Nutanix extends storage services to its hybrid cloud platform

Nutanix has today announced an expansion to its unstructured data storage offerings, offering new hybrid cloud capabilities.

The update means users can deploy scale-out storage fabrics across different cloud environments, simplify data management and enable IT teams to move toward a 'true' hybrid cloud model.

New features include cloud tiering for objects storage, hybrid cloud file storage, and simplified disaster recovery, all of which build on the recent launch of Nutanix Clusters — which supports the company's hyper-converged infrastructure software running in AWS and, in the future, Microsoft Azure.

"IT teams around the world are quickly moving to hybrid environments and they're looking for technology solutions to help them facilitate this transition, to help them manage disparate technologies and simplify operations," says Nutanix chief technology officer Rajiv Mirani.

"We recently extended our hyper-converged infrastructure software to public cloud with the launch of Nutanix Clusters to help companies do just that.

"Now the focus is on strengthening the overall platform, including delivering an easy-to-use, scale out storage fabric across their different cloud environments.

Here are the details for each of Nutanix's new unstructured data storage offerings:

This feature means IT teams can now deliver tiering of object data to an S3-compatible object store, including cloud storage such as AWS S3.

This new intelligent tiering capability can potentially significantly improve data lifecycle management across different clouds, while still maintaining visibility and control, as metadata is retained on-premises for easier search and retrieval.

A true hybrid cloud file storage solution, Nutanix Files delivers simplified single-pane management, across cloud deployment modes, spanning the edge, remote offices, and core data centers, and public cloud.

Nutanix says customers can now choose the right cloud, offer easy scalability, and deliver more control over hybrid cloud file storage.

Recovery point objective (RPO) is improved, which ensures data is readily available across data centers and clouds in the event of a disaster.

Objects now provide streaming replication, allowing enterprises to containerise their mission-critical stateful applications and ensure business continuity, according to Nutanix.

Additionally, Nutanix Files now provides support for RPO of up to one minute, compared to one hour previously, which is particularly useful when running enterprise applications using NFS - SMB endpoints.

"Following the rapid migration to digital technologies, ransomware has become increasingly problematic for businesses," says Nutanix director systems engineering ANZ Tim Hartman.

"The spike in cybercrime should prompt organisations to ensure their backups are immutable and gain flexibility and visibility over where this data resides. With these new hybrid cloud capabilities, the scale out storage fabric will ensure data is always available across an organisation's different cloud environments, and enable business continuity.