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9 AWS reviews

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53 reviews
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    Jerad Waas

The solution helps us determine which VMs are over-provisioned, constrained, or using up too many resources

  • July 18, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

We use Nutanix Cloud Manager for the daily administration of our Nutanix cluster. NCM provides one spot to go to for everything Nutanix related. It gives us a window into the overall health of our platform, allowing us to see everything at a glance. NCM tells us about the number of VMs running and all the other critical metrics you would want to see, such as host and virtual machine performance. It can provide a single-pane-of-glass view into multiple clusters, but we're only managing one. 

How has it helped my organization?

NCM gives us greater insight into our infrastructure because we have more reporting and alert capabilities. We can get a breakdown of VM efficiency and determine which ones are over-provisioned, constrained, or using up too many resources in an instance. 

Before NCM, we couldn't predict our future resource requirements accurately based on our current workload. I need to know if I will have enough memory storage and CPU for the next year so I don't have to ask for more money and get more hardware. It provides me with more analytics that I can use to improve the environment and make more educated decisions.

Features like capacity planning and runway analytics aren't too crucial for our day-to-day operations, but they're helpful when it comes time for long-term planning. We've only had this for a year, so we haven't needed to add any hardware in that time. However, in another six months or a year, we might need to add hardware to this environment if we see things are trending in that direction. NCM will help me demonstrate what we need to the accounting folks and business leaders. I can tell them that, based on these reports, it looks like we're consuming this amount of resources, so I need some funds budgeted to acquire more hardware. It's a cost-justification tool.

I'm looking forward to using NCM's playbooks as I become more comfortable with the platform. For instance, you can run a playbook to automatically shut down virtual machines during a maintenance window or allot more resources to a VM that needs them. I've only used it for reporting and alerts. It lets me know when something happens, and I or one of the other admins will resolve the issue. In the future, I would like to do that automatically. I know it can do that. I just haven't
done that yet. We'll start small and do some testing, but we haven't gotten there yet.  

From an automation standpoint, I don't think it's doing as much as it could because we aren't fully utilizing the platform. With respect to the analytics, however, We have a lot more information delivered automatically and consistently. It has significantly increased the amount of information we have at our disposal. NCM could also manipulate our environment more than what we're currently doing, but we haven't implemented it yet. 

What is most valuable?

I like NCM's X-Play feature. For example, we have a couple set up to notify us when our virtual machines require more memory, or they're over-provisioned. We automate alerts and send out reports so that we can address those. It does what I require it to do. We also have X-Play set up on the reporting side to notify us when new virtual machines are created. I need to be aware of the new machines in case we need to do anything further. 

When we're doing something new, it sometimes takes a couple of days to get our feet wet. We have to play around with it and test it on a small subset of whatever we're trying to do. It depends on whether we're automating something on the virtual machines or reporting on them. It will generally take a few days to get from a concept to automation in production. The solution's low-code automation works as expected. 

What needs improvement?

I think NCM's guest tools have some room for improvement. It's a minor pain point getting those installed and getting the virtual machines to recognize them. I know there are changes coming in the near future, but as it stands today, they could be improved. 

It's an HTML5 web interface. Sometimes you click on an action that you want to do, but the interface doesn't necessarily refresh as fast as you would expect. You need to force a browser refresh, but it would be nice if the interface would refresh automatically faster. It seems much slower than a full-blown application that you'd install on your end-user computer. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Nutanix Cloud Manager for about a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

NCM is generally stable, aside from a few minor problems with the web interface. Our production workloads aren't going down daily, weekly, or monthly because of hard crashes or anything like that. We haven't had any outages at all. It is reliable from a performance standpoint. If we could work on some of those things related to the UI, that would be great. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Nutanix Cloud Manager is highly scalable. I've been a part of various Wisconsin Nutanix user groups where people have upwards of a hundred nodes or more. While we may never get that large for our environment, it certainly does scale to a size that we could only ever imagine. I'm thinking we might add a node or two and an additional piece of hardware, but people are out there buying a lot more.

How are customer service and support?

I rate Nutanix support 10 out of 10. It's one area where Nutanix shines. Each time I've called or opened a ticket, they've resolved the issue quickly. The support team is always willing to go the extra mile and help you out. It's a stark difference compared to what we were getting before. 

I feel confident that when we call or create a ticket, we will be connected to the right person the first time. I know that this person will be knowledgeable enough to assist. I don't recall any support cases where we've had to escalate it to someone more knowledgeable. Their front-line support helps us every time, and that's been a great experience. It doesn't take a long time to get a callback and you're not sitting on hold for a long time. I feel assured that I will get help immediately when I need it. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We had Microsoft Hyper-V before Nutanix. Nutanix Cloud Manager has more capabilities, but there are also more things to learn, so it's a slightly more complicated solution. Hyper-V is a more straightforward solution with fewer features. There are more things to do and places to go, so you need to document more. It isn't a knock on the platform. It's relatively easy to use, but you must document more. 

Support was probably the biggest reason why we switched to Nutanix. When we had a problem with the Hyper-V infrastructure, we always tried to fix it ourselves before calling Microsoft support because we didn't want to engage with them. We couldn't get a timely response. It was a lot of run-around to get to a potential solution. Microsoft would try to blame the hardware vendors, who would blame Microsoft. It is a lot of back and forth. 

Also, Hyper-V lacked out-of-the-box analytics and reporting. It's essential to have that for justifying costs to the leadership. I must tell them, "We need more hardware, and here's why." I can tell the virtual machines are not using the correct number of virtual CPUs because Nutanix tells me they're over-provisioned. I have factual data we didn't have with Hyper-V to back up some of these things. At the end of the day, Hyper-V is a great small business solution, but we scaled it past what it's intended to do. It was time for us to make a jump to a more enterprise-class offering.

