Building Profitable

Cloud Services on a
Nutanix Enterprise Cloud
Version 1.0
June 2016
 Nutanix Service Provider White Paper

Introduction......................................................................................................................6

1. BETTER INFRASTRUCTURE OPTIONS FOR SERVICE PROVIDERS.......................7

Infrastructure Challenges.............................................................................................7
Nutanix Enterprise Cloud.............................................................................................8
Streamline Procurement with FlexPrice......................................................................12

2. GUIDANCE FOR SPECIFIC SERVICES....................................................................14

June 2016
Copyright 2016 Nutanix, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright
and intellectual property laws. Nutanix is a trademark of Nutanix, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions.
All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.

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 Nutanix Service Provider White Paper

Introduction
Service providers of all types play an important role in delivering IT services in an
increasingly dynamic world. By cultivating a deep understanding of the IT challenges
faced by customers, service providers help their customers control costs, increase
agility, and better focus on core IT needs.

To be successful, service providers must create well-differentiated and profitable

offerings. However, they face significant infrastructure challenges. It can be difficult
to onboard customers quickly without significantly overprovisioning resources and
either driving up costs or driving down return on investment. Many service providers
spend too much time managing infrastructure and dealing with the complexity and
inherent limitations of conventional IT architectures.

Many service provider environments still rely on silos

of infrastructure managed by teams of administrators IaaS Saas
with specialized skillsets ranging from networking
to storage to virtualization and so on. As a result, DaaS Mgd. Services DR/DPaaS
troubleshooting customer issues can require
substantial effort and time, affecting customer
AHV
SLAs. Given the number of vendors that can
be involved, finger pointing is almost inevitable
when a problem arises.

Nutanix dramatically simplifies infrastructure for service providers, making it possible

to build new services with far less effort. By combining hyperconverged and web-scale
technologies with enterprise capabilities, Nutanix enterprise cloud solutions provide
the high performance that service providers need at as much as 30% lower upfront
cost than traditional infrastructure while consuming two thirds less space and 50%
less power on average.

With Nutanix, IT teams spend up to 71% less time on infrastructure operations.

The Nutanix FlexPrice subscription model further reduces upfront cost. This white
paper examines the advantages of Nutanix enterprise cloud infrastructure, focusing
on the following services:
Managed Service Provider (MSP)

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Software as a Service (Saas)

Disaster Recovery/Data Protection as a Service (DR/DPaaS)

The next section of this paper describes the challenges that service providers face and
explains how Nutanix addresses those challenges. If your business doesn’t fall neatly
into any of the categories above, the first section will still be valuable. The second section
provides more specifics and resources for each of the five types of services listed above.

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1. Better Infrastructure Options

for Service Providers
INFRASTRUCTURE CHALLENGES
Most of the infrastructure challenges that service providers face are a function of
competition or cost. This section examines some of the most common challenges
experienced by service providers of all types.

COMPETITION
The cloud service provider market is fiercely competitive due to the number and size of
competitors as well as the increasing breadth of services. Public cloud providers such as
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform have become
increasingly agile. To succeed in the face of this competition, service providers need:
• A more agile infrastructure. To compete with public cloud, service providers need
infrastructure that provides a similarly high level of agility.
• Well-differentiated service offerings. For service providers, the ability to offer services
that competitors either can’t deliver or can’t provide at a competitive price is important.
Conventional server and storage infrastructure fails to deliver this differentiation.
• The ability to rapidly pilot and scale new offerings. To stay ahead of the competition,
many service providers need to quickly test new services and scale the ones that
prove successful. IT infrastructure that works well during a pilot project with a few
customers may not scale, resulting in delays due to time-consuming re-architecting.
• Flexibility to evolve quickly. A service provider’s core business three years from now
could be very different than it is today. Existing services may need to evolve or may
be replaced with other types of services. It can be difficult to update conventional IT
infrastructure fast enough to keep pace with the rate of change, creating disruptions
and adding costs.

