Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Reviews

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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

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

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. 

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

Positive

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. 

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. 

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

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. 

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. 

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

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.

We host our healthcare customers’ servers using the solution.

Previously, we used three-tier architecture. Now, we have everything on one platform. With Life Cycle Manager, we do not face any downtime during updates.

HCI and DR are very valuable to us. It is very easy to clone systems using the solution.

The product requires a lot of resources. We have to assign a lot of resources to the servers.

I have been using the solution for the last seven years.

The solution’s stability is excellent.

The product’s scalability is very good.

Whenever we call the support team, there is an SME present on the call. They resolve our issues instantly.

Positive

Previously we used VMware and Hyper-V. We switched the solution because Nutanix’s support is excellent.

The initial setup was straightforward.

A Nutanix engineer was present on-site during the deployment.

We saved money when we moved our cloud servers to on-premise.

The product’s licensing fee is moderately expensive.

My organization is the first company to deploy Nutanix in India. We deployed the solution in Gujarat, Sacramento, and Texas. The solution has beautiful architecture.

Our customers are from the healthcare industry, and they cannot afford to have downtime. With Nutanix’s robust solution, we never face any downtime. Everything we need is available within Nutanix. We do not need to buy any other product.

Previously, most of our workload was on Azure and AWS. Now we have a hybrid setup. We save a lot of money. We use around 4000 VMs in our data center. Upgrading hosts have to be done manually in VMware. Nutanix helps us a lot from a management perspective.

People planning to buy the product should evaluate their expenses in the current infrastructure and understand how much they will save from implementing the solution.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

We are an airline company using NCI as a platform for around 20 Windows and Linux servers, including our web and data servers. We have one primary NCI platform and plan to set up another for disaster recovery. However, it's quite expensive, so we have not implemented that yet. 

We migrated all our services from a hypervisor server to NCI. Since implementing NCI, we have had zero downtime. Our servers run 24 hours a day, and we are running various application-based software worldwide. My company plans to set up a disaster recovery system to prepare for possible downtime, so we can immediately shift to our backup system if there is a catastrophic failure. However, we haven't had any issues so far. 

I like NCI's dashboard. If there are any infrastructure issues, we'll get alerts inside the dashboard. NCI provides a single platform for managing all of our databases. We are running SQL and Linux databases. 

The reporting section of the dashboard could be improved to include more detailed reporting about the servers. 

We have used NCI for the last three years.

NCI is stable. If the company continues to innovate and upgrade the product, I expect it will be a robust solution in the future. 

NCI is scalable. We can scale up sufficiently to meet our requirements. 

I rate Nutanix nine out of 10 for support. Nutanix support is robust, and we're completely satisfied. 

Positive

NCI is easy to implement. You can deploy NCI with one or two staff members. That's typically enough to deal with any issues that may arise. We haven't needed any maintenance so far, but the vendor is responsible for replacing or upgrading memory, hard disks, and other hardware. 

We have support from a third-party provider and our reseller. 

NCI is quite expensive compared to other products. It would help us if Nutanix considered affordability when releasing new products. We have an annual license and are considering extending it for another year. 

I rate Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure eight out of 10. I would recommend NCI to others if they are searching for a new product.

We use Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure for VDI, SuperMicro servers, hypervisors, and server utilization. We do have another use case in a production environment.

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure is an evolution of technology because it simplifies everything. It mitigates the operation risk because you don't have people handling storage, and you don't have to have storage solutions. It makes everything easier for the administrator and the company, not just because of risk but for stability. Our mission-critical applications are doing their best, running on this platform.

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure is an evolution of technology because it simplifies everything. It mitigates the operation risk because you don't have people handling storage, and you don't have to have storage solutions. It makes everything easier for the administrator and the company, not just because of risk but for stability. Our mission-critical applications are doing their best to run on this platform.

