Nutanix HCI

Main article: IT Service Management (ITSM)

Nutanix HCI is this infrastructure that allows you to expand the virtual environment by adding nodes, while the software subsystem does everything else. For June 2020, with the help of a hyperconvergent Nutanix HCI solution, you can run any application on any scale.

2021

Integration with Citrix DaaS and Virtual Apps and Desktops

On October 1, 2021, Nutanix announced a strategic partnership with Citrix Systems, in which they will offer on-demand access to applications, desktops and data from any device, anywhere and on a scale, using the Nutanix HCI hyperconvergent infrastructure and Citrix DaaS and Virtual Apps and Desktops multi-cloud services.

Nutanix announces integration of Nutanix HCI and Citrix DaaS and Virtual Apps and Desktops multi-cloud services

Organizations are still looking for robust and flexible solutions to provide a hybrid work model. Nutanix and Citrix will jointly provide remote solutions that can be deployed in private and public clouds. Combining the simplicity of the hyperconvergent platform from Nutanix with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops services, the product will help optimize the work capabilities of employees wherever they are. narrated by Tarkan Maner, commercial director of Nutanix

In partnership:

• Nutanix will be the preferred HCI platform for Citrix in hybrid and multi-cloud environments. The Nutanix platform provides an IT environment for Citrix virtual application and desktop services. Users can take advantage of the HCI platform in the industry - locally or in the public cloud - for simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and a single dashboard that enables the mobility of cloud workloads .
• Citrix is an enterprise end-user computing solution based on the Nutanix platform. Delivered as part of Citrix Workspace, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops enables organizations to provide personalized access to systems, information, and tools through a single environment. It dynamically applies security policies based on analysis of the environment and behavior of users so that they can work when, where, and how they want. The Citrix broker for virtual desktop infrastructure is already used by thousands of Nutanix clients. They will benefit from a single digital workspace support platform that delivers application and data security, efficiency, and productivity across industries and use cases.

Through collaboration, Nutanix and Citrix will provide a full suite of Desktop as a Service (DaaS) services through the ability to purchase and manage Citrix environments on the Nutanix platform. Companies will work together on product launch programs, roadmaps, and customer support.

Companies around the world are moving quickly to a hybrid work environment. Citrix and Nutanix will give customers "building blocks" so that they can make the transition and gain competitive opportunities from attracting and retaining talent and scaling operations. told Hector Lima, Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer of Citrix

Simplify data management and big data processing

On September 27, 2021, Nutanix announced additional Nutanix platform capabilities that simplify data management, optimize database performance, and process large amounts of data for critical applications. Nutanix provides tiered storage of unstructured data in a local environment and in the cloud with 2x database storage performance and 3x large data. Nutanix Data Lens is now available to manage unstructured data. In addition, the Nutanix Era service provides one-click storage scaling and enhanced role-based access control for PostgreSQL, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle Database databases in hybrid multi-cloud environments.

Companies store different types of data - both structured and unstructured - and want to make working with them convenient without resorting to the help of many suppliers, "said Rajiv Mirani, technical director of Nutanix. - These features in the Nutanix platform extend our data technologies to high-performance systems to provide a single platform with built-in data services for all workloads and types of data.

Customers who need to run large-scale databases will be able to increase performance up to 2 times without complex storage configuration changes. They can also reduce storage latency by taking advantage of hardware technologies such as Intel Optane, combined with Nutanix's preferred data hosting technology.

In addition, Nutanix simplified the execution of analytical workloads, including Hadoop and SAS Grid workloads. This Nutanix replication ratio mode allows you to process data 3 times faster while reducing costs. Finally, Nutanix Objects - S3 compatible object storage solution supports high-performance petabyte-scale storage to create "data lakes." Companies working with analytics applications such as Apache Spark will benefit from significantly improved query and big packet processing performance with S3 Select and optimized S3A support.

Nutanix Era now supports multi-region failover capabilities, providing enhanced fault tolerance by providing a high availability database as a service.

Nutanix introduced cloud service Nutanix Data Lens, designed to manage unstructured data and protect it from threats. The service provides information information about unstructured data stored in Nutanix unified storage locally or in a public cloud, including access schemes, data age, data types, and other information. Nutanix Data Lens simplifies data lifecycle management and protects against attacks ransomware by detecting and blocking suspicious files data and warning of abnormal activity.

In addition, Nutanix will help customers manage unstructured data growth with built-in tiered storage support for Nutanix Objects, AWS S3, and blob Azure storage. For file resources, Nutanix Files provides self-healing and disaster recovery features with an RPO of 1 minutes.

