Nutanix

Nutanix is a hybrid cloud computing leader providing a unified software platform that enables enterprises to run applications, manage data, and deploy AI across on-premises, edge, and public clouds. The platform is best known for its hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) approach, combining compute, storage, and virtualization in a single solution.

The core virtualization component is AHV (Acropolis Hypervisor), a KVM-based Type 1 bare-metal hypervisor included at no extra cost with every Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) license.

Overview

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) delivers a complete virtualization platform that spans data centers, edge environments, and public clouds. It is trusted by over 29,000 customers worldwide, including governments, financial institutions, and healthcare organizations.

The platform is named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Distributed Hybrid Infrastructure.

AHV – Acropolis Hypervisor

AHV is the Nutanix-native hypervisor, built on KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) – the same Linux kernel virtualization technology used by AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure. It is a Type 1 bare-metal hypervisor, functionally equivalent to VMware ESXi or Microsoft Hyper-V.

Key AHV Features

  • Live Migration: Zero-downtime VM moves between hosts, equivalent to VMware vMotion
  • High Availability (HA): Automatic VM restart on host failure within minutes
  • Dynamic Scheduling (ADS): Balances CPU, memory, and storage across hosts, similar to VMware DRS
  • Snapshots & Clones: First-class copy-on-write snapshots and fast clones
  • Virtual Disk Management: Online resize and policy-based storage tiering
  • Networking: VLANs, LAG bonds, jumbo frames via Open vSwitch
  • Guest OS Support: Windows Server, Windows 10/11 (VDI), RHEL, SLES, Ubuntu LTS, Oracle Linux, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux

Management

  • Prism: HTML5 web console for managing compute, storage, and networking from a single interface
  • Prism Central: Multi-cluster management for larger environments
  • Flow Security: Built-in software-defined firewalls and microsegmentation

Architecture

Component Role
AHV Hypervisor Runs VMs directly on hardware
Controller VM (CVM) Manages local storage via Nutanix Distributed Storage Fabric
Acropolis Service Cluster-level orchestration
Open vSwitch (OVS) Software-defined networking
libvirtd VM lifecycle management

Platform Products

Product Description
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Hyperconverged infrastructure platform with integrated virtualization, storage, and networking
Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) Unified ops, self-service, orchestration, security, and cloud cost control
Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) Kubernetes for cloud-native workloads across any environment
Nutanix Enterprise AI (NAI) AI factory platform with inference at its core
Nutanix Move Free migration tool for moving VMs from ESXi, Hyper-V, or AWS to AHV

Licensing

AHV is not sold or licensed as a standalone product. It is included with every Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) license edition (Starter, Pro, Ultimate) – no additional hypervisor cost, no per-CPU, per-core, or per-VM fees for the hypervisor itself.

The NCI platform license is priced per CPU core. Compared to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) under Broadcom’s post-acquisition pricing, NCI + AHV is typically more cost-effective.

Migration from VMware

Nutanix is a leading VMware exit destination in 2026, driven by Broadcom’s licensing restructuring. Key considerations:

  • Nutanix Move automates migration from ESXi 6.0–8.0 with brief cutover windows
  • VMware Tools are automatically replaced with Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT)
  • PowerCLI scripts must be rewritten using Prism REST APIs
  • NSX-T environments need migration to Nutanix Flow Networking (separate workstream)
  • VMware SRM disaster recovery configurations should be rebuilt using Nutanix Protection Domains

Official Resources