Nutanix used its .NEXT conference and expo in Chicago this month to detail and celebrate a new collaboration with NetApp. The alliance sees the companies work to integrate NetApp Intelligent Data Infrastructure technology (built on NetApp enterprise storage systems) with the Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP) service, a technology layer that comes with the Nutanix AHV hypervisor.
The full formation of this union will be finalized later this year.
The two organizations say that they plan to offer users greater choice to optimize their virtualization and data strategies across on-premises, cloud, and containerized environments.
NetApp ONTAP
The new integration is designed to combine the data management capabilities of NetApp ONTAP, including an intelligent, flexible, secure data foundation, with the unified hybrid multicloud operations of NCP.
As all good data science engineers will already know, NetApp ONTAP is a unified, data-centric operating system designed to deliver “sophisticated management” for file, block, and object storage with scalability and data protection across on-premises environments and hybrid clouds.
“NetApp and Nutanix are enabling simple, secure and fast modernization of virtualized environments,” said Sandeep Singh, senior vice president and general manager of enterprise storage at NetApp. “Whether seeking to transform their virtualization layer, data operations, or both, customers need Intelligent Data Infrastructure at the foundation. With our combined capabilities, NetApp and Nutanix will make it easy to run virtualized workloads at enterprise scale.”
Modernized Virtualization & Hypervisor
Looking at what’s on offer here in more depth, we find tools designed to deliver a modernized virtualization and hypervisor layer. The combination of NCP with Intelligent Data Infrastructure built on NetApp technology will offer users a path to modernize on-premises and cloud environments. The joint work is also promised to allow customers to optimize storage while setting themselves up for future flexibility to support modern containerized workloads.
NFS-based integration between NCP and NetApp ONTAP is designed to streamline VM migration to Nutanix, thereby reducing complexity. Nutanix again pledges that customers can look forward to faster data-in-place conversions of VMs measured in minutes with the NetApp Shift toolkit and Nutanix Move, which will enable them to reach full operationality more quickly.
“In partnering with Nutanix, NetApp is furthering its lead as the premier provider of storage and data management for virtualization,” said Dallas Olson, chief commercial officer at NetApp. “Together with Nutanix, we’re giving enterprises the foundation they need to build Intelligent Data Infrastructure with the performance, resilience and scalability to grow with their virtualization needs.”
Offloaded Data Management
Intuitive management across NetApp ONTAP and NCP solution is expected to simplify the administration, troubleshooting, and operational overhead typical of enterprise virtualized environments. The joint solution plans to offload data management to ONTAP to allow independent scaling of compute and storage. Organizations running NCP will benefit from the security, performance, resiliency, and data mobility capabilities of NetApp ONTAP.
“Through our partnership with NetApp, customers will be able to simultaneously modernize their virtualization platform and tap into the power of Intelligent Data Infrastructure with NetApp,” said Tarkan Maner, president and chief commercial officer at Nutanix. “We’ve partnered together so that customers can modernize at their own pace.”
Using the capabilities of NetApp and Nutanix, teams will be able to manage their virtual environments on a VM-granular level, enabling them to manage performance, storage capacity, and recovery methods from a unified management view. Combining NetApp infrastructure with NCP is designed to enable enterprises to confidently protect workloads across the hybrid cloud. The joint solution will offer customers access to NetApp ONTAP Autonomous Ransomware Protection with AI (ARP/AI) and NetApp Ransomware Resilience service to detect threats and exfiltration attempts in real time.
Stable (Future-Proof) Foundations
“This collaboration reflects a broader industry shift toward solutions that combine infrastructure modernization with intelligent data services,” said Matt Kimball, VP & principal analyst, Moor Insights & Strategy. “Nutanix and NetApp are giving customers a long‑term, stable foundation that supports traditional virtualized workloads today and positions them for the cloud‑native, AI‑driven environments of tomorrow that will require data to be managed and used more effectively.”
As the alliance progresses, Nutanix and NetApp plan to work together to accelerate AI innovation by integrating NetApp ONTAP into the Nutanix Agentic AI solution, a full software stack purpose-built to help customers adopt Agentic AI for business transformation.
