Densify vs Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) comparison

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Densify Logo
795 views|581 comparisons
80% willing to recommend
Nutanix Logo
1,152 views|398 comparisons
95% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Densify and Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM, Microsoft, VMware and others in Cloud Cost Management.
To learn more, read our detailed Cloud Cost Management Report (Updated: March 2024).
768,578 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"One would be the automatic rebalancing of the environment. That was one feature which helped. With that, we could improve our efficiency of our VMware infrastructure.""The Control Console provides a very easy to read dashboard of "too little/just right/too much" resources both for current data and on a historical or predictive basis.""The Densify Control Console, and Environment Status.""I would say that the initial thing is that it provides us with a technological basis to expand capacity management beyond Excel.""The Control Console is an incredible way to give a quick view of current capacity utilization allowing technical people to drill down quickly and allowing business/management people to get a quick overview of the environment.""The solution's tech support is excellent.""The ability to increase server density inside of my environment, which has helped me drive reduction in costs.""Densify's ability to aggregate multiple on-premise vCenters and multiple cloud accounts, gives it a level of visibility not found in many places."

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"The fact that these are non-technical people — they're experts in their fields but they're definitely not technical — and they can just log in to the portal and select the resource that they believe they need, and manage it themselves, speaks to the ease of use. It shows them their live costs, etc., as they're spending. The fact that they can do that without any problems, or having to engage the IT teams, is a true testament to it. There's no need for any user training at all.""We use Calm's one-click self-service feature and it's really transforming the team's efficiency. The teams are used to being reactive, which is typical of what you find in IT organizations and service providers. Customers run into problems and teams react. What we're trying to do is reduce that slope and be more proactive in approach. The one-click ability is enabling us to take some of those activities and put them into operation, versus people manually responding.""The most valuable feature of Nutanix Cloud Manager is the flexibility we're finding in expanding our technology and our support.""Nutanix Cloud Manager Intelligent Operations has multi-cloud capability, allowing users to switch between cloud providers or vendors without incurring egress or movement fees.""Using X-Play is simple. In three steps you can define things and there is also a wizard to guide you... The wizard is the simplest way to automate and the resulting automation saves us time.""It's easily expandable storage-wise and compute-wise.""What I found most valuable in Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) is the one-click upgrade and the analytics it can provide for hyper-converged infrastructure.""utanix Prism Pro provides robust upgrading Nutanix clusters mechanism that has long been a delightful experience delivered via one-click upgrades. The one-click process hides a lot of complexity by using advanced automation and consumer-grade design experience."

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Cons
"Some parts of the interface are rather complex and require a bit of time to navigate, but this has never stopped us as a Densify advisor is readily available to help with our "how to" queries.""Unfortunately the tools and mechanisms which really came to maturity in the cloud, and were not mainstream on-premise, are still not implemented.""The solution's stability is the primary concern for me.""A closer integration to the service management processes.""Normalization of CPU utilization is required. At present, the data is available based on entitlement level.""Initially we talked about some custom reporting, wherein our customer expected certain reports on a few areas, like how the storage is allocated, how the network performance is doing, and how the network utilization is happening for a virtual machine.""In terms of integration, the tool has great data. However, it's not always meaningful because the true business attributes of how most Fortune 500 companies operate are not maintaining in one tool, they're in a school of many tools.""It seems that the mechanism for integration is, it goes so far but I think there could be some standard integration to normal remedy service now etc. I think that should be out of the box."

