Nutanix, SDDC conversation

[Lanz]

Hi
Has anyone recently moved away from traditional Server/SAN architecture and chucked everything on to Nutanix clusters (or similar system)

Do you think a software defined datacentre should be the default choice when refreshing nowadays, or are people still going the less risky route and replacing like with like.

cheers

 

[khrall]

I have done a fair amount of work with the Nutanix platform.

When I worked in support, I have rolled it out at 2 Sites (4 Node Clusters) and Supported an 8 Node cluster deployment in another country.

I was very old school server and storage before working with the kit, but it grew on me a lot.

I now work in Pre-Sales and have sold the solution to customers.

The main thing to consider when replacing your infrastructure with a converged solution, is does this solution really fit what you need. A lot of people remain with the traditional based solutions as these converged platforms can have a pretty expensive initial outlay and additional costs need to be factored in (Network, Licensing, Capacity etc.)

It's extremely good at what it does, but it's not necessarily the best fit for every solution.

 

[anything I don't mind]

Wouldn't any off site hosted solution still rely heavily on wan connectivity, even this nutanix? Depending on the types of data you are expecting to access/use. If its all web based applications optimised for that environment might work ok, but if you are running traditional windows applications or vdi accessing documents, I would still think that keeping local storage would be faster. Utilising the switch fabric between the clients and the server would be better faster than running it all over a 100mbit link to a hosted solution. Maybe for larger sites it becomes more economically viable as you add in 1gibit wan or point to point connections? I don't know i have not worked with anything off site yet. I have setup a netapp and hp gen8 hardware solution and later this year working on moving our DR to a fully virtual hosted solution from a company called data barracks and considering moving away from offsite tape backup to fully hosted online backup.

What do you think though about these sorts of hosted infrastructure services being dependent/limited on wan connectivity?