Analyst(s): Camberley Bates, Paul Nashawaty
Publication Date: September 16, 2024
What Is Covered in This Article:
- Understanding PowerFlex
- Understanding Nutanix AHV
- What are the integration points of Dell and Nutanix
- Why this matters to the Enterprise
Analysis of the Dell-Nutanix Integration with PowerFlex
The News: Dell and Nutanix have unveiled a significant collaboration that merges Dell’s PowerFlex with Nutanix’s Cloud Platform and Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV). This partnership aims to address the evolving needs of large IT environments by combining Dell’s high-performance, software-defined storage with Nutanix’s advanced hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) solutions. The integration is designed to offer a comprehensive, scalable, and efficient infrastructure for enterprise workloads.
Understanding Dell PowerFlex
Analyst Take: Dell PowerFlex, previously known as VxFlex and ScaleIO, is a robust software-defined storage (SDS) architecture for performance-centric applications. Operating on PowerFlexOS, it supports various hypervisors, including VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, Red Hat KVM, and now AHV. PowerFlex distinguishes itself by separating storage and compute functions across distinct nodes, which enhances flexibility and resource efficiency compared to traditional HCI solutions where storage and compute are integrated within the same nodes.
The system’s architecture includes two key software modules: the Data Client and the Data Server, along with a Meta Data Manager (MDM) that oversees operations. PowerFlex is particularly suited for large-scale environments with over 1,000 nodes, addressing organizations with high performance and scalability needs.
Nutanix HCI with AHV
Nutanix offers HCI platforms with both VMware and its native virtualization solution, AHV. AHV simplifies IT operations through a unified management interface, integrating storage, compute, and virtualization into a cohesive system. Known for its ease of deployment and scalability, Nutanix HCI is ideal for organizations seeking to streamline their IT infrastructure, particularly those looking to migrate from VMware. However, prior to this integration, Nutanix’s AHV was limited to using Nutanix’s storage solutions, which constrained options for large-scale deployments.
The Dell-Nutanix Integration
The integration of Dell PowerFlex with Nutanix AHV addresses several key needs and brings numerous benefits:
- PowerFlex as Backend Storage: Nutanix AHV is configured to use PowerFlex as its primary storage backend. This involves setting up AHV to recognize PowerFlex storage volumes as datastores, allowing AHV to manage and utilize PowerFlex’s high-performance storage resources effectively.
- Storage Connectivity: PowerFlex supports high-performance, software-defined storage accessed over various network protocols. The integration ensures that AHV can connect to PowerFlex via standard storage protocols, facilitating efficient data access and management.
- Dell CSI Plugin: The Dell EMC Container Storage Interface (CSI) Plugin for PowerFlex plays a crucial role in integrating with Nutanix AHV, especially for containerized applications. The plugin supports volume lifecycle management, snapshots, and clones, enabling advanced storage features within a containerized environment.
- Unified Management: Nutanix provides a unified management interface through its Prism console, while PowerFlex includes its own management tools and APIs. These tools can work in conjunction to offer a comprehensive view of both storage and virtualization components. Although PowerFlex’s management is not yet fully integrated with Nutanix’s Prism, future plans include this integration to simplify overall management.
- High Availability and Resiliency: The integration enhances high availability and failover scenarios. PowerFlex’s architecture includes data replication and fault tolerance, while Nutanix AHV ensures high availability for virtual machines. Together, these features provide a resilient infrastructure that maintains workload accessibility and performance in the event of hardware or software failures.
The Dell-Nutanix partnership delivers significant value through:
- Scale and Performance: The integration offers high-end storage performance and the ability to scale effectively, making it suitable for large-scale enterprise environments.
- Cost Efficiency: PowerFlex’s disaggregated architecture allows for better resource allocation and potentially reduced costs, while Nutanix’s HCI model offers a lower initial cost. This combination can lead to substantial cost savings and more efficient use of resources.
- Management Simplification: Although full integration of PowerFlex management with Nutanix’s Prism is planned for the future, the current setup already simplifies operations by providing advanced storage capabilities within the Nutanix AHV environment.
Outlook
The Dell-Nutanix collaboration with PowerFlex marks a strong offering for enterprise IT environments. By combining Dell’s high-performance, software-defined storage with Nutanix’s AHV platform, the partnership addresses critical challenges related to scalability, management complexity, performance optimization, and potentially cost efficiency. This solution should do well in addressing HCI environments, particularly large-scale VDI and virtual server environments. We look to see gains with the container market, as more adoption occurs.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
Other insights from The Futurum Group:
Thinking About AI – Dell, IBM and Nutanix Round Up – Infrastructure Matters, Episode 42
Migrating 800 VMs to Nutanix Was No Problem, Business as Usual
Author Information
With over 25 years of experience, Paul has a proven track record in implementing effective go-to-market strategies, including the identification of new market channels, the growth and cultivation of partner ecosystems, and the successful execution of strategic plans resulting in positive business outcomes for his clients.
Now retired, Camberley brought over 25 years of executive experience leading sales and marketing teams at Fortune 500 firms. Before joining The Futurum Group, she led the Evaluator Group, an information technology analyst firm as Managing Director.
Her career spanned all elements of sales and marketing including a 360-degree view of addressing challenges and delivering solutions was achieved from crossing the boundary of sales and channel engagement with large enterprise vendors and her own 100-person IT services firm.
Camberley provided Global 250 startups with go-to-market strategies, creating a new market category “MAID” as Vice President of Marketing at COPAN and led a worldwide marketing team including channels as a VP at VERITAS. At GE Access, a $2B distribution company, she served as VP of a new division and succeeded in growing the company from $14 to $500 million and built a successful 100-person IT services firm. Camberley began her career at IBM in sales and management.
She holds a Bachelor of Science in International Business from California State University – Long Beach and executive certificates from Wellesley and Wharton School of Business.
