Nutanix to Containerize Core Operating System to Simplify Migrations

Nutanix today at its .NEXT 2024 conference revealed its plans to encapsulate its core operating system in containers as part of an effort to make it simpler for IT organizations to migrate between IT infrastructure platforms.

The Cloud Native AOS platform is one of the first fruits of a previously announced Project Beacon initiative via which Nutanix is working to deliver cloud-native instances of its entire portfolio. Nutanix has now set when the Cloud Native AOS platform will be available. One of the first use cases will be to run Nutanix Data Services (NDK) on the Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) from Amazon Web Services (AWS). Nutanix today also committed to making it possible to run Nutanix Files natively on public cloud services.

Nutanix Kubernetes Platform

Additionally, Nutanix today formally launched Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) to manage multiple Kubernetes clusters, using the platform it gained when it acquired technology assets last year from the now defunct D2iQ. Scheduled to be available this summer, NKP adds integration with Nutanix data services to provide access to block, file, and object storage in addition to the company’s databases-as-a-service platform.

NKP comes in three tiers. NKP Starter is included in Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure and effectively replaces the existing Nutanix Kubernetes Engine. NKP Pro adds a suite of additional services, including Nutanix Data services for Kubernetes when deployed on Nutanix Cloud infrastructure. Lastly, NKP Ultimate brings fleet management capabilities, including the ability to install, run and monitor clusters in the public cloud.

Lee Caswell, senior vice president for products and solutions marketing for Nutanix, said collectively these offerings will make the Nutanix platform a more attractive alternative for third-party cloud service providers.

In general, Nutanix is seeking to convince IT teams to migrate away from legacy platforms following the acquisition of VMware by Brocade. Changes to the perpetual licensing terms that VMware software was previously made available have led many organizations to reassess the cost of using VMware software versus migrating to another platform.

As part of that effort, Nutanix today also announced it is working with Cisco to certify Cisco UCS blade servers to run the Nutanix AHV hypervisor, and that Dell will now offer a turnkey platform based on the Nutanix Cloud Platform. Nutanix will also expand the ability to run AHV on a broad set of existing and new server configurations via its Nutanix Elevate Program initiative for technology partners.

Nutanix is also adding an ability to deploy virtual machines across a set of clusters to better maximize infrastructure utilization. In addition, Nutanix has added a Secure Snapshot capability to enable organizations to recover from ransomware attacks, as well as extending a disaster recovery capability to allow IT teams to handle two simultaneous outages.

Finally, Nutanix is adding an ability to monitor power consumption to make it easier for IT teams to achieve sustainability goals.

It’s unclear to what degree IT organizations are abandoning legacy platforms, but as more of the core services provided are encapsulated in containers the easier it will be to migrate. In fact, along with the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools that make it easier to reverse engineer code, the days when IT teams found themselves locked into specific IT platforms appear to be finally coming to an end.

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