Nutanix Elevates Customer Experience with AI, Cloud-Native Solutions, and Strategic Partnerships
Nutanix continues to drive innovation. The company announced exciting new developments at its .NEXT Conference. These announcements focus on enhancing customer experience. They aim to simplify complex IT environments. Furthermore, they empower organizations with cutting-edge technologies.
Nutanix Enables Agentic AI Anywhere with Latest Enterprise AI Release
Nutanix unveiled the latest version of Nutanix Enterprise AI (NAI). This release features deeper integration with NVIDIA AI Enterprise. It includes NVIDIA NIM microservices and the NVIDIA NeMo framework. Consequently, this speeds up the deployment of Agentic AI applications. Enterprises can now adopt production agentic workloads more efficiently.
NAI simplifies how customers build, run, and manage AI models. This applies to inferencing services across various environments. These environments include the edge, data centers, and public clouds. NAI operates on any Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF)-certified Kubernetes environment.
The newest NAI release extends a shared model service methodology. This simplifies agentic workflows significantly. It makes deployment and day two operations easier. Moreover, it streamlines the resources and models needed. This allows deploying multiple applications across business units. It uses a secure, common set of functional models. These models handle embedding, reranking, and guardrails for agents. This builds upon the NAI core. The core includes a centralized LLM model repository. This repository creates secure endpoints. These endpoints simplify and privatize the connection of generative AI applications and agents.
Expert Perspectives
Thomas Cornely, SVP of Product Management at Nutanix, commented on this advancement. He stated that Nutanix helps customers keep pace with Gen AI innovation. He further noted the expanded integration of NVIDIA NIM and NeMo microservices. This allows enterprise customers to securely and efficiently build, run, and manage AI Agents anywhere.
Justin Boitano, Vice President of Enterprise AI Software Products at NVIDIA, also shared his perspective. He emphasized the need for sophisticated tools. These tools simplify agentic AI development and deployment. He highlighted that integrating NVIDIA AI Enterprise software with NAI provides a streamlined foundation. This foundation is crucial for building and running powerful and secure AI agents.
Key Benefits of NAI for Agentic Applications
- Shared LLM Endpoints
Customers can deploy Agentic AI Applications with shared model endpoints, reducing GPU, CPU, memory, and storage usage while optimizing Kubernetes clusters. - Support for Multiple LLMs and Workflows
NAI enables leveraging NVIDIA Llama Nemotron models, NeMo Retriever and Guardrails, and NVIDIA AI Blueprints. It also supports function calling for using external data sources, enhancing application accuracy and detail. - Generative AI Safety
With built-in guardrails, such as NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails, users can ensure policy-compliant agentic applications. These tools filter queries, detect jailbreak attempts, and maintain topic control. - Data Insight with NVIDIA AI Data Platform
Nutanix Cloud Platform integrates with Nutanix Unified Storage and Database Service. It offers private, high-performance storage for AI workloads. As an NVIDIA-Certified Enterprise Storage solution, it meets enterprise-level standards and supports features like GPUDirect Storage. - Platform Flexibility
NAI works on HCI, bare metal, and cloud IaaS, and supports the Nutanix Kubernetes Platform for multicloud management. It integrates discrete data services (NUS and NDB) to power agentic AI apps.
Industry Insight
Scott Sinclair, Practice Director at ESG, noted that this offering allows businesses to adopt generative AI without sacrificing control. The partnership with NVIDIA creates a secure and optimized solution that minimizes deployment risks. He emphasized that while AI provides strategic benefits, these benefits depend on infrastructure optimization and security.
The latest NAI version with new NVIDIA capabilities is now generally available.
Nutanix Announces Cloud Native AOS for Kubernetes Anywhere
Nutanix also introduced Cloud Native AOS. This solution extends Nutanix enterprise storage and advanced data services. It now supports hyperscaler Kubernetes services and cloud-native bare-metal environments. Importantly, this operates without requiring a hypervisor.
As data becomes more distributed, users seek consistent data protection. They need replication and restoration across Kubernetes infrastructure. This includes data centers, bare-metal edge locations, and cloud-native hyperscalers. A common data platform has been missing. This platform needs to run across bare-metal, virtualized, and containerized infrastructure.