The Nutanix Era features presented for September 2021 are available to customers. Nutanix's advanced database and big data support and unstructured data management features are under development.

Updated virtual networking and disaster recovery capabilities

On September 23, 2021, Nutanix announced additional features of the Nutanix platform, including the release of AOS 6 version, to help companies create software-defined data centers and accelerate the deployment of hybrid multi-cloud environments. Features include advanced virtual network deployment and disaster recovery capabilities, as well as compliance with the "zero trust" security policy. They are all integrated into the platform and managed through a single interface, which reduces transaction costs. Their separate implementation (outside the Nutanix platform) would require specialized skills, software and equipment from companies.

Customers need cloud solutions for their specific needs, which means solutions are simple, flexible, providing freedom of choice of technologies, "said Rajiv Mirani, technical director of Nutanix. - Nutanix continues to erase the boundaries of isolated environments in enterprise IT to simplify operations so customers can focus on business. The added features address common challenges faced by many enterprises in multi-cloud environments such as security, disaster recovery, and virtual networks.

Nutanix AOS 6 can include the capabilities of Flow Networking, a network virtualization solution using the AHV hypervisor, which simplifies network operations through a single software-controlled panel. Companies and providers will be able to create virtual private clouds (VPCs) to offer users cloud flexibility with minimal reliance on hardware switches and routers.

Flow Networking also offers VPN capabilities that allow you to connect and expand virtual networks to any public and private cloud infrastructure. Providing on-demand cloud connections without the need to use dedicated physical devices and configure them reduces costs and simplifies operations for customers.

Customers using the Nutanix platform with AOS 6 receive built-in Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) features that were previously available only in specialized solutions. AOS 6 provides the ability to use the public cloud as a backup site, Metro clustering support for the AHV hypervisor, providing automatic failover, and end-to-end traffic encryption during disaster recovery. The updated dashboard provides a complete view of the configuration and state of disaster recovery at the primary and standby sites. All this allows you to abandon specialized equipment and software, reduce license costs, reduce recovery time, simplify operations, and, in some cases, eliminate expensive "hot backup." Small companies that did not have the budget and the necessary skills will be able to implement disaster recovery in order to better protect themselves from force majeure situations.

More organizations are taking a zero-trust approach, but developing and implementing effective security policies is complex and can be a major obstacle, especially for hybrid environments. The special functionality of SaaS Flow Security Central of the Nutanix platform eliminates these difficulties. The automated application of Flow microsegmentation policies is based on machine-based training, which analyzes network traffic and recommends security policies to protect applications on virtual machines from potential attacks.

In addition, Nutanix provides integration Qualys with a vulnerability detection and response solution (VMDR). This simplifies the installation of security patches by detecting threats and visualizing vulnerability risks that target virtual machines. Advanced protection in Nutanix Files detects and prevents threats based on updatable signatures that bases already contain more than 4000 signatures already known. ransomware Finally, the Nutanix AOS, AHV and Files products are approved for inclusion in the Approved Products List (DoDIN APL) US Department of Defense after completion of comprehensive testing cyber security and compatibility.

AOS 6, as part of the Nutanix platform with updated virtual networking and security features, is an end-to-end enterprise platform for launching any applications, including business-critical ones, locally and in the public cloud, "said Eric Shepard, vice president of research at Infrastructure Platforms and Technologies Group, IDC. - Features meet the needs of enterprise customers who want to improve the efficiency and reliability of cloud computing.

As of September 2021, virtual networking and disaster recovery features are available to customers. Security improvements are under development.

Compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift

Red Hat and Nutanix announced a strategic partnership on August 2, 2021 to offer a comprehensive solution for building, scaling, and managing cloud applications both locally and in hybrid clouds. The collaboration will integrate technology and ensure the compatibility and management of Red Hat OpenShift and Red Hat Enterprise Linux on the Nutanix platform, which includes Nutanix AOS and AHV.

Key elements of the partnership:

• Red Hat OpenShift is becoming the preferred stack of enterprise solutions Kubernetes for the Nutanix cloud platform. Customers who want to run Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift on hyperconvergent infrastructure (HCI) will be able to use the Nutanix platform, which includes Nutanix AOS and AHV.
• The Nutanix cloud platform is the preferred HCI solution for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift. Customers can deploy virtualized and container loads in HCI based on the combined benefits of hybrid Red Hat and Nutanix cloud technologies.
• The Nutanix AHV hypervisor is certified by Red Hat to fully support Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OpenShift on Nutanix. Nutanix AHV built-in hypervisor certification expands hypervisor selection and simplifies infrastructure stack definition for containers and cloud applications.
• Joint roadmap for compatibility. Red Hat and Nutanix will test Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift with Nutanix AHV on an ongoing basis to ensure compatibility. Companies will also agree on roadmaps to ensure timely support.
• End-to-end technical support for quick resolution of joint customer issues. Companies collaborate to provide support for certified products. Customers will be able to contact any of the companies for support.

