Simplify Your Off-Ramp from AVS Bundled VMware Licensing with Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2)

Microsoft recently announced the retirement of Reserved Instances (RIs) of Azure VMware Solution (AVS) SKUs with bundled VMware licenses. This news is disruptive to many existing AVS customers. Organizations using these bundled VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) licenses for AVS have until August 30, 2027 to transition off the SKUs to avoid service disruption and potentially higher costs.

NC2 on Azure provides a solution for customers who want to avoid a potentially complex migration to VCF 9 and additional Broadcom dependency with minimal disruption. NC2 includes Nutanix AHV, an enterprise grade hypervisor with advanced data services and networking capabilities to run virtualized workloads in Azure.

The migration path from AVS to NC2 delivers both technical efficiency and commercial stability. From a technical standpoint, the included Nutanix Move migration tool enables a quick and streamlined transfer of VMs and data from VMware environments. From a commercial perspective, NC2 on Azure protects existing cloud investments, unlike the BYOL license model required with VCF 9 on AVS. NC2 allows organizations to purchase through the Azure Marketplace with eligible spend counting toward your Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC).

What's more, the current price of Nutanix NC2 compatible bare metal (e.g., AN36P) offers potential cost savings of 40% compared with the equivalent price of the AVS bare metal (like AV36P) in Azure. This means that NC2 offers clear opportunities to help manage and control infrastructure costs compared to an equivalent AVS solution.

Key benefits of migrating from AVS with bundled VMware licensing to NC2 on Azure include:

• Mitigate Broadcom Disruption: Avoid a potentially complex upgrade to VCF 9.
• Eliminate Application Refactoring: Move workloads directly from AVS to NC2 in Azure in your VNET without lengthy transformation projects or re-architecting.
• Protect Infrastructure Investments: Transfer existing AVS reservations directly to NC2 bare-metal nodes through the Azure Reservation Exchange Program.
• Optimize Marketplace Consumption: Draw down on existing MACC with eligible Nutanix software licenses purchased through Azure Marketplace, unlike purchases of BYOL VCF licenses required for AVS.
• Maintain Network Topology: Help conform to your existing network layout and retain existing IP ranges post migration using the Nutanix Flow Virtual Networking solution.
• Unify Cloud Management: Manage both on-premises and Azure-based Nutanix environments through a single control plane (the Nutanix Prism Central management console).
• Trusted Partner: While others shift models and pricing, Nutanix offers stability, transparency, and en support—backed by a 90+ NPS and a customer-first mindset.

Accelerating Migrations with the Nutanix Move Tool

The Nutanix Move application migration tool automates migrations from AVS to NC2 on Azure.

Figure 1: A high-level diagram showing the Nutanix Move virtual appliance and some of the migration pathways to NC2 on Microsoft Azure.

Included at no additional cost for Nutanix customers, Move is deployed as a virtual appliance to the target environment. It simplifies the process of migrating workloads from a variety of sources, including VMware environments like AVS, to NC2 on Azure. It automatically discovers virtual machines in the source environment, orchestrates data replication, testing and failover, helping minimize effort, downtime, and associated migration risk.

For more information on migrating workloads, visit the Nutanix Move product page.

Advanced Features of NC2 on Azure

Snapshot Offload to Azure Blob Storage: Included in the NC2 solution is the Nutanix Multicloud Snapshot (MST) capability, that can be configured to copy snapshots to low cost Azure Blob object storage. This can be used either to reduce capacity requirements on a primary cluster, or create an optimized approach to disaster recovery in another availability zone or region.

Figure 2: A high-level diagram showing the Nutanix Multicloud Snapshot Technology (MST) protecting VM workloads with Azure Blob Storage.

PayG Licensing: A key NC2 differentiator for this disaster recovery (DR) use case is that NC2 on Azure features Pay-as-you-Go (PayG) licensing via the NC2 Portal, making it perfect for seasonally scaling workloads and temporary environments, like a DR recovery target.

Differentiated Solution for End User Computing: A key use case for NC2 on Azure is End User Computing (EUC) or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) workloads. Nutanix has long supported key integrations with Citrix and more recently has developed support for Omnissa, both are qualified for use with NC2 in Azure.

Software Solution: Unlike AVS, NC2 on Azure is a software solution, supported by the SaaS NC2 Portal, not a managed service. The NC2 portal automates tasks like cluster expansions, or remediating hosts should a hardware failure occur. Software lifecycle management and updates cluster are handled through the Nutanix Life Cycle Manager (LCM) within Prism Central.

Plan Your Migration

With the recent changes to AVS with bundled VMware licenses, many organizations are considering their options for their ‘hypervisor in cloud’ based workloads. Migrating from AVS, or any VMware environment, to NC2 on Azure offers organizations a strategic offramp that can help protect existing cloud investments and avoid restrictive architectures. Combined with the flexible disaster recovery capabilities of MST, Nutanix provides a resilient, cost-optimized hybrid cloud operating model.

• To learn more about hybrid cloud deployments on Azure, explore Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on Azure
• Maximize Your Microsoft Azure Investment: Exchange Reservations for Nutanix
• Take a free Test Drive of NC2
• What is Nutanix Cloud Clusters on Azure? (Microsoft)

Disclaimers & Trademarks:

© 2026 Nutanix, Inc. All rights reserved. Nutanix, the Nutanix logo, and all Nutanix product, feature, and service names mentioned herein are registered trademarks or trademarks of Nutanix, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Nutanix, Inc. is not affiliated with VMware by Broadcom or Broadcom. VMware and the VMware product names recited herein (including VMware Cloud Foundation and VCF) are registered or unregistered trademarks of Broadcom in the United States and/or other countries. All other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be the trademarks of their respective holder(s). Cost assumptions, projected savings, and TCO/ROI values are estimates only and depend on variables beyond Nutanix’s control, including specific use cases, configurations, hardware lifecycle impacts, separate software licensing costs, and operating environments. These figures should not be construed to be a promise or obligation to deliver specific outcomes. Certain information contained in this content may link or refer to, or be based on, studies, publications, surveys, and other data obtained from third-party sources. While we believe these third-party studies, publications, surveys, and other third-party data are reliable as of the date of publication, they have not independently verified unless specifically stated, and we make no representation as to the adequacy, fairness, accuracy, or completeness of any information obtained from a third-party. Our decision to publish, link to or reference third-party data should not be considered an endorsement of any such content.