CAPITAL AND OPERATING EXPENSES

Service providers often face significant capital expense (CapEx) and operating expense
(OpEx) challenges. IT Infrastructure costs are typically the largest capital expense. The
floor for infrastructure costs is being set by public cloud providers with huge economies
of scale. While most service providers aren’t in a position to adopt the public cloud
infrastructure model entirely, they can minimize costs by focusing on standardized,
commodity hardware and eliminating silos of specialty hardware. Improving hardware
utilization and efficiency can minimize infrastructure expenditures.

Two important elements of OpEx for service providers are staff costs and indirect infra-
structure costs. Increasing hardware utilization and efficiency can drive down power,
space, and cooling requirements. Simplifying IT infrastructure reduces the need for
expensive and sometimes hard-to-find storage and networking specialists, making it
possible for each administrator to manage more infrastructure and support more customers.
Spending less time on basic management tasks results in more focus on adding services
and satisfying customer needs.

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 Nutanix Service Provider White Paper

The cost of hardware and software upgrades is also important. Having to rip and replace
infrastructure every three to five years is expensive and disruptive. Some infrastructure
solutions may necessitate expensive professional services for planning and implementing
software upgrades.

NUTANIX ENTERPRISE CLOUD

Nutanix Enterprise Clouds streamline service provider infrastructure. The Nutanix
enterprise cloud platform scales easily and offers maximum flexibility. Advanced features
—including VM-centric and space-efficient snapshots and clones, storage tiering, data
reduction, AHV (Acropolis Hypervisor) and many others—provide a foundation to create
a variety of differentiated and cost-effective services. One-click, non-disruptive upgrades
take the pain out of software upgrade planning; Nutanix eliminates the need for forklift
hardware upgrades with incremental scaling and infrastructure that can be easily reused.

Nutanix enterprise cloud solutions yield major savings versus traditional infrastructure
as detailed in a recent IDC study1:
• 30% lower upfront costs
• 90% reduction in on-boarding time
• 70% reduction in operational costs
• 70% lower ongoing maintenance and support costs

Service providers need agility, simplicity, and pay-as-you-grow economics plus the
security and control of on-premises datacenter solutions. A Nutanix enterprise cloud
delivers the agility of public cloud infrastructure, including fast provisioning and fractional
resource consumption, without sacrificing the ability to satisfy demanding SLAs or
deliver tightly enforced security. Important customer data is always secure and protected.

An enterprise cloud has four key elements:

• Web-scale infrastructure. 100% software-defined, resilient, and distributed,
delivering predictable performance for a wide range of enterprise applications
• Control fabric. Consumer-grade design leverages machine intelligence,
extensive automation, and rich analytics
• Mobility. Applications deployed on a variety of virtual and cloud infrastructure
can be moved between environments as needs change
• Security-first design. Security is not bolted on, but an integral part of the architecture

Nutanix enterprise cloud solutions create a turnkey foundation for delivering

profitable cloud services at an unprecedented pace, reducing the time needed
for service providers to achieve profitability from new and existing services.

1
http://go.nutanix.com/nutanix-pricing-vs-traditional-infrastructure-tco-roi-report.html

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 Nutanix Service Provider White Paper

