reviews

My use cases for Nutanix Database Service are replicated databases between different data centers, and we use it to deploy and protect the databases.

The ability to provision databases themselves has positively affected developer productivity because they don't need to wait for more than a couple of hours; they can perform changes and evolve the product, installing the necessary database in the ecosystem, including Oracle and even PostgreSQL, which is faster than Oracle. It saves a lot of time.

We are currently using Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, and MongoDB. It's amazing because it saves a lot of time in terms of the backup and the patching process. It takes consistent backups while the database is running, and seamlessly with one click, you have the backup, meaning if something goes wrong, you just go back as a snapshot, saving a lot of time.

Nutanix Database Service helps us scale our database deployment. It allows us to add more resources to the database, expand the memory, CPU, and storage, all just by clicks, which is beneficial. It impacts our operations positively.

Nutanix Database Service has helped automate database admin tasks. Previously, everything was done manually. They no longer need to manually check if a particular patch is compatible with the database engine. It automatically checks compatibility and applies patches, providing a GUI for seeing all the patches installed and saving a lot of time.

Using Nutanix Database Service has definitely reduced the time it takes to provision a database. They don't have to do tasks one by one. They can do everything from the GUI. They can manage all the databases from the dashboard. They don't have to manually check each database. It saves a lot of time.

It allows the developers and DBAs to focus on the important aspects of the database, improving it, and analyzing queries. Even with high-quality hardware, improperly configured queries can collapse resources, so they can focus on those improvements.

What I appreciate the most about Nutanix Database Service is that it's simple; it's all in one bundle, and everything is pre-configured so that you can deploy your database and protect it. It's autonomous, needing a few clicks and a few pre-configurations.

It saves a lot of time. It also gives the capability to export JSON commands.

It has already saved me a lot of time, but it can still improve. In the past, there were built-in templates, and now, for some particular databases, I have to create my own templates and push them to NDB, so bringing back those templates would save more time.

I have been using Nutanix Database Service for one year.

There are zero problems regarding the stability and reliability of the platform.

Nutanix Database Service scales perfectly with the growing needs of my company. If we need to add more databases, we can manage it seamlessly, and it even integrates with another server in a different data center, replicating databases and allowing full management capabilities.

The technical support has been awesome. When we faced issues in the deployment, we opened a case, and the support team investigated deeply to resolve the problems. They also implemented fixes in new versions based on bugs we encountered.

Positive

We were using other vendors such as Veritas, which had powerful tools for replicating databases, but this solution has become the centerpiece of our projects because of everything being built in, with a single point of management in Prism Central.

It took a little bit of time to deploy the appliance. The marketplace is a lot more mature now than when we deployed it.

We haven't seen a tangible return on investment yet. The recommendation came from our partner, who studied our case and suggested this product. While initially there was some uncertainty, time savings have been the biggest return, which saves money.

It is amazing. The pricing compared to the time saved is nothing. It's worth the cost.

I would rate Nutanix Database Service a ten out of ten. It changed the way we deploy and maintain databases.

Our team is the infrastructure team, managing and deploying the database for the database team. We have a requirement for a large database that is very important in the environment, and the DBA team was concerned about losing data. That is the use case for which we purchased the product.

The cloning technology has been beneficial in reducing backup times. Over 6 or 7 terabytes of data takes several days, maybe a week. With the cloning technology in Nutanix Database Service, the time reduces to less than an hour, which is very useful.

As Nutanix Database Service has reduced the time it takes to provision databases, it gives us time to do other things rather than work on minute tasks. We can do things that really matter and help the customer in the long run. With everything nowadays becoming automated, this is definitely a solution we have enjoyed using.

When it comes to automation, Nutanix Database Service definitely makes patching easier because you can clone one and then use Time Machine. We can perform all those tasks via Nutanix Database Service instead of having to fail over manually, patch, and fail back.

I appreciate being able to provision a database quickly from our side. We provision it and hand it off. It makes work much easier. Previously, it would take a week or two to do the same in a traditional way, whereas now, it gets completed within about an hour.

Sometimes the DBAs provision it themselves, but they're not very well trained on it yet. They either don't want to do it or might be apprehensive, so they're not doing as much as they should be. However, they are getting more involved gradually. It may also be that the database we're using is really important, and they don't want to risk breaking anything.

It is fast to do the provisioning because everything is done from base templates. As long as you have a template that is updated periodically, it just creates a mirror.

I don't have a comprehensive answer because we're not utilizing it extensively. The only improvement I would suggest is making the template creation and updating process more straightforward and automated.

I have been using Nutanix Database Service for about two years.

Once you set it up correctly and know that it's there, as long as you're not trying to upgrade anything, it works as intended. We haven't had issues with it. The only times you may encounter something is if you're trying to upgrade with mismatches in software versions. Nutanix has features that provide pre-checks to help ensure what you're attempting is supported.

We haven't done much scaling out yet because there hasn't been much need, and we're still working with the initial implementations.

Overall, Nutanix support is fantastic, and I would rate it a nine out of ten. You might get one or two representatives who are hard to work with, but mostly, everybody is super helpful and fantastic. It is one of the better support teams in the industry.

With vendors of other technologies, it can take days, whereas with Nutanix, it usually takes hours. 

Positive

There were a few challenges. We had to have a Nutanix engineer helping us with the engagement and going back and forth a few times. It had to do with the way it was provisioned initially. It was giving us a hard time because it wasn’t set up as per the recommendations.

