Unified Cloud Operating Model: Centralized Management for the Dual World of VMs and Containers

The modern enterprise operates in a world of duality. On one hand, you have the rock-solid foundation of traditional Virtual Machines (VMs) that power mission-critical, enterprise applications. On the other hand, you have the unrelenting pace of cloud-native development, driven by containers and Kubernetes^®.

The challenge for IT leaders today isn't choosing between the two -it's mastering the simultaneous operation of both. True business agility comes from managing the entire application portfolio efficiently, consistently, and securely across a hybrid multicloud landscape. This is where a unified operating model becomes a strategic imperative.

At Nutanix, our vision is to simplify this complex reality: Nutanix provides the platform and the centralized, unified management for both VMs and containers through the Nutanix Central management console.

Managing the Application Lifecycle with Nutanix Central

A successful hybrid cloud strategy requires a management plane that avoids complexity and provides a holistic view of all infrastructure. To achieve this strategy, we built three strategic cornerstones:

• Nutanix Prism control plane simplifies the management of virtualized data center environments by consolidating compute, storage, networking, automation, and disaster recovery into a single, intuitive interface. This helps administrators manage day-to-day VM operations and simplifies troubleshooting complex tasks freeing up IT teams to focus on other mission critical functions.
• Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) solution is our enterprise-grade solution designed to simplify the deployment, management, and scaling of Kubernetes clusters. As a recognized Leader in the Forrester Wave for Multicloud Container Platforms, NKP streamlines both initial deployment and critical Day 2 operations, including security, persistent storage, high availability, and automated lifecycle management.
• Nutanix Central is the cornerstone of this strategy, delivering unified management, global visibility, and centralized governance across the entire hybrid cloud environment. It's the one console you need to view and manage all Nutanix services, whether deployed on-premises or across the Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) hybrid multicloud platform available in the AWS, Azure and GCP clouds. This unified approach helps manage console sprawl, freeing your teams to focus on innovation instead of wrangling complexity.

Together, these cornerstones provide a seamless management experience for both traditional and modern applications.

A Leap in Operational Efficiency

With the release of Nutanix Kubernetes Platform 2.17, we are taking a significant leap forward in operational efficiency by deeply integrating Nutanix Kubernetes Platform into our unified management framework, simplifying the lives of both infrastructure administrators and Kubernetes platform engineers.

1. Nutanix Kubernetes Platform  in the Nutanix Marketplace: One-Click Simplicity

The Nutanix Marketplace has long been the trusted hub for discovering and deploying Nutanix and partner applications. Now, with the addition of the Nutanix Kubernetes Platform app, deploying a production-ready Kubernetes cluster is a simple, one-click UI flow. This empowers administrators to discover, configure, and deploy Nutanix Kubernetes Platform management clusters seamlessly, whether in connected or air-gapped environments, allowing for flexibility across all deployment scenarios.

Screenshots of Nutanix Kubernetes Platform in the Nutanix Marketplace

2. Nutanix Konnector: Zero-Touch Cluster Onboarding

Deployment is just the beginning; ongoing visibility and governance are critical for operational control. The Nutanix Konnector service in Prism Central and Nutanix Central revolutionizes post-deployment management by automatically registering new and existing NKP clusters without manual intervention.

This zero-touch onboarding is designed so clusters created via the Nutanix Marketplace or NKP CLI are quickly visible in your management console, delivering immediate value:

• Compute Visibility: See precisely which VMs belong to which cluster.
• Storage Insights: Understand volume and VM-level persistent storage consumption.
• Networking Context: View and manage segmentation policies.
• Infrastructure alerts: View alerts generated by infrastructure entities related to NKP clusters

This integration is key to swift troubleshooting, better resource planning, and simplified operations for your entire environment.

Screenshots of Kubernetes clusters in the Nutanix Infrastructure Tab

Why This Unified Approach Matters

This unified experience is more than a new feature set; it’s a strategic shift that delivers tangible business outcomes and translates to controlled costs, managed risk, and greater business agility:

• Optimized Time-to-Value: A unified platform helps eliminate the friction between development and infrastructure teams. With one-click deployments from the Nutanix Marketplace and automatic onboarding, developers can streamline the process to stand up new projects. This can help businesses be more responsive to market demands, roll out new applications, and continue innovation.
• Maximize Operational Efficiency: Unifying management can free up the most valuable resource: your teams. Instead of IT teams managing disparate, complex environments of VMs and containers, your IT teams can use a unified pane of glass to oversee all workloads.
• Unprecedented Business Agility: Modern enterprises need the flexibility to run any application - VMs or cloud-native - across any environment, whether it’s on-premises, at the edge, or in the public cloud with a consistent operating model, empowering IT teams to make business decisions based on team’s needs, not technology limitations.

The goal is clear: empower IT teams to drive business forward by managing a variety of workloads - VMs and containers - through a unified, intuitive platform.

Ready to simplify your hybrid multicloud operations?

Explore Nutanix Kubernetes Platform in the Nutanix Marketplace and experience the power of unified management through Nutanix Central.

Further Reading:

• Delivering a Universal Cloud Operating Model
• Nutanix Kubernetes Platform
• Nutanix Central
• Nutanix Central On-Premises

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