Nutanix helps minimize cost and boost agility for service innovation
For CDW, a global provider of IT services and solutions, nonstop innovation isn’t just a competitive advantage—it’s a strategic cornerstone. After establishing a stellar reputation with its ServiceWorks Cloud and managed services, CDW was ready to take the next step in building future-ready offerings. The company saw the long-term value Nutanix could offer in enhancing agility while reducing operational complexity and costs. Together, CDW and Nutanix are building a resilient, performant, sustainable platform of the future for customers.
Nutanix gives us the best of all worlds. Our technical teams love the technology, and they've got great peer to peer relationships. Nutanix works very closely with us, and we treat them as part of our own. Our solid business and technology relationships help us work together to build differentiated solutions and take them to market fast.
| Nutanix’s native AHV hypervisor helps minimize operating expenses | Broad Nutanix portfolio enables delivery of innovative services to support new markets | Nutanix support and collaboration helps unlock value of investment quickly |
|---|---|---|
For more than four decades, CDW has been a leader in delivering innovative technology solutions for customers. As their requirements, applications, and workloads evolved, CDW ServiceWorks Cloud, together with its managed services, have delivered a flexible, agile platform that empowers customers to achieve their most critical business outcomes. Its services include ServiceWorks Cloud Compute, a highly reliable fixed-price infrastructure-as-a-service platform for customers who need to run important core business functions on VMs. Another popular offering is ServiceWorks Desktop, a Desktop as a Service (DaaS) solution lets workers virtually access their "office" desktop via the internet.
A fundamental pillar of the CDW approach is delivering the right workload on the right platform. CDW collaborates closely with every customer to fully understand their business, determine the requirements of each application running on each platform, and help identify opportunities to deliver measurable business value.. The organization also applies what it learns from individual deployments to build standards into its service offerings that will benefit all its customers.
CDW has worked closely with Nutanix and other leading vendors for several years to deliver this superior customer experience. To stay ahead of the curve, the team at CDW is constantly exploring new solutions that can support faster service innovation for customers, while improving its own cost and operational efficiency. When its vendors announced program changes and end of life for some of its key service offerings, CDW realized that a deeper investment in Nutanix could open significant opportunities.
CDW has long applied a diverse, best-of-breed approach to support its wide variety of services. Five years ago, the organization determined that migrating customers from its VMware environment to Nutanix AHV could unlock potential licensing savings.
“Historically, we've always avoided the lock-in associated with vendor-specific protocols and technologies,” said Rob Sims, Chief Technologist (Hybrid Platforms), Office of the CTO at CDW. “So, we always intended to move to an open, flexible, cost-effective model with Nutanix as our default hypervisor.”
Nutanix AHV gives CDW a full-featured modern hypervisor that’s built for hybrid cloud environments. Its automated workflows give the organization robust management capabilities, enabling them to tailor service offerings to customers’ individual needs. As CDW enjoyed success with Nutanix, the vendor's relationship steadily developed into a true partnership.
“We initially went in purely on cost, but actually we're doing more and more with Nutanix based on the products they're offering and the way they integrate with our teams,” said Sims. “We appreciate the open and frank dialogue between our technical staff and their peers at Nutanix. The overriding theme is one of confidence.”
Nutanix and other solutions help CDW empower customers to architect, deploy and operate the data and application platforms of the future, helping them become hyperconnected, performant and secure.
“Our platform is successful based on standardisation,” said Sims “It is a multi-tenant cloud platform, so we're not building a net new solution for every customer that comes along. We work with our vendors, such as Nutanix, to productise packaged services that customers then consume easily. If we get a special request from a customer, our tech team can work with them, get something out there for very little commercial impact, and address their issue.”
This decision to adopt a broad array of Nutanix solutions has played out well for CDW, enabling them to gain greater control over their commercial environment, while also strengthening their competitive advantage.
Reliability has been impressive as well. Sims reports that CDW reported experiencing "four nines" reliability since its deployment, enabling CDW to consistently deliver impressively high service availability to its customers.
The close Nutanix relationship helps support CDW’s agility, easing development of new service offerings while streamlining integration tasks and operations.
Nutanix solutions give CDW the agility and flexibility it needs to capture opportunities across a wide range of vertical markets, from healthcare to manufacturing and beyond.
“One of our customers in the UK supports pharmacies, and provides prescriptions to patients,” said Sims. “You don’t need a written prescription, you just go to the pharmacist, they know what you need, and they hand you your medication. That’s all provided through our platform.
“Another ServiceWorks Cloud customer manufactures memory foam for mattresses, car seats, and other products around the world. These examples underscore the point that we don't have a particular target vertical or target sector. We've got customers in manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, finance, insurance, and more. Our platform is applicable to all walks of life.”
As CDW explores new services and capabilities, Sims is impressed by the true collaborative nature of the Nutanix relationship.
“I've sat in some of the Nutanix Innovation Councils and similar events, and it's really good to see the response to feedback we deliver in those meetings,” he said. “Six or nine months down the line, we might see a new product feature and realise it has come from a conversation we've been involved in, which is really powerful.”
The importance of the close relationship with Nutanix took on added weight when Broadcom modified its VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) program, significantly reducing the number of authorized partners. With Nutanix, CDW reduced its exposure to potential impact on its managed services.
CDW is constantly exploring new solutions to keep its services aligned to changing customer needs. The company is deploying Nutanix Database Service, Nutanix Cloud Clusters, and Nutanix Kubernetes Platform, as well as Nutanix AI services as they expand their cloud-native solution offerings for customers.
CDW has also enjoyed success with its new ServiceWorks Edge offering that offers flexible deployment options that align well with specific vertical markets such as manufacturing. Instead of residing in the CDW data center, essential infrastructure can be in a customer's data center, a factory floor, or any location globally that best aligns to their needs.
“ServiceWorks Edge, our new edge service offering, has been really well received, providing many of the benefits associated with cloud computing and managed IT services, but without the geographic constraint,” said Sims. “With Nutanix on premises, if a connectivity link goes down, the facility can still keep running.”
Through its long-term relationship with Nutanix, CDW is poised to build on its competitive advantage, empowering customers to meet tomorrow’s challenges and achieve their most important business outcomes.
Learn more at www.nutanix.com
©2026 Nutanix, Inc. All rights reserved. Nutanix, the Nutanix logo and all Nutanix product and service names mentioned 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 are registered or unregistered trademarks of Broadcom in the United States and/or other countries. All other brand names mentioned are for identification purposes only and may be the trademarks of their respective holder(s).Customer statements and reports on use case results, benefits, savings or other outcomes depend on a variety of factors including their use case, individual requirements, and operating environments, and should not be construed to be a promise or obligation to deliver specific outcomes.