The first European edition of Nutanix .NEXT Conference is over… So which news are coming from this event?
First that there are enough numbers to make good European conferences, not only in the US… Several vendors already know it (see VMware with VMworld, but also NetApp and HP, to make some examples), but others does not bet on this region (see Citrix or Microsoft). There where a huge number of attendees, more than the expect number from the Nutanix. That’s a good sign for the future.
Second lesson from this event (but also from the first .NEXT) is that is possible have really good keynote session, not focus on the news of the products or on marketing stuff, but that can give something new… not necessary technical (great was the last keynote of Wednesday). Bring customers but also people from other area is a winning choice.
Then the announces, mostly already well know, but also some interesting announces:
- AOS 5.0 (internal engineering codename of ‘Asterix’): the new version Acropolis Operating System with several improvements and new features – See also Nutanix 5.0 Features Overview (Beyond Marketing) – Part 1
- Cisco UCS support also for blade (B-Series Blade Servers) and storage systems (Storage Heavy C-Series)
- Support for XenServer hypervisor
- Nutanix AHV Certification for SAP® Business Suite Powered by SAP NetWeaver
- Nutanix support for built-in network orchestration and microsegmentation, that is not a network virtualization solution but a integration for the network visualization and a network management (with 3rd part integrations)
- 1-click Self-Service
- Multi-hypervisor management in Prism
- Capacity Planning and real-time analysis with Nutanix X-FIT technology (that IMHO seems have also some part from PernixData Architect)
- Acropolis Container Services with Docker support and persistent portable storage volumes
- Specific ROBO backup solution (but not a two-nodes solution for ROBO scenario)
Really a lot, starting from the different hypervisors that are supported from Acropolis:
The promise is any hypervisor, but in the real world seems that AHV (no more called Acropolis Hypervisor, but sometimes simple “A-Hypervisor”) is becoming the reference model and the first where you can have news features (the very first is the Community Edition)… for other hypervisor, for some features (see for example the integrated file servers) you have to wait some release (or releases).
But the idea to have a real multihypervisor management (and mobility) existing, and new version for Prism Central will include VM management for ESXi making vCenter invisible (at least for common tasks)!
More interesting is the vision of Nutanix: not only a storage or a hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) solution… but a platform for exising (and future) services. Virtualization is just a service, like files, blocks, containers, …
The parallel with Amazon (and not only AWS) was interesting: have similar platform (for private cloud instead that public cloud) and same simplicity with one-click operation (using the example of Amazon consumer portal).
From this point of view all the “1-click” features from Nutanix will acquire a new meaning. First of all the 1-click self service features that it’s really a true enabler for private cloud easy to use: