Nutanix extends customer choice with cloud-like consumption model

Nutanix announced that its Enterprise Cloud Platform software will be available as a term-based license for deployment on Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) ProLiant rackmount servers and Cisco UCS B-series blade servers, adding to previously announced support for the Cisco UCS C-series platform. With this announcement, Nutanix is responding to the growing demand from large enterprises and service providers for a more flexible way to consume its leading Enterprise Cloud Platform software, while creating new opportunities for its go-to-market ecosystem of channel and system integrator partners.

These new supported hardware options will broaden the deployment potential of Nutanix beyond newly purchased appliances from the company or its global OEM partners, Dell and Lenovo, to the millions of HPE ProLiant and Cisco UCS servers already in use inside corporate and cloud data centers. The Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform will soon be available either as an integrated Nutanix- or OEM-branded appliance or installed as software-only on qualified third-party x86 platforms from companies who Nutanix considers to be four of the largest enterprise server vendors, who collectively account for more than 52% of the global server market based on shipment units and who have sold more than 5 million servers in 20161.

Enterprise cloud builders need flexibility and choice of hardware platforms while maintaining a consistent and agile operating environment. Customers will enjoy the optionality of deploying newly licensed Nutanix software-only entitlements on qualified HPE or Cisco servers while also retaining the option to transfer their software-only entitlements to another qualified third-party platform, including additional x86 servers anticipated to be validated at a later date. This flexibility mitigates the risk of hardware commoditization while maximizing the value of their Nutanix software-only licenses.

Beyond hardware options, cloud builders also need the ability to mix consumption models when building and scaling their cloud environments. To this end, Nutanix also announced a new program named Nutanix Go, which can deliver enterprise cloud infrastructure using operating budgets and allow for flexible scaling up or down of infrastructure. This program will align the purchasing experience of public clouds, allowing customers to break free of long-term capital budget commitments.

As the de facto infrastructure choice for more than 5,300 customers across 100+ countries, Nutanix will provide the most choices of both hardware and consumption models when building Enterprise Clouds. Datacenter teams can define the right hardware and procurement model for the business and still get the same consumer-grade operational experience across their entire infrastructure. This data center-wide OS is the culmination of eight years of advanced development to build a hardware independent, web-scale software architecture that is API-driven and supports virtually all workloads, including virtualized, container-based and bare metal.

Consuming Nutanix as Software

Enterprise cloud builders and Nutanix go-to-market channel and SI partners require a complete abstraction between the operating system and underlying hardware, enabling fast qualification and testing of new server platforms. Nutanix’s ability to rapidly support an expanding portfolio of partner and third-party hardware platforms is the payoff from its substantial investment in an advanced one-click hardware qualification package, named Metis, that automates the deployment, testing and scaling of Nutanix software for off-the-shelf x86 platforms.

The freedom to choose the right hardware platform extends well beyond initial installation to the full infrastructure lifecycle. For example, new software-driven features implemented in any layer of the software stack – including Nutanix software, Nutanix Prism management, hypervisor software, BIOS and platform firmware – can be put into production directly using Prism’s one-click update capability. The ongoing health of hardware platforms can be automatically monitored via Nutanix Cluster Checks (NCC) software plug-ins. And as datacenter designs evolve, new Nutanix software-only entitlements can be freely transferred to other qualified third-party platforms for maximum flexibility, and to prevent expensive hardware lock-in that can degrade business agility.

Regardless of the qualified platform chosen, Nutanix’s award-winning Global Support teams will handle first-call support incidents, complementing existing support and maintenance contracts customers have with their chosen hardware manufacturer.

New Economic Consumption Option with Nutanix Go Pricing

CIOs across industries struggle to make accurate long-term IT investment decisions when their business is increasingly unpredictable as a result of digital transformation. The rigidity of purchasing critical infrastructure via traditional capital budgeting is giving way to more flexible methods that can leverage quarterly IT operating budgets. Opex, as opposed to capex, can reduce overall financial risk and provide CIOs and CFOs with much needed business agility.

Nutanix Go pricing expands customer’s economic consumption options, enabling IT leaders to build Enterprise Clouds using operating budgets, with highly flexible terms as short as six months. For the first time, organizations can acquire Nutanix infrastructure when they need it – scaling up their data center to meet peak demand, while scaling down the infrastructure to reduce expenses. IT projects no longer need to be locked into the typical three to five-year IT refresh cycles or moved to a public cloud just to gain financial flexibility.

Nutanix plans to make its Enterprise Cloud Platform software available for new and existing HPE ProLiant servers by Q4 calendar 2017. Specific models and supported server configurations will be announced at the time of availability. Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform software for Cisco UCS B-Series Blades is available now as a tech preview with general availability this quarter. Nutanix software entitlement pricing will be based on term length, and will include Nutanix Global Support services. Nutanix Go pricing is available now for certain Nutanix NX appliances to qualified U.S. customers, with international availability coming at a later date.