REASONS SERVICE PROVIDERS CHOOSE NUTANIX

Nutanix has many service provider customers, and the number is growing rapidly.
When asked their reasons for choosing Nutanix, a few consistent themes emerge:
• Reduce TCO. Nutanix offers significant savings in both OpEx and CapEx. Because
different types and generations of nodes can be mixed in the same cluster, service
providers can always buy and deploy the latest technology. The alternative model
results in upfront overprovisioning, which is expensive and leaves service providers
saddled with older technology over a longer period. Nutanix clusters stay current
without costly and disruptive forklift upgrades every three to five years. A simplified
management environment reduces management costs.
• Create new services quickly. Service providers can deploy new services quickly
on Nutanix. With linear scaling, a service can start small and scale out easily as
customers are added. Nutanix accommodates almost any application without tuning,
and eliminates the “noisy neighbor” problems that plague conventional infrastructure.
• Self-service enabled. Add self-service for customers with a choice of OpenStack
controller, other cloud offerings, or an in-house self-service portal.
• Easily repurpose and move equipment. Service provider businesses are dynamic
by nature. Nutanix provides the flexibility to repurpose infrastructure for a different
service or to remove nodes from a cluster and move them to another location as
business needs dictate.
• Eliminate downtime. A Nutanix enterprise cloud is resilient by design and can be
configured to withstand multiple drive and node failures. Should a failure occur,
a Nutanix cluster automatically self-heals, restoring resiliency quickly, without
operator intervention and without requiring hot spares sitting idle. This decreases
risk and also reduces the urgency of replacing failed hardware. Nutanix one-click
upgrades eliminate the need for planned downtime.
• Wide range of platform options. Nutanix offers a variety of node types ranging from
compute heavy to storage heavy to storage only. Both all-flash and hybrid options
are available. Because different types of nodes can be mixed, new services can
be deployed without risk. As the service grows and its needs are better understood,
different node types can be added to deliver the right mix of compute and storage.
Platforms can be chosen based on the needs of the service without re-architecting
or creating a new silo.
• No long HCLs. Nutanix largely eliminates the long hardware compatibility lists that are
common with conventional infrastructure, reducing risk for new service deployments.
• Partnerships and reference architectures. Detailed designs combined with close
partnerships with leading infrastructure and application vendors simplify the
deployment of common services and applications.
• Service and support from a single vendor. Nutanix has award-winning support,
comprehensive global services, and innovative education solutions. Service providers
receive support for servers, storage, and virtualization all from a single source with
no finger pointing.
• Flexible procurement models. With Nutanix FlexPrice, service providers are able to
purchase software in flexible increments. Scale out quickly and economically to test
new services or accommodate seasonal changes and scale in to control costs.

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 Nutanix Service Provider White Paper

HYPERCONVERGED DESIGN SIMPLIFIES SCALING

Nutanix eliminates the guesswork and removes the constraints created by convention-
al IT infrastructure, enabling service providers to get started quickly and scale without
disruption. Taking cues from the infrastructure used by Amazon, Google, and Facebook,
Nutanix combines compute and storage resources with intelligent software, eliminating
the pain points associated with conventional infrastructure. Service providers spend less
time wrangling infrastructure and more time adding customer value.

DaaS Mgd. Services DR/DPaaS IaaS Saas

Virtualization VMware, Microsoft

DaaS Mgd. Services DR/DPaaS IaaS Saas

Qlogic, Emulex
Compute VMware
Microsoft AHV Virtualization
HP, Dell, Cisco, Lenovo

Scale out
SAN Fabric Cisco, Brocade Nutanix compute &
storage

Storage EMC, NetApp, HP, Dell, HDS Cisco, HP, Arista, Brocade Network

Network Cisco, HP, Arista, Brocade

Figure 1: Nutanix converges compute, storage, virtualization, and data protection functions in simple,
scalable building blocks

Nutanix enterprise cloud platforms converge the datacenter stack including servers,
storage networking, storage, virtualization, and data protection. Simple appliances
that scale out one node at a time replace complex and expensive components.
Because each hyperconverged node includes both compute and storage, scaling is
linear. Each added node supports a predictable number of virtual machines, allowing
service providers to adopt a pay-as-you-grow model. Because most I/O is local, the
network impact of adding nodes is low relative to that with separate servers and storage.

Pay-As-You-Grow
Workloads/VMs

Figure 2: Predictable, linear scaling simplifies infrastructure planning, enabling a pay-as-you-grow model.
A Nutanix enterprise cloud can scale linearly, no matter what the service

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DISTRIBUTED STORAGE FABRIC STREAMLINES STORAGE MANAGEMENT

At the core of the Nutanix enterprise cloud solution is the Acropolis Distributed Storage
Fabric (DSF). DSF pools all the SSDs and HDDs across a Nutanix cluster and exports
them to the virtualization layer using industry-standard protocols, eliminating the need
for SAN or NAS. DSF provides all the benefits expected from an enterprise storage
solution while eliminating complexity. This includes snapshots, replication, cloning, and
data tiering as well as data efficiency technologies such as compression, dedupe, and
erasure coding. A single storage pool spans an entire cluster. A Nutanix enterprise cloud
also provides advanced features that are only available by combining storage and com-
pute into a single platform, including data locality and deep integration into the hypervisor.

