Nutanix AHV vs. Firework by Startpack

I think Nutanix AOS is a great product and, I would recommend it to anyone. The only reason I did not give it a 10 out of 10 is because I don't do that for any product. Every product has room for improvement.

If you need to communicate through multiple apps e.g. Gmail, Slack, Whats App, and you want everything in one place - Firework is definitely your thing. Also perfect for people who have to track the time they spend on certain tasks. Firework would be useless for people who don't care about productivity and getting things done as fast as possible.

• One component to support both compute and storage needs for virtualization.
• Easy expandable as business needs arise both at the node level and larger with blocks.
• Well outlined interface with good historical data.
• API tools are available to obtain logging information from Nutanix that can be used with other monitoring tools such as Splunk.

Incentivized

• It's really easy to use; I don't know of any other software that's this easy and convenient
• UI is very straightforward and simple
• It speeds up work process, as you no longer need to waste time switching tabs in order to find some crucial information
• Helps declutter your work PC
• It usually launches way faster than a browser

• Nutanix has a huge learning curve. We purchased the on-line training course when we moved to the platform and it was literally weeks of instruction. It was so extensive, in fact, that we ran out of time to complete it before the test.
• Operations that cannot be done from the browser require running commands from a terminal emulator; perhaps owing to the newness of the platform, documentation is not robust. I highly recommend you buy the tech support.
• Software updates are sometimes rushed to release. I've gotten to where I wait at least a few weeks after release before installing them, as I've run into significant issues with buggy software. Such installations have required time-consuming tech support calls to resolve.
• While the promise of perpetual VM uptime is being fulfilled, the dashboard frequently reports issues that need to be resolved.
• Because of significant hardware redundancy, the cost per byte of storage capacity is high.

Incentivized

• You have to pay for the most useful features
• Lack of extensions (there are basic things like ad-block, but if you need something specific you'll have a hard time)
• It's not clear how and where exactly the passwords are stored

We made a huge financial investment with this platform (four clusters, all-flash storage array), so we're in it for the long haul. Luckily it's a beast. I've had to use support more than any other platform I've administered, but the help has been very good. Nutanix continues to add features and innovations which increase the ROI

Incentivized

Nutanix Prism Element and Prism Central are easy-to-use HTML5-based web consoles. The layout makes sense; you're only a few clicks away from getting to where you need to be. The AHV hypervisor is integrated into the platform for a fast and seamless experience. Rich data on VM metrics is also available.

Incentivized

Due to the cool DFS architecture, Nutanix has good read performance for loads. In general, everything works well. We only ran into problems with very specific workloads that did not allow multithreading. It is also worth noting that loads should be tuned according to best practices for best performance, which is not always an easy task.

Incentivized

Nutanix [AOS] is a leader in the HCI industry and it becomes evident after deploying the software. The solution runs effortlessly and can scale seamlessly. We ran the Nutanix solution on Lenovo Servers and since Lenovo has a close working relationship with Nutanix, you can procure the Nutanix software directly from Lenovo as part of your Lenovo HCI solution. The advantage of going this route is that the hardware has been tested and verified by Lenovo that it is thus certified for Nutanix. The support is then also directly with Lenovo for both hardware and software.

Incentivized

We looked at both Simplivity and Cisco HyperFlex. Both are pretty good in their own right. Simplivity was very 'efficient' in the way they handled data, but we didn't like the idea of a propitiatory hardware card. Cisco's HyperFlex was our second choice, but we were so impressed with what Nutanix had done for us already, that we were already leaning toward that.

Incentivized

• Nutanix Beam helps enable enterprises to take control of their total cloud spend with automated cost governance policies. Beam provides unified visibility into public and private cloud spending, including clusters, VMs, and other services.
• Lower administrative overhead, increased employee productivity, and costs savings.
• Nutanix AHV is also generally free to use, which can benefit organizations with budget constraints.

Incentivized

• You're way more productive when all of your tools are easily accessible
• Health benefits! It prevents your mental state from deteriorating, it saves at least 10-15 minutes per day, and there's no need to be anxious while trying to remember the password from your work email again