How was the initial setup?

Deploying Nutanix Cloud Manager was straightforward. The initial installation took about two or three hours, but it took around a month to migrate the virtual machines from the Hyper-V platform to the Nutanix environment. We did it in phases over the weekend. 

We had a three-person team from my company. I was the primary admin, and I have a backup. We also involved our networking and security guys for various changes in the environment. 

Our Nutanix environment is deployed at one location - our main data center - and Cloud Manager covers only one cluster that contains every virtual machine for all the departments in the company. We have virtual machines for accounting and several other areas that benefit from this. 

Six people are responsible for managing the environment, but two admins perform most of the work. However, four other people also have permission to create virtual machines, run reports, etc. It requires a little maintenance. We have to apply software and firmware updates as they come out. 

What was our ROI?

Since deploying Nutanix, I'm spending less time babysitting the environment. Doing all the troubleshooting and research by myself could take six hours. We prefer to set a maintenance window in case we need to try something, and we don't necessarily know if it will fix the problem. 

With Nutanix, we call support and have them connect remotely. They can typically fix whatever problem we have immediately without any kind of downtime. That has saved a lot of time. It's a lot less stressful whenever there is a problem because I know I have somebody that I can call. It's hard to quantify that in dollar terms, but I know it has saved us a lot of time.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Nutanix costs more than Hyper-V, but the price is reasonable for the features we're getting. We have better support, analytics, reporting, and other capabilities that we didn't have before. That is more than enough to justify the cost. The hardware we purchased from Nutanix was priced fairly. The primary costs are software and support. It's a subscription-based service, which can be bad or good, depending on how you look at that. For me, it makes perfect sense. We get regular updates and can get support when we need it. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Nutanix Cloud Manager nine out of 10. NCM has been an amazing addition to our company. I have a few nitpicky complaints, but when it comes to the things that matter, the solution has always delivered. 

It's good that the solution is sold as a complete package. If we had to pick and choose the individual pieces, we might miss out on some useful features. Maybe we won't use some of them, but it's an opportunity to ensure you are diving into everything that it offers, which is quite a bit. There's a lot of great stuff in here.

Before you deploy Nutanix, I recommend participating in one of the Nutanix Boot Camps. You can sit down and work with people to see how the solution works firsthand. You can test-drive the solution on their site to experience the solution without deploying anything, so you can play with the environment to see what that looks like. Once you have played around with it a little bit, you can do a proof of concept or a demo lab to get a bit more experience. 

I would also suggest using Nutanix Hypervisor AHV instead of running Hyper-V or VMware on top of the Nutanix platform. The level of integration there has been excellent. I recommend using the Nutanix hardware. If you have a support problem, there's no back-and-forth between the hardware and software vendor. It's easy to say, "Look, it's your hardware and software. There's obviously a problem here. Let's get to the bottom of it, and then you never have to worry about the finger-pointing game." 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises


    reviewer2197314

Has fast implementation, reduced MTTR, and less false alerts

  • May 28, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

Nutanix Cloud Manager's biggest use case is compliance management, which includes configurations and drifts.

Cost estimation is another use case, but I don't know whether Prism moved that service because I've not used this product for cost estimation for the last eight to ten months. I've used other products for cloud health and other aspects.

How has it helped my organization?

The biggest generic benefit is the business value. There is no direct dollar benefit. The benefit is that the clients see MTTR reduction happening. They see low P1 or P2 calls or cases, but this decline happens over time. These are the benefits, but Nutanix Cloud Manager doesn't give you the benefits upfront. It's a journey because the system matures as you resolve low alerts. The outcome of this journey is the business value. For a small customer, it can take two months. For a mid-sized customer, it can take five to eight months. For a large enterprise, it can be twelve to eighteen months. There is no straight dollar productivity or dollar value benefit they will get. They cannot quantify those benefits. They can only say that their MTTR reduction happened, their system uptime is high, or their systems are more resilient.

In terms of the speed of the outcomes received using Nutanix Cloud Manager's low-code automation, I'm a supplier, I'm a GSI, and for me, the outcome is straightforward, which is a productivity improvement. The people who are doing day-to-day services don't need an automation engineer to automate their daily mundane tasks. With Nutanix Cloud Manager's low-code automation, I can just click and automate a task if the number of times an instance is repeated is high. It's a very simple left shift of the resources. An L1 engineer can do it for me, and I don't have to deploy highly skilled engineers. I can use their time to do more projects and provide value to the customer, so the low code in Nutanix Cloud Manager is always linked to the left shift of engineers.

What is most valuable?

The way we deliver it to our clients is that we don't tell them it's Nutanix Cloud Manager. We sell the functionality. If a customer wants to have end-to-end observability and AI ops built up for it, it's irrelevant to them whether I'm deploying NCA, or I'm deploying anything else. All that matters is the service, the functionality, and the cost for that functionality.

The most valuable feature is less or no implementation time. It should be up and running at any point in time so I don't spend time in transformation. I should spend more time in the operations cycle. The time to market is something that is very important. When it comes to operations, it should bring in the highest level of automation. I don't want teams to keep on troubleshooting in terms of whether it's a false alert or not.

I've seen that Nutanix Cloud Manager has fewer false alerts as compared to other products, such as SCCM.

What needs improvement?

Nowadays, we see systems breaking a lot. I know that the current features of Nutanix Cloud Manager help to monitor the container world and modern applications, but as more microservices are getting deployed, more micro-management of those services needs to be done. If NCL needs any improvement, it's in the microservices area because, over time, you will see more microservices getting deployed. Monitoring of those is an area that needs to be looked into.

