Nutanix boosts its VMware-targeted Cloud Platform

Nutanix has updated its Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP) with new features including Nutanix Enterprise AI 2.8, which adds general availability of the MCP Gateway, a private inference feature for multi-GPU LLM inference, and enhanced security with IAM and air-gapped Nvidia NIM support. The company also plans Kubernetes Platform (NKP) updates later this year, including bare-metal deployment and a curated AI application catalog, and launched the Service Provider Central multitenant control plane. These moves target VMware customers, citing a Gartner report predicting 55% of enterprises will migrate from VMware by 2029.

Nutanix continued to bolster its position as a viable VMware alternative, layering a bevy of updates on its halo Cloud Platform NCP through new features for its enterprise AI and promises of new Kubernetes-focused capabilities, enhancements that can be managed through an updated control plane and flow through updates to its go-to-market support. The immediate NCP updates include injection of the latest Nutanix Enterprise AI 2.8 iteration. This NAI update includes general availability of the previously announced MCP Gateway https://www.sdxcentral.com/news/nutanix-cloud-platform-gains-mcp-server-ai-updates/ that serves as a secure ingress point for AI agents to access tools and data. This is helped by a new MCP Server for NCP that supports the building of agentic AI applications through a Nutanix-managed secured infrastructure. NAI also gains a private inference feature that allows for more granular management of multi-graphic processing unit GPU inference for large language models LLMs using tensor parallelism. This can support high-throughput serving and low-latency response times and enable batch inference and speculative decoding. Nutanix also updated NAI security to better protect against rogue models coming through the vendor’s platform or APIs. This includes more detailed identity and access management IAM , custom roles, and seamless model sharing that can enforce least-privilege security to help manage AI agents and support air-gapped Nvidia Inference Microservices NIM deployment. NKP plussed … soon Nutanix’s previously discussed Kubernetes Platform NKP updates https://www.sdxcentral.com/news/nutanix-looks-to-thread-the-vmware-red-hat-cloud-native-needle/ also remain set to hit NCP later this year. These updates include deployment capabilities on bare-metal Kubernetes, including automated OS, firmware, and container deployment in those environments, and the inclusion of native persistent storage. NKP will also bring along a curated AI application catalog offering “one-click” deployment of validates AI and machine learning ML software, planned expansion of ecosystem support with validated GPU integration, and dynamic resource allocation for rapidly changing AI workloads. Nutanix also launched general availability of its Service Provider SP Central multitenant control plane that is positioned as a landing pad for disgruntled VMware customers. The control plane offers a centralized management point for VM- and container-based applications running in the Nutanix environment. SP Central also gained a new “Powered by Nutanix: Verified Services” program that will allow those go-to-market providers to build validated services for their end customers. Nutanix framed its latest round of updates toward its ongoing attempt to lure disgruntled VMware customers https://www.sdxcentral.com/news/nutanix-ceo-targets-majority-of-vmwares-customer-base/ . This framing includes references to a Gartner report that predicts 55% of enterprises will migrate all of their workloads from VMware to “alternative infrastructure delivery solutions” by 2029, a notion that has garnered significant interest from a host of other vendors https://www.sdxcentral.com/analysis/stormagic-snares-sheetz-from-vmwares-virtualization-grip/ . Nutanix has been busy The latest NCP updates come on the heels of Nutanix striking a deal with ChronoScale Holdings https://www.sdxcentral.com/news/nutanix-nuzzles-chronoscale-to-drive-enterprise-ai-adoption/ that combines platforms to support enterprise adoption of AI infrastructure and services, a move underpinned by their respective work with chip giant Nvidia. The combination will tie Nutanix’s agentic AI products with ChronoScale’s accelerated compute, enterprise AI foundry, and outcome-driven delivery model. The update also comes less than a month after Nutanix announced plans to cut 5% of its global workforce https://www.sdxcentral.com/news/nutanix-to-slash-5-of-global-workforce-as-part-of-business-structure-review/ as part of a “business structure” review, a topic that will likely be touched on during the vendor’s latest earnings call later today.