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure helped our organization save time and cost. You can save time using this technology because it simplifies everything, including the process and the deployment. When I moved to NCI, I got rid of the SAN infrastructure or the storage network, which was very expensive. As a result, my whole team can do a better job now because they can focus on other things instead of managing the storage network

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure's most valuable features are all the cloud facilities or benefits it provides for my data center. Everything that I do in the cloud, I can virtually do in my own data center. NCI provides other benefits like elasticity, upgrading, expanding the cluster, and growing the cluster. Since NCI is non-disruptive, we don't have any downtime when we add new nodes. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure's stability and flexibility are just awesome.

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure's cloud platform management software could be improved so that I can manage my load between the cloud and on-premises.

I have been using Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure for five years.

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure’s stability is awesome. Stability is one of the things that we appreciate more in Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure, as we don't have any downtime with the solution.

In our current environment, where we use NCI, we have seven clusters. Most of them are four to seven nodes, and the one we use for VDI is three nodes.

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure’s customer support is great.

Positive

We have seen a return on investment with Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure regarding availability, support with response time and knowledge, and peace of mind.

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure's pricing is higher now. I think Nutanix is trying to make the whole ecosystem look simple.

Before choosing Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure, we evaluated other options like Cisco HyperFlex and VxRail VMware. We chose NCI over the others because it is cloud native. Unlike other solutions that bring software from other places and can't handle storage, Nutanix is a whole ecosystem.

Overall, I rate Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure a ten out of ten.

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

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.

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.

They could improve the graphical user interface. 

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

It is a robust and very stable solution.

It's also very scalable.

They are very responsive and provide quick resolutions.

Positive

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.

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.

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

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.

I use it for the app DB and infra-related services like Active Directory and file servers. And we run our Verint Enterprise Recording application on the platform.

I set things up for my internal customers who are the end-users.

The number of servers we need has been reduced with NCI's performance, and it reduces the space we need and provides energy savings on top of that. The major benefit is the consolidation of all the physical and VMware servers into the Nutanix AHV platform. That's the baseline of the entire application, the core platform. We no longer use our old HPE and Dell servers. The three-tier architecture has been eliminated. NCI has eliminated that complexity and the costs associated with it.

The architecture of Nutanix is the best, and the virtualization we get, out of the box, is an advantage. Also, dedupe and compression are done natively, inside the platform, so there are no additional licenses. That adds value to it.

In addition, it provides us with a single platform, which is pretty user-friendly, to manage our databases. It doesn't take much to manage the console.

I have been using Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure for about five years.

It's stable. The design means we get an N+1 architecture for node failures. We haven't had any major downtime until now. We are good with the performance.

We have it deployed in multiple locations. It's a distributed architecture.

Their technical support is good, but they do have third-party system integrators. If you get one who is not that great, you will have problems.

Positive

I have worked with Cisco Hyperflex and HPE Simplivity but they don't have software that is equivalent to what Nutanix has. The others are still developing their software.

And Nutanix is far better than a standard SAN solution because it is an all-in-one solution. The read/write speed is far better than in three-tier architecture.

The initial deployment is pretty straightforward. One person can handle it.

There isn't much downtime due to maintenance. And updates are pretty easy, they're just plug-and-play. It's not complex. Adding compute and storage on demand is not a problem for me because my deployment is on-prem.

The ROI is definitely there, based on the consolidation. It reduces the workload footprint. That's the benefit. There aren't too many servers or storage. Nutanix becomes an all-in-one and enables us to accommodate more workloads because it has built-in dedupe and compression.

If they could further reduce the cost, that would be great. I would like to see the cost be less than the equivalent three-tier architecture.

My advice is to get away from the traditional approach and think in forward terms about an HCI model. Nutanix stays ahead in the market.

I haven't seen any drawbacks that would lead me to suggest any improvements to the functionality of NCI.

My primary use case for Nutanix is for running Windows servers. Nutanix is deployed on-premises. 

Nutanix was a very good business solution for our site. It's an expensive system, but it provides power savings, in terms of the low costs for running it, and it was a good business investment. 