For how long have I used the solution?

I know this product from the time when it was launched as Prism. I have been using Prism and Beam since 2015 or 2016. Being a System Integrator, I deployed it in a lot of customer environments.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a highly stable product, but it's yet to be proven for very big customers.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's good for up to mid-sized enterprises. For us, a mid-segment company has ten thousand virtual machines. They are running somewhere around 400 nodes of containers for elements. One of my big customers is running 6,600 Nutanix nodes.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

There were multiple solutions that were built, integrated, and deployed. All the incident correlations used to happen in BigPanda, SolarWinds, and ServiceNow, and the automation engine used to pick up those events and triggers and then automate them. They were there, but I required resources with multiple skill sets. With Nutanix Cloud Manager's low code solution, with a single click, an L1 engineer can do a task. My life is easy, and their life is easy. There is a productivity gain.

In terms of the comparison of Nutanix Cloud Manager with other solutions, as a supplier, every product is good for me. We just need to find the best and low-cost solution that delivers the functionality, even if that functionality is delivered by a small tool.

ServiceNow CMP is a comparable solution. It does the monitoring and other functionalities, but it does not look into the niche, modern technologies that are there right now, such as the containerized environment and multi-cloud container-native architecture. ServiceNow CMP needs another automation engine to deploy it because while it connects workflows to your end-to-end playbooks, it does not run them, whereas, with Nutanix Cloud Manager, I'm getting everything in a box.

How was the initial setup?

I'm a Chief Architect. Based on the customer's requirement, I do the big-picture stitching for the customer. Once our solutions team picks up the products, I can influence product usage. I'm currently handling database-as-a-service in the UK and Europe. I influence the selection of the products but not deployment.

What other advice do I have?

My advice would be to go for it without asking. As a mid-segment enterprise, you get everything in the box. You don't need to spend more money. You don't need to first spend money on VMware, then on SolarWinds, and then on your automation engine. 

Prism is used a lot in terms of server and service monitoring, but it's not used for observability. It feeds into observability, but I'm trying to explore if it can be used for observability in a service model.

I'd rate it a nine out of ten.


    Emmanuel Nguyen

Efficient VM management, user-friendly, reasonably priced, and responsive technical support

  • May 13, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

I am not using the cloud manager myself. Instead, I am responsible for deploying and implementing it on behalf of my clients. My role solely involves deploying the manager.

From my company's perspective, our main use case for Nutanix revolves around Citrix. We use it for Citrix Cloud, Citrix on-premises, and sometimes for data center modernization. However, the main reason our customers continue to use Nutanix is its multi-cloud visibility and its ease of VM management.

One or two of our customers utilize the built-in playbooks depending on their level of maturity and available resources. The automation goals of these playbooks are important, but the extent to which they are adopted depends on the customer's IT team and their level of readiness.

We have just begun implementing this, so we don't have any feedback yet on how much time it will save on their projects using playbooks.

How has it helped my organization?

We only sell and deployed Nutanix. We don't sell anything else. Because we trust the value of the product and we don't have to manage other products and Nutanix is the best way to satisfy the customers.

Because of its easy deployment, sellability, and fast implementation, Nutanix is a preferred choice. It has excellent performance for workloads and is easy to migrate and move workloads. Additionally, it's simple to convert existing VMware Nutanix clusters to a Nutanix infrastructure, making DR and security easier. Overall, it provides a well-organized and seamless experience.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of this solution are visibility, the single console, capacity planning, the VM efficiencies. We have a recovery plan, security, policies policy security. That's why we implement it with your customers.

What needs improvement?

I believe that Nutanix Central has the potential to enhance the features and management capabilities of the platform. In my opinion, Nutanix Central will be instrumental in further improving this aspect.

I don't anticipate needing any additional features in this area. While I may require new features such as load balancing with Nutanix Flow networking, I don't believe I'll need them from NCM.

Over the past year, we have seen several improvements in Nutanix Cloud Manager, including new dashboards for security and disaster recovery. Additionally, a new dashboard has been introduced.

There are some load-balancing features that are currently missing in the flow network security and could potentially be added in the future.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) for nine years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good.

We have not had any problems with NCM.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The goal is to optimize what they currently have and detect any anomalies, particularly in terms of security, for future expansion. This is why they are using it.

Perhaps it would be better if NCM could be optimized to consume fewer resources.

How are customer service and support?

The support team for Nutanix is exceptional. 

The support provided by Nutanix is the best I have ever experienced. 

Whenever we open a case, the solution is provided quickly with excellent quality. The support team is composed of knowledgeable individuals who can address issues effectively.

I would rate the technical support a ten out of ten.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, I worked with vRealize Operation Automation.

In my opinion, VMware is not as user-friendly as NCM, which is why I did not choose it for our project.

How was the initial setup?

I think NCM is a valuable tool and can provide evidence of its usefulness, but sometimes the decision not to use it comes down to budget constraints.

We don't handle the deployment process ourselves, but it really depends on the specific use case. For many of our customers, their use case revolves around Citrix. As a result, some customers don't require Nutanix Central, since they only run Virtual Delivery Agents (VDA) on the cluster. Therefore, the decision to use Nutanix Central or other tools really depends on the specific requirements of the customer's use case.

The default deployment is okay.

What was our ROI?

We have experienced a positive return on investment due to the VM efficiency that Nutanix provides. It has allowed us to optimize our infrastructure and reduce the number of on-desk nodes. This has enabled us to redirect the budget towards other solutions or add more nodes and features.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

In my opinion, the pricing is reasonable.

The pricing for NCM is appealing when selling to cloud vendors. I believe that the starter level should be included by default in the package. 

This would enable us to offer more features to customers who may not have the budget to purchase NCM separately. By having basic features included in the package, it would be easier to sell additional features and the full stack to customers.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

When we discovered Nutanix and NCM, we were amazed by the simplicity and user-friendliness, and it felt like a revelation. The WOW effect was so strong that we didn't even consider looking for another product.

What other advice do I have?

My main advice to future customers is to be cautious about the resource consumption of NCM and carefully consider where to host the NCM installations.

I would rate Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) a ten out of ten.


    Farouk AYAD

Robust, user-friendly, unified platform , and helpful technical support

  • May 13, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

We use Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) for the hyperconverged platform and to be able to centralize all our workload in a resilient platform.

How has it helped my organization?

We have integrated NCM with our service portal to provide seamless delivery of services, from the demand portal to the deployment of virtual machines. Both the help desk and service desk can manage everything from clusters to disaster protection and protection groups using the same API. We also have integrated IBM into the system.

Regarding Calm, which I am familiar with since Nutanix acquired it, it has become a very useful feature. However, the main concern currently is the licensing issue.

The challenge with Calm lies in its licensing model. We deploy it once, but we cannot manage it afterward, and we cannot purchase more licenses than what we have. When we deploy an application, it consumes a license, which limits our ability to use Calm as intended. Despite this challenge, Calm is a great tool for managing the life cycle of an application.

We use various APIs to enable automatic project delivery and one-click upgrades for all nodes, ensuring minimal downtime during the process.

I cannot give you an exact amount of time saved, but I can say that we have been able to reduce the number of people managing the platform by more than twenty percent since we started using automation and a simplified management approach. This is the best figure that we can provide.

What is most valuable?

The first use case is the hyperconverged platform with back-end storage.

The file management feature is also useful to us. Currently, we are also using Object Store.

Although we have evaluated Calm, we have not yet implemented it as it does not seem to be a valid use case for our role as a broker of IT solutions. 

We do not manage Azure workloads or life cycles, and it seems to be more suitable for developers.

For instance, let's consider File. The benefit of using File is that you can leverage both block and file use cases on the same platform with a single admin console. This makes it a valuable tool for managing storage efficiently.

Consider Files, for instance. Its value lies in the ability to leverage both block and file use cases on a single platform with a unified administrative interface.

We are able to simplify our storage infrastructure by replacing some of the older file system platforms. By using public cloud stores, we can offer new storage capabilities on the same platform, which is beneficial. We can also link these storage capabilities to our Splunk application, making it easier to manage and analyze data.

The primary benefit of using a unified platform is to simplify the management of the platform and reduce the skills required to manage it. 

With the natural attrition of skilled workers, companies must do more with fewer resources, and the most skilled people often lead the company. 

By using a unified platform, we can complete tasks that may have required highly skilled personnel in the past. 

This does not diminish the value of skilled personnel but allows us to accomplish more with fewer resources, which is beneficial for us in terms of simplification and cost-effectiveness.

The solution is designed to be easy to onboard and learn, even for those who have never used it before. This is because it is a unified platform that encompasses multiple technologies, reducing the need for users to learn and maintain multiple systems. 

The unified platform is also very user-friendly and clickable, similar to the Windows environment, making it easier for users to navigate and maintain.

This simplicity also enables the service desk to provide level-one support, which covers basic tasks and troubleshooting, leaving more complex issues to the experts. 

Additionally, the unified platform streamlines the support process, making it easier and more efficient for the service desk to resolve user issues.

What needs improvement?

The flow and management capabilities of the platform could be improved to handle additional features and functionalities, especially since the company currently uses some other solutions from a competitor. 

With the right enhancements, NCM could be capable of handling more features than the current hypervisor and offer a more comprehensive and robust platform for the company's IT needs.

While VMware is no longer part of NCM, it would be beneficial to include additional features such as AHPs, HyperAnalyzer, and similar capabilities found in VMware's ESXi. These enhancements would add value to the platform and increase its competitiveness in the market.

To maintain a competitive edge against ESXi, it's essential to have a dual bundle strategy, which is what we are currently pursuing. Having feature parity at a comparable level is important for us to succeed in the market.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) for more than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability and resiliency of NCM are among the main factors that have kept us using it.

The operational method and process have remained the same since the beginning.

We have continued to use NCM due to its consistent operation method and process, as well as its unchanged UI look and feel over time.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The reason for our ability to scale and extend the platform is due to its scalability. With multiple data centers across different regions in North America, Europe, and APAC, we have a global platform that allows us to add a new team each year to manage it worldwide.

Scalability is another strong point of NCM. We don't have an excessively large cluster, but rather a big one that is very stable, and we can scale it as needed.

Currently, we have over two hundred nodes deployed across various countries, with the majority located in France.

How are customer service and support?

We do not have a direct support agreement with Nutanix as we purchase the entire Lenovo infrastructure. However, our experience with their support has been very positive and valuable.

I have direct contact with the new Nutanix team and they are always available when we need them, providing us with valuable support.

I would rate the technical support a nine out of ten.

There is always room for improvement. 

There is some turnover in our supply chain, with changes happening once per year or once per two years. We experienced a significant shift in personnel in the last two years.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, I worked with Symptivity. It was the first Hyperconverged platform.

Symptivity was a good solution, but at the time Nutanix was just emerging and VMware's VSAN was not yet available. Since then, Nutanix has continued to grow and expand its offerings, while Symptivity did not see the same level of growth.

In my opinion, Nutanix stands out from its competitors because it has invested heavily in developing its platform and expanding its offerings to cover various areas. Moreover, Nutanix has also obtained certifications from different vendors, including Red Hat, which has enabled it to be recognized and accepted in the industry. 

