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Nutanix Launches Support for Next Generation of Platforms for Hybrid Cloud Deployments

New hardware platform architecture improves on-premises application performance, capacity, and density.

By Marc Trouard-Riolle and Aditya Kaul

August 23, 2021 | min

The industry is seeing IT infrastructure trending towards hybrid multicloud solutions, whereby on-premises infrastructures are augmented with public cloud resources. This shift in compute and storage models provides IT teams with the choice and flexibility to place applications on the most appropriate infrastructure based on location, cost, performance, and resilience characteristics, both on-premises or in a public cloud.

To help organizations enhance their hybrid cloud infrastructure, Nutanix today announces software support for the next generation of platforms based on the 3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors (code named Ice Lake). The newly launched Nutanix NX™ platforms complement a range of OEM platforms to provide customers with the flexibility and choice to select hardware configurations that best fit their hybrid cloud needs, all at a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) than prior platform generations.

Platforms based on this latest generation of Intel® processor increase compute power, I/O bandwidth and memory capacity. When combined with the next generation of Intel® Optane™ technologies, customers can improve application performance and efficiency to help solve business challenges when moving to hybrid multicloud environments.

Recent research carried out by Vanson Bourne for the 2020 Enterprise Cloud Index found that three quarters of survey respondents are viewing IT more strategically due to COVID-19, and that 86% consider hybrid [cloud] as their ideal operating model. HCI also is featured in current or future deployments for 92% respondents.

ENTERPRISES EMBARK ON HYBRID CLOUD JOURNEY

1Vanson Bourne Research for the Enterprise Cloud Index, 2020 - https://www.nutanix.com/enterprise-cloud-index#enterprise-cloud-index

The Nutanix® Cloud Platform is a single software platform with a control plane that spans on-premises private and public clouds, enabling hybrid multicloud deployments that are easy to deploy, use and adapt.

On-premises infrastructure is an integral component of these hybrid clouds which can be powered by a range of Nutanix and OEM platforms, including Nutanix NX, HPE ProLiant DX, Lenovo ThinkAgile HX, Dell EMC XC, Fujitsu PRIMERGY XF and Intel DCB . The combination of Nutanix HCI software provides a solution from which to deliver applications, services, and data at any scale and with a predictable cost model.

Common hybrid cloud use cases that complement on-premises infrastructure include:

  • Cloud BCDR: Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) protection of on-premises applications and data, including on-demand elastic infrastructure scaling to meet resource needs.
  • Elastic Compute: short term infrastructure bursting in public clouds to augment on-premises applications and services, such as for seasonal requirements, testing of new products or markets, and mergers, and acquisitions
  • Test and Development: using cloud resources that are easy and fast to spin up when needed, and which can be hibernated when not needed, maintaining system configurations and data without the associated runtime costs
  • Lift and Shift: streamlining a migration to hybrid multicloud by rehosting existing applications without the need for complex and costly application refactoring or rearchitecting.

2Platform vendor compatibility information can be found here and detailed platform spec sheets here.

As the number of customer workloads increase and they are adapted to hybrid cloud use cases, customers are asking Intel for more scalable and flexible infrastructure across compute, network, and storage. The latest Nutanix platforms built on 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors are designed to serve a broad range of workloads from edge networks to datacenters and to the cloud while delivering platform innovations that holistically solve our customers’ most challenging problems.

- Intel VP of US Sales and Marketing, Greg Ernst

 

Available in 1U and 2U form factors with single, dual, and quad nodes per chassis, Nutanix and OEM platforms are suited to a variety of use cases from remote office and branch office (ROBO) to balanced compute and storage to high performance applications.

Notable enhancements to this multi-vendor platform refresh includes new models, configurations, and options:

  • Greater customer choice of platforms and configurations:
    • more single-socket models
    • more platforms with GPU support
    • wider high performance (NVMe) storage options
  • Improved compute performance:
    • up to a 42% increase in processor cores
    • up to 15% higher per-core performance
  • Up to 33% increase in host memory density and performance:
    • up to 8-channel memory per socket
    • faster 3200MHz memory speed
  • Increased host storage capacity and offerings:
    • Greater customer choice of platforms and configurations:
    • all-NVMe models with support for Intel Optane™ SSDs
    • broader drive support
    • up to a 25% increase in drive bays on some platforms
  • Improved I/O host performance:
    • PCIe Gen 4 support offers 2x I/O bus bandwidth for networking, storage and GPUs
  • UEFI SecureBoot ready
  • ISO 28000 certification
  •  

    Organizations that use these platforms on-premises can expect an improvement in TCO for many use cases, including virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and databases. The increase in compute power, memory density, and additional I/O bus bandwidth all play a role in improving application performance, I/O latency, application, and user densities when compared to prior platform generations.

     

     

The 3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processor refresh on NX and OEM platforms improves application performance and scalability, enabling IT teams to improve application service delivery and exceed the stringent business demands for on-premises hybrid cloud infrastructures while also delivering a higher return on investment over prior generations.

- Thomas Cornely, SVP Product Portfolio Management, Nutanix

 

Linear performance scaling achieved by the Nutanix web-scale architecture is perfectly suited to transactional and analytical databases with preliminary testing showing a 20-30% improvement in database transactions and I/O latency when compared to the prior platform generation.

Nutanix NX customers also benefit from a single vendor solution that includes Nutanix’s world-class software and hardware support. With an average of 90 Net Promoter Score (NPS) over the last 7-years, IT teams are provided with peace of mind for their entire hybrid cloud solution.

Nutanix software integrates simply across on-premises and public cloud platform configurations. With wide customer choice of on-premises Nutanix and OEM provider hardware platforms, customers can quickly and simply build hybrid clouds to provide the performance, scalability, and reliability required to meet the most demanding of enterprise applications.

If you’re ready to take the next step, capacity plan your hybrid cloud infrastructure requirements today at www.nutanix.com/products/sizer.

Take a Nutanix Cloud Platform Test Drive to experience how Nutanix software can power your on-premises hybrid cloud requirements.

3Learn more about Nutanix Support: https://www.nutanix.com/support-services/product-support

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