AHVHypervisor
Virtualisation
The hypervisor included with the platform. Live migration, high availability, automated restart on node failure and VM-level snapshots — without a separate hypervisor licence to renew.
Nutanix Solutions
← Private Cloud & HCI
Hyper-converged infrastructure at scale
Nutanix: the private cloud platform for a growing estate
One software platform across every node, every cluster and every site — hypervisor, distributed storage, micro-segmentation and management in a single stack. We design it, build it, migrate you onto it, and run it if you want us to.
Why Nutanix
Where Nutanix earns its place
Nutanix is the broader of the two platforms we deploy. That breadth earns its keep where the estate keeps growing — more clusters, more sites, tighter recovery obligations, and a wider automation ecosystem to build on.
- It scales past a single cluster. Prism Central manages many clusters and sites from one console, so growth does not mean another silo and another login.
- DR is a first-class feature, not an add-on. Runbooks, orchestrated failover and non-disruptive testing — the difference between having replication and being able to prove recovery.
- You are not forced off ESXi on day one. Nutanix runs AHV or ESXi, so you can consolidate hardware first and change hypervisor on your own timetable.
- Storage services are built in. Block, file and object from the same pool, with deduplication, compression and erasure coding — no separate array to size, licence and patch.
- It handles the awkward workloads. VDI at scale and latency-sensitive databases are where the platform's data-locality design shows up in real numbers.
The platform
What you are actually licensing
Four components, one software stack, one support relationship.
DSFStorage
Distributed Storage Fabric
Every node's NVMe and SSD capacity pooled into one fault-tolerant store. Data is kept local to the VM that uses it, with deduplication, compression and erasure coding applied per workload rather than per array.
PrismManagement
Prism & Prism Central
One console for VM lifecycle, storage health, capacity forecasting and alerting. Prism Central extends the same view across multiple clusters and sites, with role-based access for your team.
FlowNetwork
Micro-segmentation
Policy-based segmentation between workloads inside the cluster, so a compromised VM cannot move laterally — enforced in software, without re-cabling or new VLANs.
Where we see it used
Four situations that lead here
Consolidating a three-tier estate
Servers and SAN coming off support together. One cluster replaces both, and capacity grows a node at a time instead of by array refresh.
Leaving VMware
Renewal has moved sharply and the licensing model no longer fits. AHV replaces ESXi outright, and Nutanix lets you move in stages rather than all at once.
Two sites, one platform
A production site and a DR site under one management plane, with orchestrated failover you can actually test without booking a weekend.
VDI and remote work
Desktop workloads are bursty and storage-hungry — exactly the pattern the distributed fabric is designed around.
ERP and database platforms
Where shared infrastructure has produced unpredictable latency and the business has stopped trusting the numbers.
Regulated workloads
Data that cannot leave your jurisdiction, with the segmentation and audit position to demonstrate it.
What we do
From assessment to steady state
1 · Assess & size
We measure what you actually run — CPU, memory, IOPS and growth — and size the cluster to it. If Nutanix is the wrong answer for your estate, we say so.
2 · Design
Node specification, network design, failure domains, backup integration and the licensing shape that fits how you buy.
3 · Deploy
Procurement, rack and stack, cluster build, Prism configuration, Active Directory and monitoring integration.
4 · Migrate
Workloads moved in planned waves with rollback at every step, and cutover scheduled around your business.
5 · Operate (optional)
Monitoring, firmware and OS patching, capacity review and SLA-bound escalation — 24/7 if you want the platform run for you.
6 · Optimise
Periodic right-sizing from real telemetry, so idle VMs are reclaimed and the next node is bought when it is genuinely needed.
Engagement
Two ways to buy it
Option one
Implementation only
We assess, design, procure, build and migrate. You get documentation, a handover session and a platform your team owns outright. No retainer, no ongoing commitment.
Best when you have IT staff who will run day-to-day operations.
Option two — optional
Implementation plus ongoing operations
Add the platform to one of our service plans and we run it with you, or for you.
GigaExtendYou have an IT team. We sit behind them with the platform, tooling and escalation.
GigaManaged ITWe run all of IT, infrastructure included, as your outsourced department.
Questions we get asked
Before you shortlist
How many nodes do we need to start?
Three is the normal minimum for a resilient cluster, because the storage needs somewhere to keep its copies when a node is down or being patched. Smaller configurations exist for edge and DR sites; the assessment will tell you which applies.
Do we have to move off VMware to use Nutanix?
No. Nutanix runs ESXi as well as its own AHV hypervisor. Plenty of customers consolidate the hardware first, stay on ESXi through the migration, then move hypervisor once the estate is stable — which turns one large project into two manageable ones.
What happens to our existing backup product?
It keeps working. We integrate the cluster with what you already run — most commonly Veeam — rather than replacing it. Cluster snapshots and replication protect against infrastructure failure; backup protects against ransomware and deletion, and you want both.
Can we run it in a co-location facility instead of our own room?
Yes. Your datacenter if it meets the power and cooling requirements, any co-location facility if it does not, or split across both for DR.
Is Nutanix more platform than we need?
Sometimes, and we will tell you when it is. If what you want is the whole stack from one vendor with less to license and less to operate, Sangfor HCI reaches the same private cloud outcome with a more tightly integrated platform.
Don't stop at the cluster
Replication protects you from a node or a site failing. It does not protect you from ransomware or a deletion that replicates faithfully to both ends. See backup solutions for the off-site copy that sits alongside the cluster.
Find out whether Nutanix fits your estate
We assess what you run today, size the platform against it, and give you an honest recommendation — including the case for Sangfor HCI, or for staying where you are.