This was something that was lacking in the past, and it has helped Nutanix gain an edge over its competitors.

Nutanix has done an excellent job of ensuring that its platform meets the requirements and standards necessary to be used by a wide range of customers.

How was the initial setup?

I was part of the initial deployment team during the early stages, but at that time, the offering was not the best. However, I am still involved and play an active role in the ongoing growth and development of the platform within the company.

The platform met our expectations and was straightforward to deploy and onboard. We experienced no issues as long as we continued to use ESXi.

We were able to observe how easy it was to handle Nutanix in comparison to Simplivity at that time. This is because we faced a lot of issues with Simplivity, but we did not face them with Nutanix.

What was our ROI?

Although we have seen a return on investment, it wasn't as high as we were expecting. This is because running ESXi on top of the new device platform incurs additional costs in terms of run operations, resiliency, and new capabilities. 

While there are already some benefits, there is still room for improvement in terms of simplifying the platform to further increase ROI.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

In my opinion, Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) is expensive.

Based on what we have, we always aim to meet our pricing requirements and we are open to discussing and negotiating to get the best price possible. However, in my experience, I didn't find the pricing model for Calm to be satisfactory. 

As a large company with numerous instances, the pricing for Calm was not favorable for us. There is definitely room for improvement in this area.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) a nine out of ten.


    reviewer923763

Fast, excellent support, and easy to spin up tenant environments without much administrative overhead

  • May 13, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

We have multiple projects and multiple groups of developers that need an isolated space to deploy VMs and do testing against code, so we use the automated deployment of applications and VMs to spin up their unique environments.

What is most valuable?

It made it a lot easier to spin up these tenant environments with little to no administrative overhead.

It's super fast. It does what you tell it to do quickly.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see it be able to apply a category to a project, and then have that category applied to all the VMs that are deployed within a project. I've been asking for that for about three years.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for about three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It has a rock-solid foundation. The only issue that I've ever seen is the software code not being fully vetted before it was deployed.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's as scalable as the overall infrastructure. It's great.

How are customer service and support?

Their support is excellent. I would rate them a ten out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We are using both this solution and Ansible. There are different components within Nutanix Cloud Manager. I've used a part of it but not all of it.

How was the initial setup?

I was involved in its deployment. It's straightforward and built-in.

What was our ROI?

In the government space, we don't look at returns.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We have the ultimate license, so I don't know what it would cost individually.

What other advice do I have?

If you're going to pick an automation platform, pick one and stick with it instead of having everybody look in different directions.

I would rate it a ten out of ten.


    reviewer2183874

Comes with runway features that help predict strategy for optimization

  • May 13, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

We use Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) mainly for the centralized management of multiple clusters. We're running two clusters under the solution right now, and we'll be expanding to three probably within the next couple of months.

How has it helped my organization?

Using Nutanix Cloud Manager gives me another engineer on my team. The solution allows us to have constant eyes on the environment, and we're exploring some of its additional features for automation for management.

What is most valuable?

Nutanix Cloud Manager's runway features are a big help in predicting strategy for optimization. They help us so that we don't find ourselves in a patch, and we have time to budget with senior management for additional acquisition if required.

What needs improvement?

If you're still running tiered architecture for the storage, it would be good to give stats on the amount of data that is warehoused in the cold tier versus the hot tier. Additionally, it would be helpful to get some visual appreciation of the dataset and identify which VMs are harnessing the bulk of it. You could see an element of this feature in Prism Element that wasn't available in the Prism Pro or NCM.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) for around two to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Nutanix Cloud Manager is a completely stable solution, and I haven't had any issues. We always read the release notes before running upgrades.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would expect Nutanix Cloud Manager to scale. Since our shop is pretty small, we would not plan to scale the solution, but based on what I've read, it is a scalable solution.

How are customer service and support?

Nutanix Cloud Manager's customer support is fantastic. Most of the time, it's a one-call resolution. Fortunately, I don't have to call them very often. I've never had anybody that was difficult to work with, and they always seemed eager to help and follow up.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

Nutanix Cloud Manager's initial setup was relatively straightforward. We worked with our SE when it was being deployed.

What was our ROI?

We have seen a return on investment with Nutanix Cloud Manager. It makes centralized management and viewing much easier without needing to bounce into different systems constantly.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Nutanix Cloud Manager is an expensive solution. However, its value is worth the cost versus trying to aggregate it across multiple other solutions.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did evaluate other options before choosing Nutanix Cloud Manager. We looked at standard three-two-one solutions, but Nutanix Cloud Manager stood out because of its simplified management nature.

What other advice do I have?

I advise users know their goals for utilizing the product ahead of time. Doing this will ensure that when they are deploying and want to create the playbooks, they will get the most value out of the implementation.

Overall, I rate Nutanix Cloud Manager an eight out of ten.


    Pete Sinesio

Helps teams address their current automation needs while planning for future expansion

  • May 13, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

I work at a distributor. We use it for partner-facing demos, and it has been really great. My mission is to help partners see the light with Nutanix, and that's where I use Nutanix Cloud Manager the most.

How has it helped my organization?

It's highly capable. In an organization, you can make it easy to use, but you still have advanced features. You're not simplifying or dumbing it down. You're still enabling an advanced user to design solutions and leverage the full product suite. It's highly capable, so you have that great ability to be successful for a lot of different users. You can have a very low-level, simplified user experience and you can also go advanced. In terms of organization, that's really key. As you get into hybrid cloud IT environments where there's a lot going on, Nutanix storage is very powerful.