With its distributed architecture, Nutanix Cloud Platform provides high scalability and fault tolerance IT- an environment that is well suited for large-scale Red Hat OpenShift installations. The platform also includes built-in storage, a critical set of complex tasks that administrators typically face when setting up and managing storage for status-tracking containers.

{{quote 'author = said Rajiv Ramaswamy, President and CEO of Nutanix. |

This partnership combines Red Hat cloud solutions with the simplicity, flexibility, and resilience of the Nutanix cloud platform. Together, our solutions provide a complete infrastructure stack for building, scaling, and managing container and cloud applications in a hybrid multi-cloud environment,}}

{{quote 'author = noted Paul Cormier, President and CEO of Red Hat. |

We have a vision of open hybrid clouds where customers have choice and flexibility. Partnering with Nutanix provides hyperconvergent solutions for an open hybrid cloud, giving customers a more extensive choice of container deployment options and complementing it with collaborative support,}}

Ability to detect machine learning and IP reputation anomalies

On February 24, 2021, the Nutanix company in the field of private, hybrid and multi-cloud computing, announced the introduction of additional protection against malware in the Nutanix HCI platform. It now has advanced threat monitoring and detection, more detailed access control, and replication. data They help detect, ransomware viruses prevent, and attacks quickly restore environments cloudy. The new capabilities are based on Nutanix services in the field of network security, file and object storage, virtualizations and business continuity.

With the growing number of attacks due to the spread of remote work, the added features will allow companies to use advanced methods to ensure information security and business continuity directly at the IT infrastructure level, instead of a set of third-party IB solutions.

According to the report, Gartner"in 2020 there was a rapid shift towards threats related to remote work targeted attacks and malicious, ON these threats use the capabilities of world events such as. COVID-19 Viruses evolved from common previously ordinary attacks aimed at infecting one, and computer now use such advanced methods as file-free malware and hidden theft. These data varieties make prevention and protection planning more important than ever. Organizations with multiple remote users or hybrid infrastructure cannot rely on a single security mechanism or tool. IT All infrastructure needs to help them meet information security challenges.

Now, with the help of Flow Security Central services, the Nutanix platform is able to detect anomalies based on machine learning and IP reputation verification. These services are part of the Nutanix Flow network monitoring and security solution. They help track known attack directions and potential viruses at the network level - before they reach applications and data. In particular, monitoring is provided for anomalies, malicious behavior, as well as typical network attacks that are propagated by searching for available vulnerabilities. Flow Security Central also monitors workstations to detect traffic from sources with dubious reputations, which is especially important for protecting the virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), which are the main goals of the initial infection and distribution of ransomware.

Closer to the application layer, ransomware is detected within the Nutanix Files file storage service. File analytics in Files detect atypical and suspicious access schemes and identify known ransomware signatures to block real-time access to data. Recovery is accelerated by built-in snapshot capabilities (when this feature is enabled for file shares). To ensure their availability, Nutanix Files identifies resources for which replication and snapshots are not configured and alerts administrators to risk. Nutanix Files also creates immutable snapshots, preventing them from being tampered with or deleted, which is a typical ransomware target to prevent data recovery. With the Nutanix Files tools, IT can detect attacks and quickly recover.

To enhance data and application protection, the Nutanix platform includes Nutanix Objects object storage features, including more granular object access permissions for primary and backup storage. In particular, Nutanix Objects allows you to configure Write Once Read Many (WORM) policies for individual files and objects selected by the IT command to protect against unauthorized deletion or encryption of data, preventing typical ransomware attacks. WORM mechanisms are easy to automate by classifying data as "locked" to prevent alteration or destruction.

The Nutanix Objects locking features were tested by Cohasset Associates for compliance with electronic record retention requirements without the ability to overwrite and delete, according to SEC, FINRA, and CFTC provisions. Nutanix Objects provides access permissions for smaller memory segments so administrators can better protect multi-user environments. In addition, Microsoft Windows Credential Guard virtual machines for and workplaces using the AHV hypervisor is now supported. This protects the operating system () OS from identity theft, a mechanism often used by ransomware to obtain administrative rights on Microsoft OS.