A Nutanix cluster delivers optimum performance for every workload and adapts auto-
matically to workload changes, so service providers don’t have to spend valuable time
tuning performance. Integrated tiering and information lifecycle management automa-
tically place the data on the best tier and node based on the access pattern, providing
optimal performance automatically. Data is initially stored in the SSD tier and moved
to the HDD tier as it gets cold. DSF continually monitors data access patterns and auto-
matically moves the data back to the SSD tier as it is accessed. As much of a VM’s data
as possible is stored on the node where the VM is running, but all of a cluster’s storage
resources are available to all nodes. When a VM is moved from one node to another,
its data automatically follows the VM in the background.

Nutanix controller VM
(one per node)
DaaS IaaS Mgd. Services Saas DR/DPaaS

NODE 1 NODE 2 NODE N

VM VM VM CVM VM VM VM CVM VM VM VM CVM

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

HYPERVISOR HYPERVISOR HYPERVISOR

X86 X86 X86

ACROPOLIS DISTRUBUTED STORAGE FABRIC

HDD Flash Linear Scale Snapshots Turnkey Block Locality

Self Healing Tiering Data Efficiency Resilience

Figure 3: The Acropolis Distributed Storage Fabric provides optimum performance and advanced storage capabilities

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CONSUMER-GRADE MANAGEMENT AND FULL API INTEGRATION

Web-scale engineering is nothing without a simple-to-use interface backed by a rich
set of REST APIs and PowerShell cmdlets. Nutanix delivers simplicity, agility, and
predictable scale to service provider datacenters. All operating functions are distributed
across a cluster for the highest level of performance and extremely high resilience.
Since any node can assume any cluster role as needed, there is no single point of
failure and management isn’t affected.

Nutanix Prism provides an integrated platform for one-click management of all compo-
nents of the stack with accelerated provisioning. Powered by advanced data analytics
and heuristics, Prism streamlines common datacenter workflows, providing a single
interface from which to manage and upgrade servers, storage, and virtualization.

Prism provides an intuitive user interface to simplify and streamline common datacenter
workflows, eliminating the need to have disparate management solutions for different
tasks. All Prism management functionality is accessible through Nutanix Acropolis
REST APIs and a library of PowerShell cmdlets, facilitating automation.

STREAMLINE PROCUREMENT WITH FLEXPRICE

Nutanix FlexPrice is a purchasing program designed to help service providers quickly
build differentiated and profitable services while better aligning costs with business
needs. With FlexPrice, service providers can procure Nutanix-qualified hardware directly
from the manufacturer (facilitated by Nutanix) and enable Nutanix enterprise cloud
software on a flexible subscription basis. Licenses can be expanded one node at a time
with 3-, 6-, 12-, and 36-month term-based pricing, aligning datacenter investments more
tightly with IT consumption.

Nutanix FlexPrice delivers key benefits for service providers:

• As much as 65% lower upfront capital investment when developing and deploying
new services
• Faster time to market for new differentiated services and higher datacenter utilization
• Scale out to accommodate seasonal demands; scale in to reduce costs when
demand drops
• A pay-as-you grow procurement model delivering improved cost predictability
• Single point of support for IT infrastructure with Nutanix world-class services

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ICORE NETWORKS PROFILE

Service provider iCore Networks Inc. (now a part of Vonage) was recently profiled
in an IDC Buyer’s Case Study. A Nutanix customer since 2013, iCore’s primary
business is unified communication as a service (UCaaS). It chose Nutanix to
support three cloud services it was bringing online: IaaS, DaaS, and hosted
Microsoft Exchange. Primary selection criteria were scalability, availability, and
management. In addition, iCore had an objective to move away from its existing
Fibre Channel SAN. Among the many benefits reported in the study were:

Reduced datacenter footprint

Total footprint was reduced 25%, reflecting a direct reduction in capital expenses
and follow-on savings for co-location costs, power, and cooling.

More granular scaling

Nutanix infrastructure scales incrementally through the addition of single nodes,
lowering incremental scaling costs and enabling just-in-time purchasing.

100% availability
iCore has never had a Nutanix hardware failure that impacted a customer.
Non-disruptive operations including software upgrades eliminate the need
for planned downtime.

Simplified capacity planning

Because compute and storage scale together, capacity planning is much simpler
and iCore spends less time balancing workloads.