One of the most valuable features of Nutanix is that it's easy to use. I love this solution—it's easy to maintain and update, and I think it's almost perfect. 

I'm sure there are a lot of things that could be improved, but I'm actually very satisfied with this product. There may be some possibilities to move the virtual server dismounting points or to move the server from one group to another, but I can't think of any special improvements or update features. 

I have been working with Nutanix for the past two years. 

I'm very satisfied with the stability and performance of Nutanix. This solution is easy to maintain. You use the LCM module, press update, and it's done for you. It's wonderful because you don't have to do anything—it's almost too easy. I am the only one handling maintenance for and managing Nutanix. 

This solution is scalable. I just added some extra discs to the system because we were running out of space and all I had to do was put the discs inside the service—Acropolis took care of the rest. It added volume and said that everything was done automatically, so it's difficult to make the process any easier. 

Whenever I have had a support case, Nutanix has always helped to solve it the first time around. I have never had to wait for an extra or false opinion on the product or problem; it has always been solved within first contacting Nutanix. Compared to what I've seen of other technical support, it's hard to get better than this. 

We worked with VMware for some years before switching to Nutanix. We had a problem with our SQL servers, which were running on VMware, and the performance wasn't good. There was a product called Pernix that we installed to VMware, to speed up the storage process when it was saving files and data. Pernix worked very well.

They implemented that technology from Pernix into Nutanix, which is why I think Nutanix performs so well. There is an internal storage service, rather than a storage center, so you don't have to spend time waiting for the network. That was what Pernix did: it moved the storage, or part of the storage, inside the server, which then took care of saving to that storage. It's a little complicated to explain, but that was why our SQL servers were working as a traditional server with a separate machine. This is the way that Nutanix works as well. You have the server you are running always located on the local stores and it will make sure to back everything up. Instead of looking at VMware, I would advise looking at Nutanix or something else that's similar. However, it's IP, so it's always evolving. 

The initial setup was done by Lenovo at delivery, but it seemed to be quite easy. There is always some setup in the beginning, but once the setup's done, it will only take a few minutes to add an extra node or anything. It's done almost automatically—you don't have to do anything, just put them in and then they're up and running. 

We implemented through a vendor team. The initial setup was done by Lenovo Professional Services, but on a day-to-day basis, I handle the running of Nutanix. I only contact Nutanix if there is an error I cannot solve myself, which has only happened three or four times. 

This product is expensive, but they do have discounts. At one point, I saw that they were giving a 70% or 80% discount, which is a good thing, but maybe they should have a more realistic price and then a 5% to 10% discount. 

I rate Nutanix a ten out of ten. I recommend this solution to any companies considering implementation. It was a good business investment for our company and as an extended working system, it is easy to maintain and use. The costs for running it are also low. For most companies who are already running some system at a certain scale and on-premises, I think a lot of them could benefit from this solution. 

I'm an end user and don't have any direct business connection with Nutanix—I only contact them when I need technical support. 

We replaced our three-tier-solution with Nutanix and kept our VMware ESXi licenses. These will be gone with the new cluster.

We use it for general virtualization, host our Windows fileserver virtually, and do VirtualDesktops with Citrix there.

We have two nodes equipped with one nVidia M10-GPU each to get 3D-acceleration to boost the CAE-Terminal servers. This means that VMs like AD-Domain controllers, Exchange-Servers, SQL-Servers, and various Application Servers are running side-by-side with our SAP-Systems leveraging the  SAP ASE Database (no HANA, yet) virtually on vSphere 6.

We were content with the previous solution, which was NetApp Storage and Dell Blade-Servers for compute. We did not miss a thing besides the performance. Now, after three years in production, we would not go back to that solution.

Nutanix gives us fewer headaches with managing and other administrative operations. Having a single-vendor-solution is much more straightforward. We don't have to deal with VMware because it simply is not necessary, besides setting up new GPU-machines.

