Nutanix’s annual .NEXT conference is renowned for significant product announcements and strategic insights, and the 2025 event in Washington, D.C., did not disappoint. This year, Nutanix focused on flexibility and simplicity, empowering customers to operate seamlessly across on-premises and multiple cloud environments. Here’s a comprehensive overview of the key announcements and highlights.
Hybrid Multicloud Expansion
The standout announcement was the introduction of Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on Google Cloud, complementing existing AWS and Azure support. Customers can now seamlessly migrate workloads and utilize disaster recovery across the three major public clouds, maintaining a consistent operating environment.
Additional enhancements include multi-site disaster recovery, expanded geographical availability, and improved AWS and Azure integrations, significantly boosting hybrid multicloud capabilities.
Strategic Infrastructure Partnerships
Nutanix deepened collaborations to offer customers greater infrastructure flexibility:
- Pure Storage Integration: A new converged solution combining Nutanix’s cloud platform and Pure Storage’s high-performance FlashArray, ideal for mission-critical workloads.
- Cisco FlashStack Collaboration: Integrates Cisco UCS servers, Pure Storage FlashArray, and Nutanix software, delivering a fully validated, turnkey infrastructure solution.
- Dell Technologies PowerFlex Support: Nutanix Cloud Platform now integrates directly with Dell’s PowerFlex storage arrays, offering customers greater flexibility in deploying infrastructure.
Kubernetes and Cloud-Native Applications
Nutanix introduced Cloud Native AOS, enabling the Nutanix Acropolis Operating System to run natively on Kubernetes, starting with AWS EKS. This allows stateful applications to access enterprise-grade data services without traditional virtualization overhead.
Additionally, a new partnership with Canonical incorporates Ubuntu Pro into the Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP), simplifying secure, production-ready Kubernetes deployments.
Accelerating Enterprise AI
The latest Nutanix Enterprise AI (NAI) release features deep integration with NVIDIA’s AI stack, including the NVIDIA AI Enterprise suite and NeMo framework, streamlining AI model deployment and management. Nutanix also showcased AI-driven automation capabilities within Nutanix Cloud Manager, using generative AI to simplify routine infrastructure tasks.
Enhanced Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
Nutanix expanded VDI support by integrating Omnissa Horizon (formerly VMware Horizon) with Nutanix AHV hypervisor, providing customers greater flexibility for their desktop virtualization strategies. Additionally, enhanced multi-cluster management for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops simplifies large-scale VDI deployments across multiple environments.
Strengthened Security and Compliance
Nutanix bolstered its security ecosystem, announcing partnerships with industry-leading providers such as Qualys, Tenable, CyberArk, Check Point, Palo Alto Networks, and several data protection vendors. The platform now aligns closely with NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0, enhancing security compliance and resilience against cyber threats.
Operational Simplicity at Scale
A new management console, Nutanix Central, was previewed, enabling centralized management of thousands of Nutanix clusters globally. This console emphasizes zero-touch provisioning and comprehensive operational automation, further simplifying large-scale infrastructure management.
Key Conference Takeaways
Throughout the event, Nutanix emphasized three core themes:
- Flexibility: Supporting multiple cloud environments, hardware, and application platforms.
- Simplicity: Maintaining ease-of-use and operational efficiency even at significant scale.
- Innovation in AI and Automation: Leveraging AI to enhance both infrastructure management and customer-facing applications.
In conclusion, Nutanix .NEXT 2025 delivered substantial updates, reinforcing its commitment to supporting hybrid multicloud environments, enhancing customer choice, and simplifying IT operations. These strategic moves position Nutanix as a flexible, future-ready platform suitable for enterprises navigating a rapidly evolving technological landscape.