While detection and prevention are key aspects of an information security strategy, all companies must have a business continuity plan in place in the event of an attack. Nutanix Mine storage now provides direct object backup when using the HYCU partner solution with Mine. This means that the security features available for Objects, such as immutability and WORM, can also be applied to backup storage. Interoperability has also been confirmed by backup providers, including Veeam Object Immutability, which extend protection from ransomware to backup storage.

CIO and IB know that there is no solution that provides 100% protection against ransomware and other types of threats. Models of remote operation and hybrid infrastructures expand the possibilities for attacks on companies, "says Rajiv Mirani, technical director of Nutanix. - Therefore, a comprehensive approach to security is needed, and it begins with an IT infrastructure. Security tools must be simple and easy to use. Nutanix has strengthened its platform with a set of ransomware protections that are already available "out of the box."

2020

Ability to create virtual networks to work in a multi-cloud environment

On September 11, 2020, Nutanix announced an update to its HCI platform, introducing updates and solutions for data centers and cloud computing. This includes up to 50% better performance, virtual networking for multi-cloud environments, end-to-end security monitoring for a zero-trust strategy, and advanced automation and budgeting for cloud computing.

Nutanix updated HCI platform

According to the company, Nutanix again updated the HCI architecture to integrate storage technologies, including SSD based on NVMe and Intel Optane SSDs. As a result of reduced access latency, platform performance increases to 50% for I/O loads, such as large databases and large medical applications. The density of virtual machines is also increased to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) for all applications.

The Blockstore technology developed by Nutanix provides data warehouse self-management with greater efficiency than traditional file systems. In addition, Nutanix HCI supports the Intel-developed open source Storage Performance Development Kit (SPDK), which is available to users in pre-release status. It allows applications to directly access NVMe drives, eliminating operating system and kernel-level processing overhead to improve overall performance. Together, Blockstore and SPDK improve performance and fault tolerance and enhance the capabilities of the software-defined Nutanix architecture.

Continuing to develop infrastructure security solutions, Nutanix announced Flow Security Central. This SaaS solution is a single console for monitoring network parameters, compliance and other security measures in both private and public clouds using Nutanix.

A "zero trust" strategy requires detailed monitoring of network policies, as well as the ability to monitor and update them in real time. However, many organizations find it difficult to monitor applications and manage security. Security Central provides a hub for customers to control security measures so that they can assess the security of their Nutanix environments, develop recommendations to align them with requirements, and provide network and environment monitoring necessary to protect private and public cloud networks and applications.

In addition to Security Central, Nutanix introduced features in the development process that will help implement the Zero Trust strategy. Among them are:

• Extensions for Nutanix's own key manager and data encryption to create a secure environment for peripheral computing and remote sites;
• The AHV hypervisor supports Microsoft Virtualization-based Security (VBS) and Credential Guard, which help protect Windows VDI desktops from complex memory attacks;
• Security certificates, including updated FIPS 140-2 certificates approved by the government under the Common Criteria standard, as well as the completion of testing for inclusion in the list of approved DoDIN products.

After the development is complete, updated virtual networking capabilities will appear in the Nutanix Flow solution, which is integrated into Nutanix HCI. Based on proven approaches to creating a virtual private cloud (VPC) used by major cloud service providers, Flow Networking will simplify the task of creating, isolating, and managing software-defined networks (SDNs) to connect applications hosted in private and public clouds.

VPC technology is the result of investments in the Nutanix Xi Cloud platform, on which Nutanix cloud solutions are based. Integrated with AHV-based virtualization, it provides users with advanced multi-cloud connectivity, including advanced networking features. For example, this helps DevOps teams manage networks flexibly to provide fast and automated resources for applications across multiple environments. The software-defined network capabilities of Nutanix Flow for September 2020 are in development.

Nutanix has expanded IT infrastructure management to help IT teams and developers. Prism Ultimate is a version of Prism that adds the ability to analyze the performance of applications in detail and automatically fix problems and bottlenecks that arise from their work. It also controls cloud resource consumption to better budget and reduce costs. Nutanix Prism allows you to retrieve data from other common virtualization platforms (other than Nutanix), providing customers with a single window of information about the entire infrastructure, including legacy environments.

Our engineers and architects are laying the foundation for the development of hybrid architectures, the launch of applications in them and the management of the growing amount of data, which is especially important given the strategic role of IT for September 2020. narrated by Rajiv Mirani, Technical Director, Nutanix

Managing Servers, Containers, and Data Services on Nutanix HCI through Azure Arc

On September 9, 2020, the company Nutanix announced a partnership with, Microsoft which will allow companies to offer a hybrid infrastructure with single management and seamless portability, and applications data licenses between and, private cloud cloud Azure using the on Nutanix Clusters Azure solution.