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2. Guidance for Specific Services

The following pages provide specific guidance for the five types of services
mentioned in the introduction: MSP, IaaS, DaaS, SaaS, and DRaaS/DPaaS.
To make use of this section:
• Review the content for each service of interest including the questions
at the end of each section
• Be sure to download and read additional resources as appropriate

In addition:
• Read the Service Provider case studies and blogs on Nutanix.com
• Download the following IDC report and case study:
– IDC Buyer’s Case Study: iCore Networks
– IDC TCO study
• Learn about Nutanix security: Information Security with Nutanix
• Connect with Nutanix for a complementary session
• Connect with Nutanix and Nutanix customers on next.nutanix.com
• Follow Nutanix on Twitter @nutanix

When you are ready to talk to Nutanix directly:

• Email info@nutanix.com for more information
• Call Nutanix directly at (855)-Nutanix
• Find more ways to contact Nutanix at our contact page

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Managed Services Providers

Managed services companies provide day-to-day IT management for their customers.
In the past, many MSPs focused solely on delivering services on customer-owned
infrastructure. MSPs today need to offer cloud services similar to what customers
expect from the public cloud along with the traditional MSP offerings. By providing
a simple, scalable, and highly available enterprise cloud platform, Nutanix makes it
simpler for MSPs to offer cloud services, freeing them to focus more time and effort
directly on customer needs.

REASONS MSPS CHOOSE NUTANIX

• Any application, any cluster. A Nutanix enterprise cloud can support any enterprise
application and deliver high performance without constant infrastructure tuning and
load balancing.
• OpEx savings. Reducing administrative overhead and hitting SLAs saves costs.
MSPs benefit from:
– Rapid provisioning.
– Self healing.
– One-click upgrades.
– Ability to identify problems proactively rather than reactively.
• Ability to focus on customers not infrastructure. The key to success in managed
services is focusing on the customer and customer needs.

RESOURCES FOR MSPS

Reference Architectures and Best Practices
Microsoft Private Cloud and Windows Azure Pack Reference Architecture
VMware vRealize Automation Reference Architecture
Acropolis Hypervisor Best Practices
Best Practices for Microsoft Exchange (on AHV, on Hyper-V), SQL Server,
Oracle Solution Notes for SAP, Oracle, SQL Server
Three Ways Nutanix Infrastructure Can Benefit Your MSP Practice
Ebooks
The Definitive Guide to Enterprise Apps on Hyperconverged Infrastructure
Case Studies
IDC Buyer’s Case Study: iCore Networks
Claranet Switches to Nutanix for Hosting Managed Services
Synergics Scales Up with Nutanix for Simplicity and Agility
UCS Solutions deploy invisible infrastructure

QUESTIONS FOR MSPS TO CONSIDER

• How many different management interfaces does your team use every day
(for virtualization, network, storage, data protection, etc.)?
• How many times have you ended up in the wrong tool for the task you needed
to accomplish?
• How long does it take to upgrade capacity?
• How long does it take to upgrade software?

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Infrastructure as a Service
IaaS providers offer virtualized computing resources for their customers, putting them
into direct competition with public cloud providers. As a result, the ability to offer flexible,
agile, and reliable services is critical. Nutanix allows IaaS providers to offer many
features that public providers don’t currently have, such as data reduction, snapshots,
cloning, and support for multiple hypervisors.

REASONS IAAS PROVIDERS CHOOSE NUTANIX

• No “noisy neighbor” problems. IaaS providers have little or no visibility of the applica-
tions running on their infrastructure. By providing data locality, Nutanix eliminates
the problems that occur when using conventional infrastructure with shared storage.
At the node level, no single VM is allowed to consume all the controller resources.
• Cluster flexibility. A Nutanix enterprise cloud gives service providers more flexibility
and a selection of available platforms so services can be tailored more closely to
customer needs:
– Mix platforms. Nutanix provides a broad range of platforms: compute-heavy,
storage-heavy, and storage-only. All types can be mixed in the same cluster if needed.
– Create all-flash or hybrid (HDD and SSD) clusters (in hybrid configs, tiering is
automatic; important VMs can be pinned in flash).
– Choose hypervisors: vSphere, Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV (AHV is included with
Nutanix purchases, eliminating virtualization license costs).
– Move VMs between hypervisors with the Nutanix App Mobility Fabric.
• Ability to repurpose equipment. Switch a node from one hypervisor to another.
Take nodes offline and move them to other locations.
• Rapid, automated cluster deployment. New clusters can be up and running in minutes.
• Less space, power, and cooling. Reduce expenses and reclaim space in crowded
datacenters.
• Self-service portals. Nutanix provides options for all hypervisors.

