Virtualization

Nutanix thinks some Azure cloud desktops belong on-prem to make them usable

Also asserts it can beat Cisco's homebrew hypervisor for calling apps

.NEXT Nutanix has teamed with Microsoft to bring cloudy desktops on-prem, using its extensive desktop virtualization (VDI) experience to make it work.

“VDI was one of our first workloads,” Nutanix CEO Rajiv Ramaswami said on Monday in his keynote at the company’s .NEXT conference. The company long ago made it possible to serve virtual desktops from the cloud, but Microsoft has tried to paint all VDI as antiquated applications based on legacy three-tier architectures.

That’s a reasonable argument because VDI is tricky to deliver at scale. Vendors worked hard to cope with “boot storms” – the spike in demand for resources that came when workers sat down at their desks in the morning and started their virtual PCs. Delivering all those virtual desktops at speed without requiring massive infrastructure was no mean feat.

Microsoft suggested its own cloud-hosted Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) as the modern alternative.

On Tuesday, Ramaswami said he thinks hybrid operations for AVD “is going to be a game changer ... because it delivers your desktops with much lower latency to meet the needs for high-end users.”

In other words, some cloudy desktops don’t belong in the cloud.

Microsoft can’t dispute that because it already offers an option to run AVD on-prem in its Azure Local on-prem cloud.

The Register asked why Nutanix thinks its new offering is a game changer. Executive veep for product management Thomas Cornely responded by dismissing Azure Local as a competitor, saying “Azure Local is Azure Local. We do not see it being used by large enterprise customers.”

“We are a prime potential partner to get AVD on prem at scale.”

Calling Cisco

Another on-prem workload Nutanix now supports is Cisco’s calling applications, a nugget of news that won spontaneous applause from the .NEXT keynote crowd.

Cisco allowed those apps to run in VMs under VMware’s ESXi hypervisor, but as The Register has often reported that product is now hard to acquire unless users buy Broadcom’s powerful-but-pricey Cloud Foundation suite.

Offering support for Cisco’s apps gives Nutanix another reason for VMware users to look its way.

Cisco had the same idea, which is why it decided to develop its own hypervisor called NFVIS-for-UC just to support its calling applications.

That product appeared on Cisco’s price lists in late March, but opinion about its value varies.

In a Cisco community thread, The Register found complaints that the product is expensive at $420/month.

“Extremely disappointed in this price point,” wrote a community member who uses the handle johnirey1. “The execution of this rollout has been a disaster.”

That may be a reference to the fact that Cisco released an early version of the hypervisor, named “NFVIS 4.18.2a”, in January, and later decided not to include the product in its existing subscriptions.

In response to some of the negative comments in the thread, a Cisco employee with the handle “Jarias” fired back.

“The code on NFVIS 4.18.2a was ready earlier than the commercial offer and that was understandably frustrating...for us as well,” Jarias wrote. “We decided to still publish the technical information so partners could immediately start working designs and migration SOWs due to many customers with urgent migrations in the spring.”

Jarias defended the cost of NFVIS-for-UC on the grounds that it “can't be free as there are lots of new costs to offset plus we need to ensure we can sustain this for as long as UCM will be around.”

And he added that Cisco is “seeing excellent response on this from the target market segment.”

Jarias’s post also pointed out that Nutanix shipped its product for calling apps sometime before mid-March. The company therefore sat on the news for around three weeks before announcing it on Tuesday.

Cornely told The Reg he thinks many buyers want more than Cisco's basic hypervisor, and will therefore turn to Nutanix so they can run calling apps on its platform to access a more comprehensive enterprise environment. ®