Nutanix broadens the server platforms on which its software is available with a new deal with Intel, which will see authorized Nutanix partners be able to brand and personalize the Intel server block platforms.
Raja Mukhopadhyay, VP, Product Management at Nutanix
Nutanix and Intel have announced an extension of their long-time partnership, which will see the two companies bring a jointly validated product to market for the first time. The agreement will see authorized Nutanix channel partners be able to deliver Nutanix enterprise cloud OS software running on Intel Data Center Block configure-to-order servers. The new platforms are available now.
This is Nutanix’s first go-to-market partnership with Intel, although the companies have worked together closely for years.
“All our software runs on industry-standard servers, which use Intel components, so in that sense Intel has always been a strategic partner of ours,” said Raja Mukhopadhyay, VP, Product Management at Nutanix. “This specific announcement is the first public announcement with an offering that our joint channel partners can take to their customers. But we have always worked very closely with them to make sure we are in step with their technology advances.”
Nutanix’s rationale for the agreement is the expansion of routes to market to maximize customer choice.
“We are doing it because of that core percept that customers need to have the utmost choice,” Mukhopadhyay said. “We make our software available on the widest possible array of servers. We support HPE, Cisco, Lenovo, Dell and now Intel.”
For Intel, it means a faster time to market.
“It provides Intel with a vehicle to showcase their emerging technologies at a pace that is faster than what other server vendors can do,” Mukhopadhyay stated. “It also gives our VAR and systems integrator partners an additional degree of commercial flexibility – the ability to control every access of the solution.”
Nutanix partners will be able to brand and personalize the Intel Data Center Blocks, and add their own services on top.
“These are white box servers that will be branded by the downstream channel partner community – the SIs and VARs,” Mukhopadhyay said. “They need an additional degree of flexibility and to be able to move faster than traditional servers. With these, they will be able to turn on an enterprise grade private cloud for their customers very quickly.”
The initiative is more of a meet-in-the-channel go-to-market, with partners doing much of the work.
“Both Nutanix and Intel will create demand through our usual programs and channel initiatives, but the downstream channel partners will spearhead the demand generation and the fulfilment of the solutions,” Mukhopadhyay indicated. “For Intel, the best way to ensure the strength of that downstream demand to allow partners to access Intel technology more quickly. That’s their driver. For us, its more about customer choice.”
These joint offerings are available now in the Americas. A worldwide launch is scheduled to follow. Nutanix distribution partners Arrow and Tech Data are both supporting the North American launch.
