• Home
  • Microsoft Azure VMware vs. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)

Microsoft Azure VMware vs Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) comparison

Cancel
You must select at least 2 products to compare!
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Download the complete report
Buyer's Guide
Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms
March 2024
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Azure VMware and Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, VMware, Nutanix and others in Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms.
To learn more, read our detailed Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms Report (Updated: March 2024).
Download the complete report
768,924 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Sam Gouwy
A Microsoft service, verified by VMware, that runs on Azure infrastructure
Rakesh Sarak
Researched Microsoft Azure VMware but chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI): A powerful solution with easy deployment, upgrades, and management
In a single pane of glass, you get all the insights about your infrastructure. Earlier, in the orthodox three-tier architecture, you had multiple... Read more →
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The integration is very good."

More Microsoft Azure VMware Pros →

"Nutanix Acropolis AOS makes it easy to use and manage projects and it has a good reputation.""This is a complete, very user-friendly product.""It has solid performance and provides data locality.""It has been stable so far.""The most valuable feature is the one-click to update the firmware and software.""The features that I have found most valuable include its HA facility, viability, robustness, flexibility, it's time to go live is very short, and it has a friendly user interface.""The administration console, automation, and the first cluster are all valuable features.""Single click actions is definitely the most important. They were not even aware that they wanted this."

More Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Pros →

Cons
"Well, sometimes they release product after product, so it's it's kind of hard to keep an overview of all the different aspects of of the solutions."

More Microsoft Azure VMware Cons →

"There could be better support for high power ESX and other cross platform applications.""I would like to see official compatibility with Red Hat in the future.""The reporting section of the dashboard could be improved to include more detailed reporting about the servers.""We would like to see a cloud version of Acropolis AOS. Currently, we're trying to implement an AWS environment for some solutions, but we would like to use another technology also to enhance our organization, so we are looking for another technology for this, especially a cloud solution.""Pricing and varieties of options could be better.""We could always use a performance upgrade, or simplified management.""Storage utilization and optimization should be better.""The licensing cost could be lower."

More Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The solution is very competitive."

    • More Microsoft Azure VMware Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Able to grow with smaller, more linear increments of investment"
  • "The basic license that comes with the box allows basic virtualization features but advanced automation features would require an upgrade of licenses."
  • "I know Nutanix and VxRail have similar prices and licenses. Nutanix is a go-ahead if AHV is used as hypervisor because it is already embedded in the price."
  • "While cost may seem higher than your traditional 3-tier architecture, you need to look at the bigger picture. You're not just buying hardware here. You're buying a complete environment."
  • "Setup cost is minor, pricing is quite a bit (we have a 7-node-cluster for about 450K EUR with 2 vGPU-nodes for Citrix) but that includes hardware, software, and support."
  • "The price is good but I think there is still room for improvement on the price."
  • "Extra features should not be so expensive. We would love to be able to use or even just try some of the extra features without having to buy them. Buying those features is just as expensive as buying vSphere licenses, so the cost savings is nullified."
  • "Work close with your InfraTeam and discuss with Nutanix the best way to achieve sizing and price that are right for you."

    • More Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Pricing and Cost Advice →

    report
    See Which Vendors Are Best For You
    Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms solutions are best for your needs.
    See Recommendations
    768,924 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Comparison Review
    Anonymous User
    Nutanix vs. VMware EVO:RAIL vs. FlexPod
    Originally posted at www.storagegaga.com/dont-get-too-drunk-on-hyper-converged/ I hate the fact that I am bursting the big bubble brewing about Hyper Convergence (HC). I urge all to look past the hot air and hype frenzy that are going on, because in the end, the HC platforms have to be aligned and congruent to the organization’s data architecture and business plans. The announcement of Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant on Integrated Systems (read hyper convergence) has put Nutanix as the leader of the pack as of August 2015. Clearly, many of us get caught up because it is the “greatest feeling in the world”. However, this faux feeling is not reality because there are many factors that made the pack leaders in the Magic Quadrant (MQ). First of all, the MQ is about market perception. There is no doubt that the pack leaders in the Leaders Quadrant have earned their right to be there. Each company’s revenue, market share, gross margin, company’s profitability have helped put each as leaders in the pack. However, it is also measured by branding, marketing, market perception and acceptance and other intangible factors. Secondly, VMware EVO: Rail has split the market when EMC has 3 HC solutions in VCE, ScaleIO and EVO: Rail. Cisco wanted to do their own HC piece in Whiptail (between the 2014 MQ and 2015 MQ reports), and closed down Whiptail when their new CEO came on board. NetApp chose EVO: Rail and also has the ever popular FlexPod. That is why you see that in… Read more →
    Questions from the Community
    What do you like most about Microsoft Azure VMware?
    Top Answer:The integration is very good.
    What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure V...
    Top Answer:The solution is very competitive.
    What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure VMware?
    Top Answer:Well, sometimes they release product after product, so it's it's kind of hard to keep an overview of all the different aspects of of the solutions.
    What is the biggest difference between Nutanix Acropolis and VMware vSphere?
    Top Answer:We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interface that allows you to talk directly to your VM from the present software. We found… more »
    Read all 7 answers   →
    How do I choose between Cisco Hyperflex HX Series and Nutanix Acropolis AOS?
    Top Answer: Cisco HyperFlex HS series vs Nutanix Acropolis AOS Cisco HyperFlex gives extended hyper-convergence functions from core to edge and multi-cloud environments. It helps IT and OT teams deploy… more »
    Read all 2 answers   →
    Which would you choose - Nutanix Acropolis AOS or VMware vSAN?
    Top Answer:We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interface that allows you to talk directly to your VM from the present software. We found… more »
    Read all 4 answers   →
    Ranking
    10th
    out of 15 in Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms
    Views
    49
    Comparisons
    35
    Reviews
    1
    Average Words per Review
    243
    Rating
    8.0
    3rd
    out of 15 in Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms
    Views
    447
    Comparisons
    153
    Reviews
    27
    Average Words per Review
    952
    Rating
    8.6
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Nutanix Acropolis AOS, Nutanix AOS, Nutanix Acropolis
    Learn More
    Microsoft
    Nutanix
    Overview

