What We Learned at Nutanix .NEXT 2019 (Anaheim, CA)

Written by: Al Solorzano (@TheAlSolorzano) & Matt Baran (@mbaran5)

As the Ron Burgundy quote goes:

The first Nutanix conference we attended was a Partner Only conference in Denver in 2014. Maybe 100-150 total people. The next year, 2015, was the first client event held in Miami at the Fontainebleau with ~1000 clients, partners and vendors. Flash forward 4 years — the 2019 Nutanix .NEXT conference in Anaheim had ~6500 clients, partners and vendors. That goes to show you good companies with good technology can really change an industry and create some raving fans.

While the keynote by CEO Dheeraj Pandey started with the 3 Ds of Nutanix – Data, Design, and Delivery, we were all waiting for more industry Disruption, User experience updates and Hybrid cloud capabilities – DUH!

Boy, did Nutanix deliver.

If you are still thinking that Nutanix is a hyperconverged company… this blog (and the conference itself) should change your mind.

We picked our top 5 keynote announcements below!

1. Nutanix Xi Clusters on AWS (Tech Preview)

This was a cool demo. Nutanix has built an AWS Cloud Formation template to deploy the Acropolis OS and Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) directly on AWS bare metal instances. In 30 minutes you can add the AWS based Nutanix cluster into your Prism Central console. The best parts:

• Once you create the cluster in AWS, it can be fully managed within Nutanix Prism Central console. No need to make adjustments within the native AWS management.
• Leverage existing network technology in AWS with native AWS network speeds: VPC, existing VPN, or AWS Direct Connect

Check out the keynote that focused on Nutanix Xi Clusters on AWS.

2. Nutanix Xi Frame support for on-premises AHV workloads (available now)

First of all, we should make sure everyone knows that Nutanix bought Frame in August 2018. Frame is a cloud hosted desktop offering. The management plan and the desktops were all hosted in AWS.  This affected the momentum Citrix and Nutanix have been having as partners for VDI.  Nutanix (and Entisys360) have been framing (no pun intended!) the acquisition as trying to address the small to medium business offerings. Frame is missing some of the enterprise features that Citrix and VMware VDI and workspaces have had for years.

The announcement at Nutanix .NEXT for Xi Frame was to address one of the missing features by allowing workloads to be deployed on-premises when leveraging Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) 5.10 or above.

Does this mean Citrix or VMware offerings are in trouble? No. We still think that Frame is missing some enterprise features (persistent desktops are still not an option from what we have sen, application layering/enterprise profiles require third-party solutions, Enterprise SSO and workspaces are not available, etc.)

Check out the keynote that focused on Nutanix Xi Frame On-Prem.

3. Updates to Nutanix Files Analytics for Data Compliance/Governance

Nutanix Files was released over two years ago and is a one-click scale out file services option for SMB/NFSv3/NFSv4.  In the VDI space, this has been great for profiles and home directories. The keynote had updates on data compliance and governance. Now with version 3.5 of Nutanix Files, you can new enable search and audit of files as well as detect anomalies such as failed access attempts.

Check out the keynote that focused on Nutanix Files Analytics.

4. Nutanix Mine and Veeam

Nutanix has built an interface into Prism to allow for integration with backup vendors like Veeam.  View capacity of storage and leverage Nutanix Buckets as secondary storage.

Check out the keynote that focused on Nutanix Mine and Veeam.

5. Nutanix Era enhances their database capabilities with Time Machine

Nutanix Era is a set of tools to manage databases from automated provisioning, databases protection (backup/recovery) and snapshot clone refreshing. During the keynote, Nutanix announced one-click patching of database along with role-based access to the Era tools.

• Automated provisioning can now support Oracle, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, MariaDB and MySQL all deployed with best practices and initial setup of snapshots.
• One-click patching of databases that can be scheduled or set to occur now for all provisioned database servers.
• Time-Machine can not only be used to perform snapshots and recovery, but it can also be used to manage sanitized databases and access (AKA database with a masking policy to hide certain parts of information) for development or testing. The sanitized databases can also be refreshed through Prism.

Check out the keynote that focused on Nutanix Era Database Updates.

Other stuff

They had also had great demos (smaller updates) of some of their products at the keynote links below:

• Nutanix Calm (Automation/Provisioning)
• Nutanix Flow (Microsegmentation)
• Nutanix Beam (Cost Analysis and Governance)

In case you missed the recent announcement, HP has now partnered with Nutanix to deliver support for Nutanix AOS on HP hardware (specific models of course). Visit https://www.nutanix.com/hpe for more information.

Finally, if you are a Star Wars fan, check out Mark Hamill’s interview and impressions.

Overall, we think that Nutanix delivered on our expectations for updates for a hybrid/multi cloud, simplifying the admin experience, and disrupting the status quo by showing how they have grown out of their hyperconverged infancy. Nutanix .NEXT was a great conference to attend and we can’t wait until next year in Chicago June 30th – July 2nd, 2020.

If you any questions about Nutanix or any hyperconverged only solutions, please contact your Entisys360 Account Executive or sales@entisys360.com.