Nutanix Extends Hypervisor Choice

Nutanix, Inc. announced the availability of its support for Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V.

The company becomes a converged infrastructure provider with native support for three hypervisors: vSphere, Hyper-V and KVM.

This hypervisor-agnostic approach delivers a common data fabric to power hybrid enterprise datacenters running different workloads across multiple virtualization technologies.

Nutanix’s software-driven architecture delivers high-performance enterprise storage services and data analytics that run and scale independent of the virtualization layer. It eliminates the cost and complexity of traditional storage technologies, such as SAN and NAS-based arrays, by converging compute and storage resources into a single, easy-to-deploy appliance.

With support for Windows Server 2012 R2 storage and virtualization protocols, Nutanix Virtual Computing Platform provides a range of hypervisor platforms and compatibility for thousands of enterprise workloads, including services such as SQL Server and Exchange.

Additionally, this new release provides a high-perforance and storage efficient infrastructure solution for Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp running on Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V. In support of this capability, Nutanix has published a new reference architecture to assist customers deploying Citrix XenDesktop and Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V solutions on the company’s Virtual Computing Platform.

“By offering support for Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V, our customers can now run workloads on the hypervisor of their choice,” said Rajiv Mirani, VP of engineering, Nutanix. “Native Microsoft support provides feature parity for all datacenter capabilities so there is zero compromise of server or storage functionality regardless of the hypervisor deployed.”

“Microsoft is committed to the success of service providers and enterprises, and Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V delivers industry-leading virtualization and cloud capabilities for the most demanding environments,” said Mike Schutz, GM, product marketing, Microsoft. “By supporting Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V, Nutanix and Microsoft are working to ensure consistency, scalability, and flexibility in heterogeneous environments that use the Nutanix converged infrastructure platform.”

“The joint deployment of the Nutanix Virtual Computing Platform with Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V has reduced the TCO of our datacenter, while also simplifying management and increasing workload capabilities and performance,” commented, Jochen Martens, CEO, Synergics.

Support for Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V is available at no cost to new customers and to existing customers with a valid Nutanix support agreement. The Nutanix Reference Architecture for Citrix XenDesktop is available here (registration needed).