The speed of the outcomes received using Nutanix Cloud Manager's low-code automation is very fast. The beauty of it is that because it's low code and no code, even as a beginner, I was able to go in and walk myself through it. I didn't need a lot of coaching or instruction to get there. It was fantastic.

In terms of the importance of these outcomes, it's not just about delivering an outcome. Anybody can deliver an outcome if you offer enough time, but delivering that outcome more reliably and faster enables that business to benefit a lot sooner. They then see the cost get lower. They see efficiency go up, and they start to really benefit from technology as opposed to seeing technology and IT in general as a cost center and as a liability.

It's awesome for helping teams address their current automation needs while planning for future expansion. That's because of the way that it enables a broad variety of users to accomplish what they want in a very efficient and simple way. It brings an iPhone user experience to IT, and that's a really powerful story right now.

What is most valuable?

The best part of it is that when you use the product, there's no secret proprietary magic that you experience as a user. The real genius is under the covers, so it makes the user experience very straightforward and easy. It's a wonderful solution to teach partners about. The ease of use is something a lot of suppliers talk about, but Nutanix does it better than anyone else.

What needs improvement?

Nutanix has room for improvement around the partner tools and making them approachable and easier to learn.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for about one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's highly stable. I haven't had any issues. It's very easy to run, and it keeps running. I don't have to do much with it. That's the beauty of it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The details around scaling, like Prism Central and scaling the resources, are highly technical and get highly specific per use case, but it's always scalable. You can always find the documentation very easily, and it's very straightforward to do so.

How are customer service and support?

Their support is terrific and world-class. Nutanix always talks about their NPS scores, their success, and their commitment to customer service, but I've seen its boots on the ground level. People try to help me even if it's outside of their role. Ever since I stepped into this role, it's been a really wonderful surprise to see Nutanix try so hard to help us. I'd rate their support a ten out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I supported other suppliers in different roles. In my IT career, I worked with a number of different suppliers, typically more on legacy three-tier work, such as fiber channel attachment and the like. All those suppliers struggled to evolve to support modern workloads, and that's where I feel that Nutanix has always been ahead of the game. I chose this role to support Nutanix on purpose. It wasn't by accident that I ended up here.

I can't say that I had this same level of experience with the competitors. We are an HPE shop. We have a huge HPE presence, which is great, and I have experienced a few other hyper-converged providers. I've done some VMware training over the years, but I haven't really gotten my hands on them in the administrative sense. It's not as deep as with Nutanix.

Simplicity is a key function for helping a customer really benefit from technology. You can have technology for technology's sake, but suppliers are really stuck in a world that's proprietary. Even to navigate an administrative tool, you see a lot of proprietary terms, whereas a generalist can sit down and run Nutanix very quickly.

In my role, I didn't really decide on Cloud Manager myself, but in talking to partners and end users, it's a very strong consideration. There are a lot of competitors in the space that Nutanix plays in, so the value that Nutanix brings has to be superior in order for them to be effective, and, of course, they are. That goes back to simplicity and the efficiency that comes with it.

How was the initial setup?

I was involved in its setup for our lab. It was very straightforward. We had some help from Nutanix. Nutanix is always falling all over themselves to help us, which is wonderful. It only took a little while. We just did it via a remote session, and it worked out great. I'm located in Minnesota. My lab is in Georgia. The help from Nutanix was in another place, and we had no issues at all. It was very smooth.

What was our ROI?

It's not necessarily from leveraging NCM or NCI itself just because of the way that it works for us, but our ROI is tied to our partners and to customers in a way. Their success is our success, and that's why we're gaining a lot of momentum with new partners. We're reactivating dormant partners and trying to broaden the Nutanix message. There are a few core partners that do it really well, and that's great, but we try to broaden things, and we have success with it.

For customers, the ROI is primarily around efficiency and simplicity. So as an example, Life Cycle Manager isn't just a great tool for updates and upgrades, it's a way to have happier staff. It's a way to give your staff weekends back, which is great for the staff. They're happy, but it also means you don't pay overtime. There's a win-win there. There's a great symbiosis if that happens when people adopt the technology.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I've never heard a customer ask for a higher price. Everyone says everything is expensive, and that's true. Nutanix is really smart to understand that the most important fact is the value to the customer, not the price tag. 

While you do get some sticker shock sometimes, as soon as you show this and you prove the value, all of a sudden, it looks exceptionally affordable. We've had wonderful success when we get a buying decision in front of an economic buyer, like a financial leader. They start to see the TCO benefits of Nutanix very, very quickly.

What other advice do I have?

Sometimes it's about the little things. It's about what your experience is like and how much time you spend trying to learn how to use the product. It's about how much time and money is it going to cost you to understand their proprietary terms for things as opposed to having a generalist sit down and be off to the races. That can save a lot of hassle and frustration but also time and money. With these projects, it is important to get outcomes, get that workload deployed, and enable a business or a customer to focus on what keeps their lights on, which is probably not managing infrastructure. That's how I see it. 

I'd rate it a nine out of ten. There's always room to improve, but as far as what's on the market today, it's a unique value add.


    reviewer2183853

An affordable product with lots of helpful features and a user-friendly interface

  • May 13, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution in our production environment and test environment.

What is most valuable?

The product is very easy to learn. It has a very user-friendly interface. The technical features of the product are very valuable for us.

What needs improvement?

The solution should introduce more automation features.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. We did not face any downtime.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were using another software with a poor interface and faced some difficulties. Switching to Nutanix Cloud Manager was very valuable because it saved us time and money. Our administrators also say that the product is very easy to use. We get all the features we need in one product.

How was the initial setup?

Nutanix Cloud Manager is a lot easier to set up compared to other products.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The product is very cheap.