    Seamlessly move VMware-based workloads from your datacenter to Azure and integrate your VMware environment with Azure. Keep managing your existing environments with the same VMware tools you already know while you modernize your applications with Azure native services. Azure VMware Solution is a Microsoft service, verified by VMware, that runs on Azure infrastructure.

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is a top-ranking HCI software, cloud management tool, and Software Defined Storage (SDS) tool that is marketed as the foundation for users' hybrid clouds. It offers a powerful and secure hyperconverged infrastructure to deliver all data and applications at any scale and on any cloud. The solution offers a complete software stack that allows users to unify their hybrid cloud infrastructure. 

    NCI’s services include computer, storage and network, hypervisors and containers, and deployment in public or in private clouds. The product also comes with built-in resilience, disaster recovery capabilities, self-healing, and high-security capacities. It provides further deployment flexibility through several software and hardware options and platforms. NCI includes a full set of enterprise capabilities. It can also be deployed on a wide range of servers from popular manufacturers.

    The capabilities of the product are categorized into three main groups:

    • AOS storage
    • Flexible and open compute
    • Automated and secure networking

    Outside of these categories, NCI also offers other capabilities:

    • Integrated disaster recovery
    • Full-stack lifecycle management
    • VMware with Nutanix
    • Intelligent operations

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Features

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) offers its customers various features and tools in each of the previously mentioned categories. The available features for users currently include:

    • High-performance: This set of features utilizes hardware advances such as NVMe and RDMA to accelerate users' most demanding applications with consistent performance. The tools in this feature category work alongside data locality to ensure successful results.

    • Foolproof resiliency: These Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure features protect data and keep it available by facilitating advanced distributed consistency algorithms. Users can utilize these features to protect their data from issues like bit rot, hardware failures, and even entire site failure.

    • Flexibility: This set of features allows storage to be sized for the needs of each organization and expanded promptly and easily so that the organization and its data can grow. The features offer flexibility to users in terms of applying storage policies logically on a pre-workload basis, instead of being tied to hardware.

    • Hypervisor choice: Users can choose from the leading hypervisors - Microsoft Hyper-V or VMware ESXi. They can also leverage the built-in hypervisor AHV that Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) provides.

    • Integrated virtualization: These features offer simplified automation and AHV streamlined operations. The services in this category are optimized for high performance and reliability.

    • Kubernetes: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) offers features to build and deploy cloud-native applications on intelligent distributed infrastructure. Apps can be integrated with cloud-compatible storage and both building and deployment can be achieved within the same platform.

    • Microsegmentation: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) offers features to prevent malware spread and reduce attack surfaces by leveraging machine learning (ML).

    • Virtual networking: This set of features allows users to easily implement multi-tenancy in their environment or stretch networks across clouds.

    • Centralized network management: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) provides organizations with a way to manage networking configurations centrally. Users can utilize it across their human-computer interaction (HCI) environment with simple virtual switch management.

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Benefits

    The product offers various benefits to users who utilize its capacities. Some of these include:

    • NCI reduces technology sprawl and frees up technical resources to allow organizations to focus on other activities, potentially reducing costs for the business.

    • The product allows customers to deploy, scale, and bridge to the public cloud to be able to react in evolving business environments.

    • Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure improves data availability while simultaneously protecting it against several kinds of failures and attacks.

    • The solution offers high-performance, resilient distributed storage for all workloads.

    • Working alongside Nutanix Cloud Platform, NCI offers simple management of data from one console.

    • Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure works by the zero trust philosophy, protecting users' apps and data through specially designed security protocols.

    Reviews from Real Users

    According to Gerhard J., an IT manager at Q4 Fuel, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) provides serious reliability and stability across the entire system makes for ROI.

    A solutions architect at a computer software company describes NCI as a stable, straightforward to set up, and scalable solution.

    Sample Customers
    Information Not Available
    St. Lukes Health System, the City of Seattle, Yahoo! Japan, Sligro, Empire Life, Hyundai AUS, and many others.
    Top Industries
    No Data Available
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Comms Service Provider10%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization26%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Government6%
    Company Size
    No Data Available
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise30%
    Large Enterprise33%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise36%
    Large Enterprise47%
    Buyer's Guide
    Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms
    March 2024
    Download Free Report
    Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, VMware, Nutanix and others in Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms. Updated: March 2024.
    DOWNLOAD NOW
    768,924 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Microsoft Azure VMware is ranked 10th in Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms with 1 review while Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is ranked 3rd in Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms with 194 reviews. Microsoft Azure VMware is rated 8.0, while Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Microsoft Azure VMware writes "A Microsoft service, verified by VMware, that runs on Azure infrastructure". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) writes "A powerful solution with easy deployment, upgrades, and management". Microsoft Azure VMware is most compared with Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2), whereas Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is most compared with VMware vSAN, VxRail, HPE SimpliVity, VMware vSphere and Hyper-V.

    See our list of best Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms vendors.

    We monitor all Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms 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.