According to the company, as a result of the partnership, Nutanix and Microsoft will offer the following solutions and services:

• Integration with Azure Arc: Nutanix and Microsoft will provide management of servers, containers and data services on the Nutanix HCI platform - locally or in Azure - through the Azure Arc management console. This integration will provide advanced Azure services in the Nutanix environment, including launching Azure Arc servers, containers, and data services, adapting cloud practices, and expanding Azur security for local use. More details here.

Extending the List of Disaster Recovery Capabilities

On July 8, 2020, it became known that Nutanix, an enterprise cloud computing company, introduced a number of additional features of the hyperconvergent platform (HCI) and the AHV hypervisor to protect critical applications and business continuity. These include advanced automation for application and data recovery, multisite disaster recovery, synchronous replication for loads in the AHV environment. In addition, almost synchronous replication with an RPO of about 20 seconds ensures the minimum possible data loss.

Nutanix HCI and AHV capabilities help customers protect mission-critical applications in a simpler and less costly way.

Maintaining business continuity is a priority for companies and organizations of all types, "says Greg Smith, Nutanix vice president of product marketing. - However, most companies rely on custom or artisanal solutions to recover data and protect against system failures. Therefore, Nutanix offers built-in solutions for disaster recovery of applications and data, which should be available constantly.

Added disaster recovery capabilities include:

• Multi-site disaster recovery - Nutanix helps you quickly recover from simultaneous failures of two or more data centers while maintaining application and data availability. Nutanix DR uses automation to simplify disaster recovery deployment and orchestration. Support services can configure policies to meet regulatory requirements and then quickly recover applications in the event of data failures or corruption.
• Fast disaster recovery: Nutanix supports almost synchronous replication with about 20 seconds of RPO. The three-fold improvement of the indicator was achieved due to its own technology leading in the industry.
• Synchronous data replication for Nutanix AHV: Synchronous, or near-instant, data replication between multiple locations is now native to the Nutanix AHV hypervisor. Therefore, customers can use AHV to organize services and the most important workloads with the highest level of availability.
• Disaster Recovery Orchestration with Runbooks: The latest version offers greater flexibility and control of the recovery process, allowing you to point-focus efforts and resources on target applications.

All disaster recovery capabilities are included in the Nutanix HCI package and are available on the market.

Cloud Infrastructure Remote Management Announcement

On June 25, 2020, Nutanix announced solutions that will allow IT teams to deploy, update, and fix cloud infrastructure problems completely remotely. This functionality will be available in Nutanix Foundation Central, Insights, and Lifecycle Manager. All are shipped as part of the Nutanix HCI platform.

Nutanix HCI

According to the company, as of June 2020, IT departments are working overtime to ensure remote work of enterprises around the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they themselves cannot always do work remotely. IT infrastructure management, troubleshooting, and software updates often require specialists to be located in the data center, which is difficult to provide for social distancing requirements.

Nutanix was founded to make IT management easy. The updated capabilities will provide seamless access from day one from anywhere in the world. told by Greg Smith, vice president of technical marketing and product marketing at Nutanix

These Nutanix solutions enable you to remotely manage your cloud infrastructure throughout your software lifecycle.

Managed through the Prism interface, Nutanix Foundation Central allows you to create a private cloud infrastructure through a single interface from anywhere. After installation on the servers, Foundation Central begins to create images, configure sites, and install any other Nutanix solutions. By automating and centralizing cloud deployment, Foundation Central scales your existing IT infrastructure.

Nutanix Insights provides predictive health analysis and automation of support functions. The service analyzes telemetry data from customer data centers, including all the clusters and compute nodes involved, to identify current and potential issues that may affect application and data availability.

After installation and identification, Insights provides recommendations to optimize infrastructure reliability and performance.

In addition, Insights can automatically create support requests, assign a reliability engineer (SRE), and collect and unload all necessary logs for analysis without manual intervention.

IT infrastructure upgrades for June 2020 are becoming increasingly challenging, so the likelihood of errors is increasing, especially when using multi-vendor products. The planning, installation, and testing of updates is typically done after hours to reduce the downtime of the application. This increases the cost of the process, and also leads to a delay in the installation of the necessary updates, which increases the risks of information security.

Nutanix Lifecycle Manager (LCM) allows you to upgrade the entire Nutanix solution stack and server firmware under its management, at the touch of a button, without application or infrastructure downtime. LCM automatically determines the dependencies between the installed software and the firmware versions of the hardware, can prioritize updates and implement the entire upgrade process from start to finish.

In addition to remote access for administrators, Nutanix offers a private cloud infrastructure solution.