Nutanix accelerates Kubernetes adoption

The company announced broad support for leading Kubernetes container platforms, built-in infrastructure as code capabilities, and enhanced data services for modern applications. These new features allow DevOps teams to accelerate application delivery with the performance, governance, and flexibility of the Nutanix Cloud Platform, while allowing customers to maintain control of their IT operating costs.

“Kubernetes deployments are inherently dynamic and challenging to manage at scale,” said Thomas Cornely, SVP, Product Management, Nutanix. “Running Kubernetes container platforms cost-effectively at large scale requires developer-ready infrastructure that seamlessly adapts to changing requirements. Our expertise in simplifying infrastructure management while optimising resourcesー both on-premises and in the public cloudーis now being applied to help enterprises adopt Kubernetes more quickly. The Nutanix Cloud Platform now supports a broad choice of Kubernetes container platforms, provides integrated data services for modern applications, and enables developers to provision Infrastructure as Code.”

According to Gartner, by 2027, 25% of all enterprise applications will run in containers, an increase from fewer than 10% in 2021. This is a significant challenge for many given most Kubernetes solutions are not meant to support enterprise scale, even less can do so in a manner that is cost effective. The Nutanix Cloud Platform enables enterprises to run Kubernetes in a software-defined infrastructure environment that can linearly scale. Additionally, whether running Kubernetes on-premises or in the public cloud, Nutanix delivers a cost-effective solution that can help lower total cost of ownership by up to 53% when compared to other native cloud deployment solutions. 

New capabilities, including broad support for leading Kubernetes container platforms, built-in infrastructure as code capabilities, and enhanced data services, make Nutanix an even stronger proposition for enterprises looking to deploy Kubernetes at scale. Specifically, new enhancements include:

Broad Kubernetes Ecosystem: The Nutanix Cloud Platform, with the built-in AHV hypervisor, now supports most leading Kubernetes container platforms with the addition of Amazon EKS-A. This builds on a large ecosystem including Red Hat OpenShift, SUSE Rancher, as well as Google Anthos, and Microsoft Azure Arc for edge deployments, along with the native Nutanix Kubernetes, Nutanix Kubernetes Engine (NKE).

Built-In Infrastructure as Code Operating Model: Nutanix also announced an updated API family along with its SDKs in Java, JS, Go and Python, currently under development. This will enable automation at scale and consistent operations regardless of locationーin the datacentre, on the public cloud, or at edgeーboth of key importance to enterprises. Additionally, when combined with Red Hat Ansible Certified Content or the Nutanix Terraform provider, a DevOps methodology can be brought to infrastructure through automation leveraging Infrastructure as Code.

Strengthened Data Services for Modern Applications: Nutanix Cloud Platform’s web-scale architecture enables customers to start small and scale to multi-PB sized deployments as application needs grow. It is the only platform to unify delivery of integrated data services with file, object, and now adding database services on the same platform for Kubernetes-based applications. Today Nutanix launched Nutanix Database Service Operator for Kubernetes, which enables developers to quickly and easily provision and attach databases to their application stacks directly from development environments. The open source operator is available via artifacthub.io as well as by direct download at GitHub. Additionally, Nutanix Objects now supports a reference implementation of Container Object Storage Interface (COSI) for ease of orchestration and self-service provisioning. It also adds support for observability using Prometheus. Lastly, Objects is now validated with modern analytics applications including Presto, Dremio, and Vertica, along with Confluent Kafka to efficiently enable large-scale data pipelines often used in real-time streaming applications.

These new features build on the Nutanix Cloud Platform’s ability to handle the dynamic demands of Kubernetes applications at scale. With the Nutanix hyperconverged infrastructure, performance and capacity scale linearly, resilience is delivered from the ground up with self-healing nodes, and persistent storage is natively integrated. Additionally, the Nutanix Cloud Platform can help deliver cost efficiencies by eliminating unused compute and storage resources. For customers looking at cloud integrations, the same Nutanix value is delivered across hybrid multicloud endpoints with full license portability across edge, datacentre, service provider, and hyperscaler points of presence. 

“When we decided to bring the core platform for our solutions in-house, we decided to take a modular containerised approach to give us the desired flexibility and simplify management by maintaining customisation as configurations,” said Larry McClanahan, Chief Product Officer, Nymbus. “Our partnership with Red Hat and Nutanix gives us the flexibility to innovate, the speed to get to market fast, and the tremendous scalability to support ongoing growth. We’re thrilled that we can better help our customers succeed in the digital banking market with unique solutions.”

"Container development platforms promise faster application development speed, but will only be deployed by organisations who can maintain compliance, day 2 operations, and cost management control at scale,” said Paul Nashawaty, Senior Analyst at ESG. “Nutanix offers a compelling path to speed the deployment of modern applications at scale and in a cost-effective manner, with full choice of Kubernetes container development environments and cloud endpoints."