What other advice do I have?

We are currently constructing a new building with a new data center. We plan to use Nutanix for our new infrastructure, which will be complete by 2025.

We use automation to create virtual machines for CIS Benchmarks for our servers, which is mandatory for banking systems. The product has a lot of helpful features for creating servers. The tool can handle our current automation, which has helped us.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.


    reviewer2183850

Cost-effective, easy to use, and supports Layer 2 stretching across data centers

  • May 13, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

Our first use case is for ransomware. We have two more use cases that we identified. The second one is going to be for DR, and the third one is going to be for capacity.

Currently, we do ransomware on-prem. We use a shared cluster in our disaster recovery site. With Nutanix Cloud Manager, we hope to use the NC2 clusters in Azure and move all the ransomware activities from on-prem to the cloud.

How has it helped my organization?

We are an insurance company. Data security is our top priority. We take ransomware very seriously. We always want to be careful and make sure that our data is secure, whether it's on-prem or in the cloud. We go through ransom activities at least once a month on-prem, and that's what we hope to do with Nutanix Cloud Manager as well. We hope to continue to provide data security to our business and to our customers.

We use Nutanix Cloud Manager's built-in playbooks. They absolutely freed up our team's time to focus on other tasks or projects. We were looking to use these playbooks for a while. From an automation perspective and from a day-to-day management perspective, creating these playbooks definitely freed up our engineers to focus on more strategic tasks and more solutions than day-to-day activities. They saved about 40% of their time. As we move forward and use more playbooks, we see more and more time freed up. It freed up at least six to seven percent of our engineers' time.

What is most valuable?

The ability to do Layer 2 stretching across data centers is valuable. The migration of VMs from one location to the other is also valuable.

What needs improvement?

There should be more APIs to integrate with different vendors and to integrate with the existing solutions that we use on-prem.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for about a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We had some hiccups with Nutanix Cloud Manager, our on-prem networking solutions, and all that, but as we went on, we overcame all those issues. There has been no showstopper whatsoever. All the issues that we came across were just small things that we had to work through. Nutanix's support has been very helpful. They worked with us all the way to help us overcome all these issues, and so far, it has been great.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We are looking forward to it. We only have a small NCM platform built, but as we move forward, we look forward to using it for other use cases. We definitely want to explore expanding our NCM presence in Azure or in AWS.

How are customer service and support?

Their support was excellent. I'd rate them a nine out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used Azure's cloud-native management. We still use it to some point to manage our Azure entities in the public cloud. Other than that, we haven't used any solution.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was easy. We had help from Nutanix support, which was excellent. We got wonderful support from people who gave us a hand along the way. It wasn't very difficult, and within two or three days, we were fully functional to some extent. As far as the ease of use goes, our engineers love it. They use it every single day. I've not heard any complaints from our users. The user experience that we always look for has been great so far.

Learning is wonderful. There's so much available on Nutanix's portal in terms of the KB articles, knowledge base, user guides, and admin guides for Nutanix Cloud Manager. To have all that available to our engineers online is a great help.

What was our ROI?

I'm sure we will see an ROI. We've only been doing it for a year. It takes time, but I'm very confident that as we grow and mature, we will definitely see some positive returns.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

https://www.peerspot.com/produ...When we started to look at Nutanix Cloud Manager, the cost was a major factor. Management comes into play. Hosting on-prem is getting expensive. We did find a lot of cost benefits to using the NCM and NC2 clusters in Azure. Being a Microsoft partner, we always get a big discount. When we use Nutanix Cloud Manager in Azure or AWS, there is an ease of management. We have a single pane of glass to look through and manage our on-prem entities and Nutanix Cloud Manager. It becomes very easy.

The pricing was very good. We were very pleased with what we were offered by our account manager. Because of that, we expanded Nutanix Cloud Manager, and we hope to expand even more. Right now, we are in Azure, and as we build up more and more within the NCM platform, we hope to expand into AWS as well.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We chose Nutanix Cloud Manager because of the pricing. Also, the features and the capabilities that it offers within the Nutanix ecosystem were very attractive. We've been using Nutanix on-prem for almost six years, and to be able to extend them on the cloud was a no-brainer.

We use Calm for on-prem automation, and we are looking to use Calm for our cloud automation as well. We have PoC flow for Microsec on-prem, and we hope to extend that out to the cloud as well as we segregate the traffic between on-prem and cloud entities.

Nutanix Cloud Manager is very easy to use. Our users and engineers have become very knowledgeable in a very short time, and as far as the cost goes, it has been very effective.

What other advice do I have?

We only started using it about a year ago, and there's a lot more we need to use Nutanix Cloud Manager for. We haven't fully explored all its capabilities from an automation, AI, or machine learning perspective. We hope to use all the built-in features within Nutanix Cloud Manager.

Overall, I would rate Nutanix Cloud Manager a nine out of ten.


    Ian Wayne

User-friendly, attractive features, unified platform, with several automation capabilities

  • May 13, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

We have a group of sister companies with different types of applications, from web-based to server-installed. 

We segment our clusters into different areas for each company to use, from development to staging to production. 

Currently, we mainly use the production area, and our staging is off. With the new NCM, we may use a different hardware or environment. 

Since moving to Nutanix, the development and support teams prefer it more.Due to differences in hardware and workload deployments.

What is most valuable?

One of the solution's greatest strengths is its "Single pane of glass" feature, which allows users to access all pertinent data in one location immediately upon logging in. Additionally, the solution's ease of deployment and mobility are notable aspects that I personally find appealing.