RESOURCES FOR IAAS

Reference Architectures and Best Practices
Microsoft Private Cloud and Windows Azure Pack Reference Architecture
VMware vRealize Automation Reference Architecture
Acropolis Hypervisor Best Practices; Docker Containers on AHV Best Practices
VMware vSphere Storage Best Practices; VMware vSphere Networking Best Practices
Case Studies
Protected Trust Launches Virtual Private Cloud Servers with Nutanix
For Mason IT, Nutanix Is the Perfect Platform for Hosting Cloud Services
Claranet Switches to Nutanix for Hosting Managed Services
UCS Solutions Deploys Invisible Infrastructure
NTT SmartConnect Builds Cost-Effective Cloud Services

QUESTIONS IAAS PROVIDERS SHOULD CONSIDER

• How do you plan for customer growth? How quickly can you scale your infrastructure?
• How quickly can you allocate more resources to a customer if needed?
• How do you plan and manage necessary hardware and software upgrades?
• What tasks are your administrative team doing today that could be automated?

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Desktop as a Service
DaaS providers host virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and virtualized application
deployments for customers. With DaaS, the greatest challenge is scaling infrastructure
to accommodate growth. A traditional infrastructure solution that works well for a pilot
project may not scale, resulting in unexpected expenses. By converging compute and
storage on the same node, Nutanix eliminates these scaling difficulties, allowing DaaS
offerings to scale without surprises. The same infrastructure that hosts DaaS can also
be used to host IaaS or other services.

REASONS DAAS PROVIDERS CHOOSE NUTANIX

• Take advantage of predictable costs and growth. Eliminate guesswork and
simplify capacity planning.
– Start small and scale to any size
– Each node supports a predictable number of desktops
– Choose VM sizes and go
• Repurpose nodes. Downsize if needs change, or move nodes between sites
to balance load.
• Adapt to customer needs without affecting the status quo. Customize VM sizes
or add GPU-acceleration on some nodes without changing the overall design.
• Leverage validated solutions. Nutanix has reference architectures for Horizon View,
XenDesktop, and XenApp, simplifying deployment and reducing risk. Citrix solutions
are validated on AHV, eliminating hypervisor licensing costs.

RESOURCES FOR DAAS

White Papers and Briefs
Research Brief: Desktop & Application Virtualization Trends and Barriers
Build the Case for VDI
VDI and Healthcare
Reference Architectures and Best Practices
Reference Architecture: Citrix XenDesktop on Nutanix AHV
Reference Architecture: Citrix Validated Design: XenApp and XenDesktop on Hyper-V
Reference Architecture: VMware Horizon DaaS 6.1
Reference architecture: VMware Horizon View on Nutanix
Ebooks
The Definitive Guide to End-User Computing and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Solutions
Case Studies
Serco Calls on Nutanix for Rapid Web-Scale VDI
Yahoo Japan Corporation Chooses Nutanix for VDI

QUESTIONS DAAS PROVIDERS SHOULD CONSIDER

• How flexible is your current infrastructure solution?
• When you expand are you worried about capacity and performance?
• Are you dedicating infrastructure specifically for special requests?

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Software as a Service
SaaS providers deliver internet access to hosted software. SaaS providers need to
focus on delivering value in terms of differentiated software features, not managing
infrastructure. By greatly simplifying IT infrastructure while providing superior scal-
ability and availability, Nutanix frees SaaS providers to focus on software. A number
of Nutanix features support ongoing software development.

