Microsoft and Nutanix announce Nutanix cloud clusters are generally available on the Azure cloud. In doing so, Nutanix is ​​taking an important step in its quest to unify hybrid infrastructure.

Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) is now generally available with Microsoft Azure. NC2 is a solution that provides a unified environment spanning an entire hybrid multicloud infrastructure. This means customers can run clusters wherever they want and then run applications on them, regardless of the underlying infrastructure for those applications. In theory, managing the entire environment also becomes easier.

So Nutanix customers can run workloads on the data center in the basement, on AWS or on Azure: the stack remains the same. Nutanix itself also ensures that licenses are not tied to specific environments. Today, NC2 also works with smaller data center specialists such as Equinix, OVHcloud and Cyxtera, but compatibility with Azure is a big step forward.

VMware competitor

Nutanix is ​​neither the first nor the only third party to offer a unified layer of infrastructure to tie complex environments together. VMware already has some experience here with an offer that is available with all hyperscalers. As a younger player, Nutanix states that it shares a vision with VMware, but as a younger player it approaches the problem from a simpler and fresher angle.

The timing isn’t bad either. VMware grapples with its proposed acquisition by Broadcom, which has met with very little enthusiasm. If the acquisition is approved, VMware customers will have an alternative in Nutanix.

cloud, but not always

Nutanix has argued for years that the cloud is only interesting for certain workloads. Think of applications that require rapid scalability. With NC2 on Azure, customers can seamlessly move workloads between cloud and on-premises to leverage the most efficient model.

So the solution is now generally available, but not everywhere. Azure’s US and Asia will be first, with other regions, including those in Europe, to follow soon.