In a recent interview with Nutanix’s Lee Caswell, the SVP of Product and Solutions Marketing, he discussed the progress of server SAN, hyperconverged infrastructure vendor consolidation, VMware and Dell HCI positioning, and the company’s AI intentions.
Caswell explained that while HCI (server SAN) has not completely replaced external SAN and file and object storage, all-flash HCI is gradually replacing SAN for all workloads. New HCI technologies are typically added to existing infrastructures rather than replacing them entirely, allowing customers to benefit from the agility and cost-effectiveness of HCI while still utilizing their prior investments. Additionally, NAS and object storage are increasingly being replaced by high-capacity storage media and capacity-dense nodes, making scale-out systems more cost-competitive.
When comparing external storage to HCI, Caswell emphasized that external storage will continue to exist for customers with dedicated storage administrators. However, HCI offers higher market growth rates due to its simplified operating model and scalability. Most customers prefer to stop managing storage and focus on application development, making HCI an attractive option.
Regarding consolidation in the HCI supplier market, he noted that the evolution of the HCI market to a hybrid multicloud platform has led to a need for infrastructure vendors with the engineering investment and sales support to deliver a consistent cloud operating model. Nutanix provides a seamless experience with its architecture, while competitors are still adjusting their offerings.
In terms of competition with VxRail and PowerFlex, Nutanix focuses on its Nutanix Cloud Platform’s (NCP) web-scale architecture, flexibility, and simplicity. NCP offers integrated snapshots, replication, and DR services, as well as a distributed file system and object store. In contrast, VxRail has two incompatible vSAN architectures with node-locked licenses, while PowerFlex is more of a software-defined storage offering managed by storage specialists.
Regarding AI capabilities, Nutanix has released GPT-in-a-Box to support AI training and inferencing workloads. The company provides reliable and secure infrastructure for LLM and GenAI workloads, using block storage for training models and storing fine-tuning data on Nutanix Files Storage and Object Storage. Nutanix’s AI solutions offer resource optimization from core to edge, allowing flexibility for inferencing depending on the application’s requirements.
Overall, Nutanix’s focus on simplicity, flexibility, and scalability positions it well in the HCI market and as a provider of AI-enabled infrastructure solutions.
Article Source
https://blocksandfiles.com/2023/11/10/nutanix-sees-its-hci-beating-external-sans-and-vmware-dell/