The setup involved a two-week engagement with one of the Nutanix Database Service specialists, and it was good. In terms of management, that has helped tremendously because earlier, patching-wise, we were doing the manual work. We used to have a lot of sleepless nights because a lot of the work had to be done after hours, so we've saved time in that part as well.

The setup times have reduced from two weeks to maybe half a day. 

I wasn't involved much with the pricing and setup costs and licenses. The pricing was as expected.

We didn't consider other solutions because this was something we recommended to our database team, and they immediately appreciated it. We're a big Nutanix shop, and when we recommended this to the DBA team, they accepted our recommendation. It was the only solution they saw, and they were impressed with it, resulting in a purchase a month later.

If money is not a factor, I would advise other companies to go for Nutanix Database Service because it's not inexpensive. It is a great solution.

I would rate Nutanix Database Service an eight out of ten. I'm sure there are things Nutanix can fix and is working on in the background, but we're not using it to its fullest capacity. It fits our use case.

My main use case for Nutanix Database Service is to provide faster deployment of databases to the business.

This has benefited my company by providing a faster turnaround time with quicker deployments. Instead of waiting one to two weeks for a new database service to be up and running, it takes only a couple of days. Our turnaround time has improved tremendously.

Our database administrators use the solution to provision or refresh databases directly from their development environment. The ability to provision databases themselves allows for faster execution. When the business users need new databases to be provisioned, they usually request the database team. There is a faster turnaround time through the portal interface and the automation behind the scenes.

It expedites the turnaround time, allowing us to be flexible. We are able to provide the business with a product that they need right away, and we're also able to scale it as their requirements change. We're also able to introduce recovery options that would have required more effort, but now the Nutanix Database Service allows for seamless integration, all fully automated. It doesn't overcomplicate the timeline process.

It has helped us to automate database admin tasks. This automation affects the types of tasks my DBAs are now able to do because they don't need to worry about waiting for the servers to be built and the applications to be installed, whether it's Oracle or SQL. They go right into the system. With a few clicks, they have something readily available. It then allows them to customize the database for the business or for the application, include indexes or any particular tasks that the business requires, and do custom coding for the actual development. They're able to work on that more quickly than waiting several days before the system is actually ready.

What I appreciate the most about Nutanix Database Service is the standardization and ease of deployment. It makes it easier for the database administrators to deploy without either the database administrator or the business needing all their staff and waiting a long period of time to have their request fulfilled.

Using Nutanix Database Service has reduced the time it takes to provision the database. It takes just a couple of days. When we plan a project, we typically define a few weeks for database server buildouts. That would entail the building, the initiation of the server builds, the deployment of the database application of choice, and then the customization of the database. With Nutanix Database Service, we're able to templatize these offerings. The deployment is a lot faster, which allows the DBAs to perform their tasks more quickly. Instead of waiting for weeks, it's just a matter of days for that turnaround.

One of the things that we've discovered specific to SQL is that the deployment options that are available do not match our company standards, so we have asked the Nutanix team if that is something that is customizable or if we need to adjust our deployment strategy. That's the only thing that we've discovered so far.

I have been using Nutanix Database Service for two weeks.

The stability and reliability of Nutanix Database Service are evident in its easy deployment and simple product design. We've tested the backup of the appliance with our backup technology. We're able to restore it, and so far, we haven't had any issues. It's not a redundant set of appliances; it's a single, simple standard appliance to deploy. Because of its simple nature, it's very easy to replicate and very easy to recover from backup if necessary.

Nutanix Database Service scales effectively. The product itself is a single appliance, but the usage will scale based on our business needs. As the business needs increase, it's very easy to just add more Nutanix clusters, and we would just define those clusters within Nutanix Database Service.

We've been working with the Nutanix professional services team, and they've been very helpful in deployment and use. They were able to provide great training to our database administrators so that they were comfortable using it. They explained how to use it with our Oracle databases and also provided training on how to use it with SQL. The support team was there to answer all the DBA questions on tweaking, scaling, and feature sets, so they've been great.

I would give them a ten out of ten.

Positive

We weren't aware of any other solutions before choosing Nutanix Database Service. As we started our Nutanix journey, this was showcased to us, and we really didn't know that this existed. It is available in the cloud, which helps mimic what we do today in the cloud and certain types of initiatives. We appreciate the speed and automation that the platform provides, allowing us to do the same on-premises. This is the first solution of its kind that we are using.

Deployment was very easy. We worked with the professional services team at Nutanix. They were able to assist in getting NDB up and running. It was very simple, very straightforward, and not complex at all. This makes the product even that much more valuable. It's easy to deploy, easy to configure, so it's not overly complicated, because sometimes when you have overly complicated solutions, they are hard to maintain and use. Nutanix Database Service has been very simple and straightforward from the beginning, from deployment to actual use cases. It has been great for us.

The biggest return on investment I've seen while using Nutanix Database Service is its flexibility on multiple database applications. We have the flexibility for Oracle, SQL, and some other databases that we currently do not support, but are being asked to support. Having Nutanix Database Service as our platform would allow us to adopt or deploy these new databases just as quickly, without having much of a learning curve.

Pricing wasn't a surprise. It was what we were expecting it to be. 

I would rate Nutanix Database Service overall a ten out of ten, considering the simple nature of the solution, what it does, and is able to provide to the business. We can turn around and provide them a requirement faster than we were before. That's always been one of the issues for us within IT as we've grown in size. We're always scaling up and scaling out, but some of the processes didn't improve. This totally revamped our capabilities in provisioning databases. The business has been ecstatic over the quick turnaround time for any databases. So, it's been a great product.