During my attendance at Nutanix, I personally discovered a significant benefit. Although we currently operate a separate division for our public cloud infrastructure, we have yet to leverage the potential of integrating it with Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) or Nutanix Clusters (NC). 

What I've learned is that we can seamlessly migrate and manage the details displayed on NCM's dashboards, consolidating everything into a unified environment. 

While we haven't taken advantage of this opportunity yet, I am eager to take full advantage of it in the future.

What needs improvement?

Our sister company currently uses an outdated database technology, Sybase, which presents challenges in migrating to a newer database. Despite our efforts to encourage them to move to a different database, the company's 25 years of code and data basic make it difficult to do so. 

We are open to any level of support or guidance that can help us manage the Sybase database, even if it's not a fully managed solution. 

Direction on how to scale, improve, and optimize tables and queries within Sybase would be greatly appreciated.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) for less than a year.

The company has been using Nutanix for the past four or five years and has gone through different versions. However, we have been using NCM for about a year to a year and a half.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I am satisfied with the stability of the system. Our engineers have had no issues accessing it and I have not received any reports of bugs or accessibility problems.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This solution effectively addresses our current automation requirements, especially with regard to repetitive tasks that the team needs to learn how to automate. 

As our company expands, we are interested in shifting the bulk of our workloads away from the public cloud and into our private cloud clusters.

Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) offers a lot of automation capabilities that we can take advantage of in the future. While there are already some basic automation features like Nutanix Move, there is significant potential for additional automation within NCM. 

This automation will greatly assist us in scaling our operations without the need for manual repetition. As we continue to explore NCM and prepare for transitioning away from the public cloud, we can leverage a substantial amount of automation to streamline our processes.

The scalability of the system is straightforward, even from a hardware standpoint. 

Simply adding servers to the data center and integrating them into the cluster is a remarkably effortless process. 

I have not come across a solution that offers such ease of scalability.

How are customer service and support?

I have had the opportunity to engage with Nutanix support through various channels, including email, meetings, and post-installation calls. Even when we added two nodes to our infrastructure last year, Nutanix engineers were on-site to install the cluster, and I must say, they provided excellent service.

The support we received from Nutanix through emails has been excellent, with detailed and concise information provided.

Our experiences with Nutanix's account management and technical account management calls in early 2019 were extremely productive. They were highly focused, aiming to gather detailed information about our environment and workloads. This allowed them to effectively assist with scaling out, gaining a thorough understanding of our environment, and troubleshooting as needed. The level of support provided by Nutanix has been consistently outstanding.

Although I am not directly involved, from my observations, everything has been great, including the engineers who assisted us in adding nodes to our cluster. They were very helpful and knowledgeable.

I would rate the technical support a nine and a half out of ten.

On a personal level, I would rate Nutanix at a nine and a half. However, this rating is based on my limited direct involvement and is not a comprehensive assessment from a Nutanix perspective. Taking into account the algorithm used to evaluate performance, my interactions with Nutanix have been highly positive.

How was the initial setup?

I did not participate in the initial setup process.

What was our ROI?

We have experienced a significant return on investment (ROI) through our implementation of Nutanix. Initially, we started with two Nutanix systems, using them in our staging environment. However, as COVID-19 emerged in 2019, we acquired six additional nodes and deployed them in our production environment. Almost immediately after putting them into operation, we witnessed the tangible value they brought. The returns generated from this implementation have been substantial.

We initiated a gradual migration process, gradually transferring workloads into the Nutanix environment. As our workload demands grew, we reached capacity in the system by the end of last year. To accommodate this expansion, we have already acquired and installed a new cluster. Additionally, we have a dedicated disaster recovery (DR) site, and our objective is to transform this DR site into a fully operational production site by deploying another new cluster there.

On one side, we have our production environment, while on the other side, we have our disaster recovery (DR) setup. As we continue to witness the positive impact and returns on investment (ROI), we anticipate further growth in our Nutanix infrastructure. Initially, there was some hesitation and uncertainty, but once we experienced the immediate benefits and ROI, we realized the immense value Nutanix brings to our operations.

Implementing Nutanix brings both cost and time benefits. With an initial investment, the focus shifts toward recovering and maximizing the value of that investment. In contrast, when relying solely on the public cloud, there is a constant ongoing investment and potential challenges in controlling costs. While efforts are made to maintain control, it can still be a never-ending endeavor. However, by adopting Nutanix, engineers can quickly grasp and adapt to the system, making informed decisions and judgment calls more efficiently. This ease of learning and system familiarity empowers them to navigate and optimize the infrastructure with confidence.

With the ease of use and automation provided by Nutanix, our engineers can make informed decisions on workload management such as migration, reduction, or scaling up. This saves them time and provides opportunities for personal and professional development.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated AWS as a file management system, and it appears to be a possible solution.

When it comes to setup, both AWS and Nutanix offer attractive features from a management perspective. However, AWS can sometimes be a bit confusing, requiring repetitive actions and causing potential challenges. 

On the other hand, Nutanix, particularly with the support of NCM and its accompanying university resources, simplifies the transition from learning to live environments. 

The comprehensive coverage in the university program facilitates easier implementation in the actual environment, further aided by features like the test drive, which allows for experimentation without concerns about breaking anything. This emphasis on ease of use was the primary topic of discussion.

From my personal preference, having everything consolidated in a single pane of glass is important, and Nutanix excels in this aspect. 

While AWS has recently introduced cost statistics upon login, Nutanix had already implemented this feature earlier. 

Not only does Nutanix provide a comprehensive overview, but it also allows for effortless navigation into deeper insights with just a click. In contrast, AWS requires more extensive digging or clicking to access detailed information, making the process less user-friendly compared to Nutanix.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) a ten out of ten.