Cloud Native AOS completes this picture. It provides storage and data services directly on cloud-native infrastructure. This works anywhere, in the cloud or on bare metal. By eliminating the hypervisor, this solution consolidates storage management. This consolidation spans the distributed hybrid cloud.
This new solution simplifies day two intelligent operations. This applies to Kubernetes applications and their data, regardless of location. Cloud Native AOS extends Nutanix’s resilient AOS software. This software forms the backbone of its platform for data, PaaS, and AI. It now supports stateful, native Kubernetes clusters. This includes both cloud and bare-metal environments.
Leadership Commentary
Thomas Cornely again commented on this significant development. He highlighted Nutanix’s history of building a complete platform for enterprise-grade infrastructure. This includes advanced data services in virtualized data centers. He further stated that Nutanix is now extending its platform’s reach. This extension targets users of cloud-native infrastructure on Kubernetes services. This includes public clouds and bare metal. The goal is to deliver enterprise resiliency, day 2 operations, and security.
Cloud Native AOS Benefits
- Ready-to-Use Resilience for Any Application
Built-in disaster recovery across zones, clouds, and on-premises ensures containerized application and data protection. - Cloud-Native Mobility
Enables seamless migration of apps and data across cloud and on-premises sites. - Integrated Data Management
Developers gain automation and self-service control through Kubernetes APIs for all aspects of data management.
Customer Experience
Issei Tsuruzono, Corporate Officer at Networld, emphasized how Cloud Native AOS enhances app portability and simplifies disaster recovery. He sees this solution as a game changer for containerized applications in Japan.
Manfred Pichlbauer, IT Consultant at Bacher Systems, found the Early Access Program exceptional. He praised the speed, scalability, and reliability designed for demanding workloads.
Cloud Native AOS is currently in early access on Amazon EKS. It is expected to be generally available this summer. Early access for on-premises containerized environments on bare-metal servers is anticipated by the end of this year.
Analyst Take
Dave Pearson, Infrastructure Research VP at IDC, emphasized Kubernetes’ growing adoption and the associated complexity. He noted that Cloud Native AOS bridges the gap with data mobility and disaster recovery. It offers a new deployment model for Nutanix’s AOS storage system.
Nutanix and Pure Storage Partner for Mission-Critical Workloads
Nutanix and Pure Storage announced a new partnership. This collaboration aims to deliver a deeply integrated solution. It will allow customers to seamlessly deploy and manage virtual workloads. This will occur on a scalable modern infrastructure.
This integrated solution arrives at a crucial time. The virtualization market is evolving significantly. IT leaders are focused on keeping pace with rapid technological changes. They also aim to improve operational efficiency. Gartner predicts a substantial migration of VMware customers due to cost concerns by 2028.
Through this collaboration, the Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure solution will integrate with Pure Storage FlashArray. This integration utilizes NVMe/TCP. The Nutanix solution includes the AHV hypervisor and Flow virtual networking and security. This combined offering will deliver a customer experience uniquely designed for high-demand data workloads, including AI.
Partnership Benefits
- Scalable, Modern Infrastructure
Customers gain a high-performance, efficient infrastructure combining Nutanix’s agility and Pure Storage’s performance density. - Built-in Cyber Resilience
Enhanced security features include Flow micro-segmentation, disaster recovery orchestration, and Pure Storage’s encryption and rapid restore capabilities. - Streamlined Operations and Efficiency
The solution reduces operational complexity and enhances reliability. It’s tailored for mission-critical workloads like databases, VDI, and AI. - VMware Alternative
The integrated solution offers customers a strong alternative to traditional virtualization vendors. It provides enterprise-grade performance with cost-effectiveness.
Conclusion
Nutanix’s announcements at .NEXT reflect a bold step forward in AI, cloud-native operations, and enterprise partnerships. With the expanded capabilities of NAI, the introduction of Cloud Native AOS, and the partnership with Pure Storage, Nutanix is addressing the most pressing needs of modern enterprises: flexibility, security, scalability, and innovation.
These initiatives underscore Nutanix’s commitment to simplifying IT and empowering organizations to build the future on their own terms.