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"The solution could be more user-friendly.""Few systems are not business-critical, but they run 24/7.""I do, however, wish that the cluster would come preinstalled with the OS, as ours did not, and it took quite a bit of tinkering, trial and error, calls to Nutanix support, and an ample amount of time to figure out how to get everything up and running.""One thing that comes directly to mind is how they manage version control. I would love to see Calm create a built-in source control feature, one that we could tie into a repository and it would self-manage changes in versions. All the version control is built within Calm right now. I would love to see that integrated with an external repository and make it easy to tie it into GitHub or Git repositories.""Recently, I have had quite a few issues with Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT). When you do a full update from LCM, your NGT doesn't automatically install on your VMs. You need to go back to Prism Central and select a list of VMs, then install NGT. You need to go to each of those VMs, then restart them to get the NGT installed. Also, there are some VMs that we have on our system that we used to run on an old environment, which was Hyper-V. Previously, we had VMware, so some of our VMs are Windows 7 32-bit and Windows 7 64-bit. However, the NGT no longer allows for installations on those.""Currently, users can only attach a new ISO to their VMs for a partial reinstall, but a full reinstall feature is unfortunately unavailable.""There's the split between Prism Central and Prism Element and having to know which interface I need to get into to do certain feature sets or just having to switch between those having all the feature sets available under for some central, area would be my biggest ask. They've been moving towards that more and more.""The support provided after office hours could use some improvement."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Setup cost is negligible, as it scales fairly well."
  • "Cost is always involved, but then I feel that this solution is better than other products that we have."
  • "Densify has licensing setup so you can collect data without licensing. It gives you the ability to collect on everything, then choose later what you would like to license."
  • "There was some sticker shock, as this is not just another software product to spit out graphs."
  • More Densify Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Nutanix has good central management tools where one guy can manage the entire system. Looking at other systems, I need a guy to manage the servers and another guy to manage the cell network and storage. I need a bigger team for other solutions compared to Nutanix where I can use a small team and reduce my operations to manage the cluster. Sometimes what you hear with this solution is, "It is so expensive," but the cost and benefits that Nutanix has inside are really good."
  • "Some people say that Nutanix is a bit more expensive. However, when we were looking at Nutanix versus Cisco and NetApp before deploying this solution, the prices were very similar. Being a government entity, we got a bit more of a discount on Nutanix so it was a bit cheaper. The time savings after the fact has been really worth it."
  • "Prism Pro is a bit more upfront. It costs a bit more for some of the features that you get. We have four clusters, and two of them don't have Prism Pro because they weren't even available with what we bought. Those two clusters also run well, but they don't have all the features."
  • "It's cost-effective. It's not necessarily cheap, but it's also not inordinately expensive. It comes down to how much you use it to offset some of the costs."
  • "Don't unlicense your Prism licensing. Pro is the strict minimum for real infrastructure. Go with at least Pro and not with the starter. Ultimate was the best choice for me."
  • "I think it can be more cost-effective."
  • "While the product may seem to be more expensive at first, it ultimately pays for itself within a short time frame due to the hours saved on maintenance."
  • "The solution is a bit high in price for what we are receiving as features. I feel they are overcharging us at approximately 25 percent. That is something that they should change."
  • More Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The solution's tech support is excellent.
    Top Answer:Densify is not a stable tool. Every time the support gets investigated, it takes much time to get refreshed.
    Top Answer:We are using Densify to produce reports and to get recommendations that can contribute to the area of our expertise.
    Top Answer:For me, the features related to cost savings are the best part of NCM. Of course, the whole product is worth using and when it comes to cloud management, there is a reason why it is favored by so… more »
    Top Answer:When I came into my current organization, NCM was already set up. According to the team that dealt with it, the product was fairly easy to set up. Compared to other products, our IT rates are set up… more »
    Top Answer:Yes, this is a highly effective feature and the rebranding only made things better as they introduced more improvements. You can benefit from Zero coding task automation Automated optimization… more »
    Ranking
    8th
    Views
    795
    Comparisons
    581
    Reviews
    1
    Average Words per Review
    342
    Rating
    6.0
    4th
    Views
    1,152
    Comparisons
    398
    Reviews
    41
    Average Words per Review
    896
    Rating
    8.8
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Nutanix Cloud Manager Intelligent Operations, Nutanix Cloud Manager Self-Service, Nutanix Cloud Management Cost Governance, Nutanix Cloud Manager Security Central
    Learn More
    Overview

    Densify is a hybrid cloud and container resource management platform that makes workloads self-aware of their precise resource requirements and automates the resource management and selection process. This solution helps you control your cloud spend and also helps your apps perform and scale better. Densify enables you to match your cloud requirements with the optimal cloud supply. Additionally, Densify is the only technology that leverages patented, predictive machine learning-powered analytics to perform advanced modeling of workload patterns, and provide precise optimization directives. It is ideal for cloud engineers, container platform owners, and IT finance.

    Densify works by:

    • Establishing application demand patterns that are based on business cycles, seasonality, peaks, valleys, and other variables.

    • Building normalized models of cloud supply and ingesting the entire cloud catalog and latest technologies.

    • Considering numerous factors, such as performance benchmarks, cost, technical rules, tags, and policies. The solution uses business and functional tags, operational realities, and granular policy control.

    Densify Features

    Densify has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Integration with management and provisioning systems
    • Machine learning-based analytics
    • Automated resource optimization
    • App owner collaboration
    • Tailored efficiency reports
    • Observability
    • Controllability
    • Capacity optimization
    • Policy driven, automated governance
    • VM placement
    • Predictive analytics

    Densify Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing Densify. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Automated resource management: Densify provides your organization with automated resource management at scale, with elasticity at an affordable low cost.
    • Full stack visibility: The Densify solution offers full stack visibility with improved efficiency by determining container size and node resources.
    • Financial visibility: In addition to full stack visibility, one of Densify’s other advantages is that it offers full financial visibility and cost intelligence for both reporting as well as chargebacks.
    • Resizing and rebalancing: Densify analyzes your private cloud infrastructure, providing resizing and rebalancing recommendations.
    • Helps you choose the right host environment: Densify automatically routes workloads to the best hosting environment based on detailed workload requirements. For workloads not requiring immediate placement, it reserves capacity to ensure it is available when required.
    • A true SaaS implementation: Because Densify is a true SaaS implementation, there is no software to maintain or to learn.
    • Better for IT finance: The solution is good for IT finance because it collects and analyzes your detailed billing data, giving you visibility into your spending, what services you’re buying, and how to better manage your costs. In addition, it can also generate reports that cover your spending and your utilization of reservations and reserved instances and savings plans.
    • Reduce risk and costs: Machine learning-based analytics help your organization optimize consumption to eliminate waste and overprovisioning while ensuring performance.
    • Cost-efficient: The Densify solution is cost-efficient, helping you drastically reduce per-processor software license costs by placing workloads intelligently.

    Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) is a cloud management tool that drives consistent governance across private and public clouds for its users. The solution brings simplicity and ease of use to managing and building cloud deployments by providing a unified multicloud management that addresses common cloud adoption challenges.

    Nutanix Cloud Manager offers four key value drivers:

    • Intelligent operations: They include monitoring, insights, and automated remediation.

    • Self-service and orchestration: This capacity category of the product includes tools for managing application and infrastructure workloads across multicloud environments.

    • Cost governance: NCM offers cost governance through accurate visibility into public and private cloud metering, cost optimization, and chargeback.

    • Security central: The solution facilitates users' security operations through alert automations with intelligent analysis and compliance controls.

    Nutanix Cloud Manager provides coverage for Nutanix private clouds as well as for VMware's. The solution also supports several popular public cloud providers, including Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). NCM provides additional flexibility for users, as it is also available as a fully managed Software as a Service (SaaS). This product allows companies to benefit from all of Nutanix multicloud self-services, application automation, security compliance, and governance, without depending on Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure.

    Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) Features

    Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) has features in the four key categories already mentioned. Some of the main capacities of the solution include:

    • Codeless task automation: This Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) feature allows IT teams to build automation and improve productivity with zero coding required.

    • Automated optimization: This feature detects the performance of VM deviates and raises an anomaly alert automatically without the need for configuration.

    • Capacity usage and scenario analysis: This feature’s runways enable pay-as-you-grow scaling and improves capacity usage with optimizations.

    • Self-service provisioning: This feature allows users to publish blueprints directly to end users through Nutanix Marketplace.

    • Application lifecycle management: Through this NCM feature, users can provision, configure, scale, upgrade, and delete applications across cloud environments as well as provide access to multiple teams at a time.

    • Hybrid multicloud orchestration: This Nutanix Cloud Manager feature allows users to automate the provisioning of hybrid cloud architectures from a single control plane.

    • Showback, chargeback, and budgeting: Nutanix Cloud Manager uses this feature to allow users to automatically create cloud consumption reports, define chargeback policies, and set up budget alerts.

    • Automated right-sizing and intelligent purchases: Through leveraging machine learning (ML) algorithms, users can benefit from the automatic detection of anomalous spending patterns.

    • Security monitoring and remediation: This feature of Nutanix Cloud Manager allows users to utilize over 250 audits for public clouds and over 500 for Nutanix on-premises.

    Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) Benefits

    Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) provides its users with several benefits. These include:

    • Nutanix Cloud Manager offers intelligent operations through the automation of operational tasks.

    • NCM gives users self-service opportunities and centralized role-based IT governance, which allows them the freedom to control their processes better.

    • Companies can benefit from cost and security governance with intelligent analysis and regulatory compliance.

    • The product has been made available across all regions in 2022, allowing worldwide access to its services without limitations.

    • NCM is suitable for beginners, as it offers low to no code actions.

    • Nutanix Cloud Manager provides real-time security, ensuring the cloud data of companies is protected at all times.

    Reviews from Real Users

    An IT Operations at an energy/utilities company likes Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) because the product provides visibility, simplifies operations, and saves time and cost.

    Drew P., a network systems administrator at Moda Health, rates NCM highly because the product saves man-hours with excellent speed on outcomes and provides a continuous validation process.

    Sample Customers
    AIG, Bank of America, Cigna, Citi
    JetBlue, International Speedway Corporation, Volkswagen SAIC, Brighton and Hove City Council, Foresters Financial, Janus International Group, Cloud Comrade, Serco
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Manufacturing Company23%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Retailer9%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    Computer Software Company9%
    University7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company35%
    Educational Organization19%
    Financial Services Firm5%
    Comms Service Provider5%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business9%
    Midsize Enterprise9%
    Large Enterprise82%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business15%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise72%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business19%
    Midsize Enterprise23%
    Large Enterprise58%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise24%
    Large Enterprise59%
    Buyer's Guide
    Cloud Cost Management
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about IBM, Microsoft, VMware and others in Cloud Cost Management. Updated: March 2024.
    768,578 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Densify is ranked 8th in Cloud Cost Management with 9 reviews while Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) is ranked 4th in Cloud Cost Management with 72 reviews. Densify is rated 8.8, while Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) is rated 8.8. The top reviewer of Densify writes " Its most valuable feature is the ability to capture attributes in the console, but it is not a stable solution ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) writes "An intuitive and easy-to-learn product that saves cost and time". Densify is most compared with IBM Turbonomic, Granulate, VMware Aria Operations, Cloudability and VMware Aria Cost powered by CloudHealth, whereas Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) is most compared with vCloud Director, Morpheus, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), VMware Aria Operations and OpenNebula.

    See our list of best Virtualization Management Tools vendors, best Cloud Cost Management vendors, and best Cloud Management vendors.

    We monitor all Cloud Cost Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.