REASONS SAAS PROVIDERS CHOOSE NUTANIX

• Cloud experience without the cost.
• No tuning needed. Nutanix infrastructure adapts to the workload without continuous
and time consuming tuning. Nutanix uses the same design principles as Facebook,
Google, and AWS.
– Nutanix sizer determines what infrastructure is needed.
– Analytics can quickly identify any bottlenecks that arise.
– One interface covers all infrastructure management needs.
– Full REST APIs facilitate automation and integration with software.
– One-click software and firmware upgrades simplify management and
eliminate planned downtime.
• Intelligent tiering puts data where it’s needed. For optimal performance,
hot data is automatically stored on flash local to each running VM.
• Integrated data protection. Local and remote snapshots, asynchronous or
synchronous replication, cross-hypervisor DR to optimize costs.
• Tools to support dev/test and DevOps. Clones and snapshots facilitate all
tasks requiring data copies, reducing cost and decreasing time to market.
– Combined with integrated data protection, your dev/test environment can run
using an exact copy of production data on a different hypervisor, optimizing costs.

RESOURCES FOR SAAS

Ebooks
The Definitive Guide to Enterprise Apps on Hyperconverged Infrastructure
Reference Architectures and Best Practices
Acropolis Hypervisor Best Practices
Docker Containers on AHV Best Practices
Hyper-V Storage Best Practices
Hyper-V Networking Best Practices
Case Studies
IDC Buyer’s Case Study: iCore Networks
Pi Upgrades to the Acropolis Hypervisor

QUESTIONS SAAS PROVIDERS SHOULD CONSIDER

• How fast is your business growing?
• What will happen to your infrastructure costs as you grow?
• How much time do you spend managing infrastructure instead of focusing
on applications and customers?

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Disaster Recovery/Data Protection as a Service

Because of the expense of maintaining a disaster recovery (DR) site or secondary site
for backup, many enterprises want to take advantage of the cloud for DR and data pro-
tection. DRaaS and DPaaS providers fill this need. The challenge is to create an infra-
structure that can efficiently ingest large amounts of customer data while also providing
the necessary compute capacity to bring up customer applications during a system
failover. Nutanix offers flexible platform options to scale compute and storage separately
and the ability to repurpose infrastructure quickly to address failover scenarios.

REASONS DRAAS/DPAAS PROVIDERS CHOOSE NUTANIX

• Backup from any customer deployment.
– Storage-heavy and storage-only nodes provide capacity.
– Compute-heavy nodes can be used to support customer VMs during failovers.
– Compression and deduplication reduce total storage requirements.
– No tuning needed. Customer applications run well in the Nutanix environment.
– Support for multiple hypervisors (vSphere, Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV) to match
customer needs.
– Analytics quickly identify any bottlenecks and predict growth rates and needs.
– A single interface for infrastructure management.
– Full API integration.
• No long hardware compatibility lists or matrices. Nutanix environments are
simpler to plan, deploy, and configure.
• IaaS and managed services providers can offer Nutanix data protection and
DR as a service to customers. Nutanix software includes innovative and easy
to use backup/restore and DR features including local and remote snapshots
and asynchronous and synchronous replication.
• Support for native replication. The Nutanix customer base is growing—SPs can offer
DR and data protection services using Nutanix tools these customers are familiar with.

RESOURCES FOR DRAAS/DPAAS

Ebooks
The Definitive Guide to Enterprise Apps on Hyperconverged Infrastructure
Reference Architectures and Best Practices
Acropolis Hypervisor Best Practices
Hyper-V Storage Best Practices
Hyper-V Networking Best Practices
Nutanix and Veeam for Hyper-V
Nutanix and Veeam for vSphere
Nutanix and Commvault Data Protection
Case Studies
IDC Buyer’s Case Study: iCore Networks
Pi Upgrades to the Acropolis Hypervisor

QUESTIONS DRAAS/DPAAS PROVIDERS SHOULD CONSIDER

• How do you currently balance compute and storage requirements?
• How can you predict when you’ll need more gear?
• How many months do you need to plan for?

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Nutanix delivers invisible infrastructure
for next-generation enterprise computing,
elevating IT to focus on the applications
and services that power their business.
The company’s software-driven Xtreme
Computing Platform natively converges
compute, virtualization and storage into
a single solution to drive simplicity in the
datacenter. Using Nutanix, customers benefit
from predictable performance, linear scalability
and cloud-like infrastructure consumption.