IBM and Nutanix has announced a multi-year initiative to bring new workloads to hyperconverged deployments. IBM POWER and Nutanix Software target high performance workloads delivered via one-click private clouds.

The integrated offering aims to combine Nutanix’s Enterprise Cloud Platform software with IBM Power Systems, to deliver a turnkey hyperconverged solution targeting critical workloads in large enterprises. The partnership plans to deliver a full-stack combination with built-in AHV virtualization for a simple experience within the datacenter.

In today’s technology landscape, processing real-time information is necessary but not sufficient. Being able to react in real-time used to give enterprises a competitive advantage, but this approach no longer guarantees happy customers. The value has now migrated to the ability to rapidly gather large amounts of data, quickly crunch and predict what’s likely to happen next – using a combination of analytics, cognitive skills, machine learning and more. This is the start of the insight economy.

Handling these kinds of workloads present unique challenges – needing a combination of reliable storage, fast networks, scalability and extremely powerful computing. It seems like private datacenters that were designed just a few years ago are due for a refresh – not only in the technology, but also in the architectural design philosophy. This is where the combination of IBM Power Systems and Nutanix comes in.

This joint initiative intends to bring new workloads to hyperconverged deployments by delivering the first simple-to-deploy, web-scale architecture supporting POWER based scale-out computing for a continuum of enterprise workloads, including:

• Next generation cognitive workloads, including big data, machine learning and AI
• Mission-critical workloads, such as databases, large scale data warehouses, web infrastructure, and mainstream enterprise apps
• Cloud Native Workloads, including full stack open source middleware and enterprise databases and Containers

With a shared philosophy based on open standards, a combination of Nutanix and IBM will be designed to bring out the true power of software-defined infrastructure – choice – for global 2000 enterprises, with plans for:

• A simplified private enterprise cloud that delivers POWER architecture in a seamless and compatible way to the datacenter
• Exclusive virtualization management with AHV, advanced planning and remediation with Machine Learning, App Mobility, Microsegmentation and more, with one-click automation
• A fully integrated one-click management stack with Prism, to eliminate silos and reduce the need for specialized IT skills to build and operate cloud-driven infrastructure
• Deploying stateful cloud native services using Acropolis Container Services with automated deployment and enterprise-class persistent storage

“Hyperconverged systems continue on a rapid growth trajectory, with a market size forecast of nearly $6 billion by 2020¹. IT teams now recognize the need, and the undeniable benefits, of embracing the next generation of datacenter infrastructure technology,” said Stefanie Chiras, VP Power Systems at IBM. “Our partnership with Nutanix will be designed to give our joint enterprise customers a scalable, resilient, high-performance hyperconverged infrastructure solution, benefiting from the data and compute capabilities of the POWER architecture and the one-click simplicity of the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform.”

“With this partnership, IBM customers of Power-based systems will be able to realize a public cloud-like experience with their on premise infrastructure,” said Dheeraj Pandey, CEO at Nutanix. “With the planned design, Enterprise customers will be able to run any mission critical workload, at any scale, with world-class virtualization and automation capabilities built into a scale out fabric leveraging IBM’s server technology.”

Nutanix CEO Dheeraj Pandey explains these new data center products are like smartphones in that they have integrated a raft of once-separate devices into one attractive package. Just as today’s smartphones incorporate a phone, GPS, calendars, and a camera into one slick device, these new data center appliances put together server, networking, and storage hardware into one package all run by the same software.

Pricing and Availability

The IBM and Nutanix initiative will bring options for clients and a seamless experience for these clients, and will be sold exclusively through IBM sales force and channel partners. Specific timelines, models and supported server configurations will be announced at the time of availability.