Technology : Nutanix HCI Connectivity with Dell and Pure Storage

Nutanix HCI Connectivity with Dell and Pure Storage

Nutanix HCI Connectivity Overview

• Nutanix’s Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) solution enables connectivity with external storage systems, including products from Dell and Pure Storage. This provides flexibility, allowing customers to leverage Nutanix’s compute capabilities while utilizing storage from other providers.

• Nutanix’s HCI integrates compute, storage, and networking into a software-defined system, simplifying management and scalability. However, in some cases, customers require integration with external storage to meet specific needs, such as large-scale storage for AI applications or maintaining existing systems. Nutanix has expanded its capabilities to support integrations with providers like Dell and Pure Storage, enabling more flexible management of compute and storage.

• According to Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure for External Storage, Nutanix introduced Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) for External Storage, allowing external storage management as part of the Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP) deployment. This complements traditional HCI, offering flexible deployment options to meet diverse organizational needs, such as separate compute and storage management when required.

Integration with Dell PowerFlex

• Nutanix announced general availability of its integration with Dell PowerFlex, as detailed in Dell Launches PowerFlex With Nutanix Cloud Platform For Better SDI. This collaboration merges Dell’s high-performance, scalable storage with Nutanix’s software-defined architecture, providing a unified solution for IT modernization.

• Technical Details: Management is performed through Nutanix’s Prism interface, where operations like snapshot creation and replication are initiated from Prism and executed on PowerFlex. This ensures simplicity, even with external storage, as noted in Dell PowerFlex and Nutanix.

• Benefits: Suitable for mission-critical environments like finance, healthcare, and public sectors, offering scalability, performance, recoverability, and security. This is highlighted in Dell PowerFlex With Nutanix Cloud Platform: Flexibility and Choice for Modern IT Environments.

• Market Context: This integration marks Dell PowerFlex as the first external storage integrated with NCP, a significant milestone, as per Dell PowerFlex with Nutanix Cloud Platform is Now Generally Available.

Integration with Pure Storage FlashArray

• Nutanix also integrated with Pure Storage FlashArray, as outlined in Nutanix marries cloud-native infra with Pure Storage and agentic AI. Announced at Nutanix .Next 2025 in Washington DC, this integration aims to reduce risks from VMware commitments post-Broadcom acquisition and scale for AI workloads.

• Technical Details: Management is through Prism, supporting backup, snapshot creation, and disaster recovery (DR). Nutanix AOS (Acropolis Operating System) is modular, reducing integration risks, especially when switching to IP-based storage from Fibre Channel, as noted in Announcing a New Deeply Integrated Solution with Nutanix.

• Scalability: External storage clusters can scale to hundreds of nodes, compared to traditional Nutanix HCI clusters (6-8, 8-12, or 16 nodes), offering advantages for large-scale applications, as per Pure Storage, Nutanix Unveil New Hyperconverged Infrastructure With Pure FlashArray.

• Supplementary Solutions: Nutanix collaborates with Cisco for "FlashStack with Nutanix," combining Pure Storage, Cisco UCS servers, and Nutanix Cloud Platform, enhancing unified visibility, as mentioned in Nutanix expands beyond HCI.

Comparative Analysis

The following table provides a detailed comparison of the integration capabilities with Dell and Pure Storage:

Criteria	Dell PowerFlex	Pure Storage FlashArray
Integration Status	General Availability (April 2025)	Early Access (announced May 2025)
Management	Through Prism, supports snapshots, replication	Through Prism, supports snapshots, replication, DR
Main Applications	Finance, healthcare, public sector, large environments	AI, reducing VMware risks, scaling up
Architecture	Integrated with Nutanix compute, managed through Prism	IP-based integration, independent of hypervisor
Additional Benefits	Suitable for mission-critical environments	Supports FlashStack solution with Cisco

Market Trends and Implications

• According to Nutanix opens up to all external storage, the HCI market currently accounts for about 20%, with 80% still using traditional three-tier models, driven by inertia. Nutanix’s strategy to support external storage aims to penetrate this market, offering compute-only platforms and reducing VMware dependency, especially post-Broadcom acquisition.

• Additionally, external storage support helps Nutanix compete with VMware by providing an alternative hypervisor (AHV) and independent management platform. This is emphasized in articles from Nutanix breaks the bounds of HCI again with Pure Storage linkup and Nutanix partners with Pure Storage in latest VMware assault, indicating Nutanix’s move toward a universal software platform that supports running everything anywhere.

Conclusion

• Nutanix’s HCI solution effectively connects with Dell PowerFlex and Pure Storage FlashArray, offering flexibility, Prism-managed simplicity, and scalability, particularly for AI applications and VMware risk reduction.

• These integrations are part of Nutanix’s expansion strategy, enabling customers to leverage HCI benefits while utilizing external storage when necessary, aligning with market trends as of June 2025.

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