What is Nutanix?

Nutanix provides a single platform that unifies hybrid multicloud management. The Nutanix cloud platform integrates compute, virtualization, storage, networking, security, and containers, and simplifies day to day management of a company’s IT environment. The Nutanix cloud platform also extends from private to public clouds, currently available on Amazon Web Services, with support for Microsoft Azure under development.

By running the Nutanix software on industry-standard servers, a business can gain all the benefits of the Nutanix solution while also starting with a relatively small deployment and scaling one node (i.e., server) at a time, as needed. Each node includes Intel-powered x86 or IBM Power hardware with flash SSDs and HDDs. Nutanix software running on each node distributes all operating functions across the cluster for performance and resilience.

A single Nutanix cluster can scale as large as the hypervisor cluster it is on. Different hardware platforms are available to address varying workload needs for compute and storage. Nutanix software is hardware agnostic, running on hardware from vendors such as Dell, Lenovo, Cisco UCS, HPE ProLiant, and more.

The image above encapsulates a broad idea that lies at the heart of Nutanix.

At the top are workloads. Workloads are the reason the underlying infrastructure exists and is necessary. They are how a business runs, how it grows, and how it shapes its present and future.

At the bottom are the choices that you have when you consider deploying and running your workloads on Nutanix. Choosing Nutanix is meant to be liberating, rather than restrictive. Nutanix supports several leading hardware platforms, so you can run Nutanix software on your choice of hardware.

And the freedom that comes with choosing hardware platforms extends to the public cloud as well. If you have workloads on AWS, Azure, or GCP, Nutanix integrates neatly and tightly with them, so you can continue to benefit from the public cloud when necessary while leveraging the strengths of your private cloud – in a true, hybrid model.

And in the middle, between the underlying infrastructure and the workloads is the Nutanix Cloud Platform – the products that power this tremendous freedom. When you choose to modernize your infrastructure with Nutanix HCI, the only way forward is up – to better security, to simplified storage, to automated operations, and fully integrated enterprise-grade backup and DR.

Each product represents a key component of the hybrid cloud. AOS, AHV, and Prism are the foundation. Every other product can be layered on top and integrates with this foundation to give you a fully featured enterprise-class hybrid cloud solution.

Acropolis

Acropolis is the foundation for a platform that starts with hyperconverged infrastructure then adds built-in virtualization, storage services, virtual networking, and cross-hypervisor application mobility.

Nutanix delivers a hybrid cloud solution purpose-built for virtualization and cloud environments. This solution brings the performance and economic benefits of web-scale architecture to the enterprise through the Enterprise Cloud Platform, which includes two product families — Nutanix Acropolis and Nutanix Prism.

Nutanix Acropolis includes three foundational components:

• Distributed Storage Fabric (DSF)
• App Mobility Fabric
• AHV

AHV is the hypervisor while DSF and App Mobility Fabric are functional layers in the Controller VM (CVM).

Prism

Prism gives Nutanix administrators an easy way to manage and operate their end-to-end virtualized environments. Prism includes two software components: Prism Element and Prism Central.

Prism Element

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Prism Element provides a graphical user interface to manage most activities in a Nutanix cluster.

Some of the major tasks you can perform using Prism Element include:

• View or modify cluster parameters.
• Create a storage container.
• Add nodes to the cluster.
• Upgrade the cluster to newer Acropolis versions.
• Update disk firmware and other upgradeable components.
• Add, update, and delete user accounts.
• Specify alert policies.

Prism Central

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Prism Central provides multicluster management through a single web console and runs as a separate VM.

The Prism Interface

Prism is an end-to-end management solution for any virtualized datacenter, with additional functionality for AHV clusters, and streamlines common hypervisor and VM tasks.

The information in Prism focuses on common operational tasks grouped into four areas:

• Infrastructure management
• Operational insight
• Capacity planning
• Performance monitoring

Prism provides one-click infrastructure management for virtual environments and is hypervisor agnostic. With AHV installed, Prism and aCLI (Acropolis Command Line Interface) provide more VM and networking options and functionality.