Creation of VMs can be done with Prism Element, the web management for each Nutanix Cluster. Nutanix also covers any problems we have with the ESXi software. 

The integration with their own AHV hypervisor is awesome. Talk about invisible infrastructure.

The most valuable feature is the integration of all parts in Prism Element, the browser-based management tool. It gives you detailed information about the environment, helps you drill down on alerts, and keeps the solution up to date with LCM (Life Cycle Manager).

When using Nutanix AHV as a hypervisor, it is the management tool for that too. When you chose another hypervisor it just does basic tasks like VM creation, reconfiguration, and start/stop. It is just enough to keep everything in this "single-pane-of-glass" tool.
Going AHV is just easier. No additional management for VMs. Everything you need is done with Nutanix Prism Element or through an SSH connection.
We are beginning to leverage Powershell and their REST API to do things which integrates more tightly with our own process.

I would enjoy an advanced mode where experienced users can leverage their knowledge to do advanced things currently only allowed using the command line tools on the CVM.

While using the Shell is okay for such advanced things like take a disk image as a ground for a Calm blueprint it would be easier to get it done via GUI. Even more so if you just follow the directions of a colleague.

Currently, that kind of task is limited to the shell.

We have been using Nutanix Acropolis AOS for over five years and are in the process of switching to a new cluster.

Unless you opt for the short-term support path (STS), stability is a given with LTS versions. You get not every feature available, immediately, but that is no concern for stable systems.

You cannot download older versions with known critical bugs. The Life Cycle Manager (LCM) supports you with checks to hint at known compatibility issues. I noticed the hint to update Nutanix Files in order to support the AOS upgrade I was planning. Directly in Prism Elements!

That is simply amazing. Of course, one would visit the "upgrade paths" and "software interoperability" pages in the support section of https://my.nutanix.com .

Scalability is the true nature of HCI solutions like Nutanix AOS. Just add a node. Done.

Nutanix support is the most amazing. Sure, you pay big bucks for that but it is worth every dime. Fast pick-up times even for lower rated tickets, great knowledge of the support team. If your question is not support related they connect you with a sales engineer to talk about it.

Positive

We used NetApp Storage in conjunction with Dell Blade-Servers for compute and we switched from vmWare to Nutanix AHV as a hypervisor.

My advice is to get your first cluster up and running with a partner experienced to do so. We got lucky with our Nutanix partner company but ask for their level of experience. Don't get me wrong: it is not hard to set up but you should have support from experienced consultants who are familiar if something goes south.
If anything goes south, call in to Nutanix support. Your partner can help with that

We implemented with a nutanix partner where we did the PoC with. The setup is quite straight-forward and done in a matter of 3-5 hours. 
Their knowledge was really helpful to guide through some of the questions that came up.

The pricing of Nutanix is not cheap but there are options available. Don't cut short on support contracts, as the (pricey) ultimate support offering is worth every buck.

You have to realize that Nutanix AOS is the basic platform for your environment. If you need to cut costs then use Nutanix AHV as a hypervisor free of charge. Most applications are running with that. If it runs on ESXi then it most likely runs on AHV, but check with your other application vendors.

We explored the options by re-iterating our previous solution and came short of delivering support for additional demands like VDI. Re-Iterating also meant up-staging storage because of the ONTAP-OS upgrade. So, a change was due, either way.

It is difficult for me to point to areas that need improvement. AOS is constantly on the move to new heights. It is considered even on a feature level with vSAN, while far ahead of that in regards to performance and resilience.

See Nutanix Principal Architect Josh Odgers CloudXC | By Josh Odgers – VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX) #90 for a detailed explanation on that topic.

Again - can't say this enough - talk to Nutanix support if you have trouble determining the exact order in which product to update/upgrade. A call beforehand spares you a headache. Literally.
But, again, the support area is massive. Onboard with your block/node serial there and you are welcomed with an extra onboarding page on what is what. Best I have ever seen!