Multi-Cloud Capabilities With Nutanix Calm and XiCloud Services for Enterprise Cloud OS

Nutanix, Inc. announced at its .NEXT Conference 2017 that its Enterprise Cloud OS will be delivered as a software stack with multi-cloud capabilities in Calm and a cloud service called XiCloud Services.

These offerings take a fresh approach to hybrid cloud, empowering customers to use the company’s Enterprise Cloud software throughout their multi-cloud deployments, including on-premises with platforms from IBM, Dell EMC, Lenovo, Cisco and HPE, in the cloud via AWS, Google Cloud platform and Azure, or natively with Xi Cloud Services.

In the multi-cloud era, data and applications are dispersed not just across enterprise private and public clouds, but also distributed ROBO and DR environments, as well as edge computing use cases. Enterprises want to build these diverse deployment options into their end-to-end cloud designs, without disjointed IT operations or lock-in to any one virtualization or cloud stack. A single software OS brings a approach to unifying these multiple clouds – across the full compute, storage and network stack – which simplifies operations with common IT tooling, enabling application mobility across clouds, while remaining open to any hardware, hypervisor or cloud.

Nutanix Enterprise Cloud OS Software
Delivered as software, the Enterprise Cloud OS supports a variety of hardware platforms, form factors and third-party vendors, ensuring that a single software fabric with unified management can run across all enterprise environments. It extends beyond Nutanix-branded appliances, OEM offerings from Dell EMC and Lenovo and systems from partner IBM to flexible subscriptions and enterprise license agreements (ELAs) on Cisco and HPE platforms. For consumption as a service, IT leaders will be able to leverage Nutanix software as a native cloud-delivered solution via Xi Cloud Services – seamlessly extending the boundaries of their enterprise datacenter while preserving a consistent, one-click experience.

Nutanix Xi Cloud Services
Xi Cloud Services will empower customers to instantly provision and consume firm’s infrastructure on demand as a native extension of the enterprise datacenter, delivering a cloud service built from the same infrastructure stack with the same tooling and SLAs as the core Enterprise Cloud Platform. The first available Xi Cloud Service will enable the company’s customers to set up, manage and test a complete cloud-based DR service in just minutes. Using the same Prism management interface, customers can protect their applications and data inline with existing workflows as part of their routine IT operations, avoiding the expense and complexity of a separate DR solution. The company will partner with strategic cloud providers to deliver Xi Cloud Services globally, and to meet the data provenance requirements governing multiple industries and use cases.

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Nutanix Calm
Building and operating a multi-cloud architecture requires that applications can be defined, instantiated and scaled independent of the cloud environment. Calm abstracts application environments from the underlying infrastructure and recommends the right cloud for the right workload while harmonizing cloud operations. It will allow applications to be defined via easy-to-use blueprints, which can be provisioned, managed and scaled into different cloud environments. The solution includes an integrated marketplace so that application designs can be shared across the organization to speed the time to production for new business initiatives. Calm leverages the stack capabilities of the  Enterprise Cloud OS across network, compute and storage to holistically converge enterprise infrastructures on AHV, ESXi, Hyper-V, extended to Xi Cloud Services, as well as public clouds including AWS, Google Cloud platform and Azure.

The Enterprise Cloud OS is available as a software-only offering for popular platforms from Cisco and HPE.

Calm is planned to be available for sale by calendar 4Q17.

Xi Cloud Services for DR are planned to be offered for early access by calendar 1Q18.

“We see the next decade as the ‘decade of coexistence’ where there will be a shift of enterprise workloads spread across both traditional environments and public/private ‘multi-clouds,” said Gary Gauba, chief enterprise relationship officer and president, advanced solutions group  and managed services business unit, IT, CenturyLink. “From our perspective, a converged environment that is highly automated and optimized for workloads – which also provides simplified steady-state management and predictive scaling – will be what drives the business.“

“With enterprise architectures encompassing multiple clouds, having a software-driven fabric is imperative for driving efficient IT operations,” Clint Augustine, senior director, IT, The Home Depot. “Nutanix has an impressive track record for delivering powerful software solutions that run across different platforms and is well positioned to help us continue to reduce costs and deliver higher value.“

“Having an infrastructure strategy that covers on-premises data centers and public cloud without also taking edge and distributed environments into consideration is no longer acceptable for modern businesses,” said Eric Sheppard, research director, enterprise storage and converged infrastructure, IDC. “With its Enterprise Cloud OS, Nutanix is once again offering a compelling vision for enterprise infrastructure that aligns with the needs of this new multi-cloud era.“

“Multi-cloud IT strategies require much more than today’s first generation hybrid cloud architectures, which force companies to provision and manage separate IT silos” said Sunil Potti, chief product and development officer, Nutanix. “The Nutanix Enterprise Cloud OS enables ubiquitous consumption of simple, delightful cloud services across any enterprise infrastructure and will be expanded with Nutanix Calm to deliver a consistent experience across all cloud environments, while new Nutanix Xi Cloud Services will enable enterprise apps to be consumed as a service without burdensome ‘forklift’ operations – making lift-and-shift a thing of the past.“

Resources:
Nutanix Xi Cloud Services
Nutanix Calm