Global enterprise adoption of artificial intelligence has reshaped the technology landscape, and recent developments between Dell Technologies Inc. and Nutanix Inc. in the virtualization infrastructure market illustrate the transformation taking place.

Virtualization infrastructure has become red hot as applications scale across on-premises, cloud and edge platforms. Strategic partnerships are critical for companies seeking to capture market share in a fast-moving, competitive environment, and the alliance between Dell and Nutanix has injected new flexibility and simplicity into the deployment of infrastructure solutions.

The two companies expanded their partnership in August with the release of Dell’s PowerEdge XC Plus and the integration of PowerFlex software-defined storage into the Nutanix stack. The ability for organizations to now scale compute and storage separately in hyperconverged infrastructure represents an important advancement as AI applications command IT resources. It also marks a key step forward for Dell and Nutanix in the hybrid cloud market.

“Traditionally, customers looking to expand their infrastructure had to purchase both compute and storage resources simultaneously,” said theCUBE Research’s Rob Strechay, in a recently published analysis of the announcements. “This often led to inefficiencies, with either compute or storage resources being underutilized. Integrating PowerFlex into Nutanix’s platform changes this dynamic by allowing organizations to scale compute and storage independently. This separation is particularly valuable in scenarios such as AI and edge computing, where specific workloads may demand more storage without a corresponding increase in compute power.”

This feature is part of SiliconANGLE Media’s exploration of Dell’s market impact in enterprise AI as part of the Hybrid Cloud Made Easy With Dell Technologies and Nutanix event, an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. (* Disclosure below.)

Virtualization infrastructure market: Enabling unified data access

Why is the separation of compute and storage in the hyperconverged Dell/Nutanix model a significant step? Emerging use cases and AI-infused applications are challenging the status quo in the modern data stack. Changes in underlying data and data center architectures are becoming essential for processing newer, massive exabyte-scale workloads.

As noted in a recent analysis conducted by theCUBE Research’s Dave Vellante and George Gilbert, the modern data stack had evolved into “shared-nothing” systems, architectures in which nodes operated independently without sharing memory or storage with other nodes. Yet today’s enterprise customers now want access to data in a unified manner, regardless of location, and this requires that different data types are accessible and coherent across a network.

The separation of compute and storage enables a data platform that can support intelligent applications in real time, an evolution where compute can operate on a unified view of data elements at scale. Vendors such as Snowflake Inc. and Google LLC with BigQuery have separated compute and storage to leverage the capacity and elasticity of cloud computing.

“It sounds so simple … being able to scale compute and storage separately,” said Vellante, in his analysis of the Dell/Nutanix announcements. “You used to have to put in a new cluster; you’d have to buy compute and storage even if you didn’t need the storage or you didn’t need the compute. This is really the instantiation of the cloud operating model now coming to hybrid infrastructure.”

The joint announcements from Dell and Nutanix address many of the elements desired by IT customers and identified in the research from Vellante and Gilbert. Dell’s PowerEdge XC Plus server is now pre-installed with Nutanix’s cloud platform to streamline application deployment and reduce time-to-value for users. The hardware and software combination provides scale-up or scale-out infrastructure based on specific workload requirements.

Key features of the PowerEdge XC Plus include an ability to extend and manage private and public clouds through a single control plane and an ability to streamline operations through automation. The PowerEdge server also has built-in AI and adaptive machine learning to optimize application performance. The XC Plus is built in a number of configurations and users can choose from six optimized platforms to meet workload requirements. Comprehensive protection is provided through Dell Cyber Resilient Architecture.

One outcome of the Dell-Nutanix partnership is new flexibility and simplicity in the deployment of HCI solutions.

“The PowerEdge XC Plus server provides a key HCI starting-point building block,” Strechay noted. “This combination is particularly attractive for organizations looking to modernize their IT environments and adopt cloud operating models, whether on-premises, in colocation facilities or at the edge.”

PowerFlex now integrated with Nutanix Cloud

The Dell PowerFlex with Nutanix Cloud Platform is designed to offer customers a scale-out virtual storage area network and hyperconverged system to encompass thousands of nodes. It will be the first external storage supported and integrated with Nutanix Cloud Platform. Along with being able to manage compute and storage separately, joint customers will have hypervisor and performance options at scale while leveraging a full suite of Nutanix software. Optionality is the key here, as Dell and Nutanix seek to provide flexibility for the new data stack.

“From our perspective, customers need a modern data center that’s smart, flexible and resilient,” said Travis Vigil, senior vice president of product management at Dell, in an exclusive interview on theCUBE. “Those last two, flexibility and resiliency, are top of mind for us at Dell Technologies, because we’re continuing to build out a virtualization portfolio that offers customers choice. Dell PowerFlex with Nutanix Cloud Platform … is going to be a very powerful combination that will provide customers with a flexible approach that includes bare metal, hypervisors, Kubernetes distributions and more.”

The combination of Dell’s XC Plus and the PowerFlex offering with Nutanix demonstrates how both companies are looking to meet customer requirements for different levels of compute and storage.

“With the PowerFlex and beyond, as they evolve that storage stack as well … the XC Plus will allow them to get up and running with quicker time to ROI while they determine if they need to go beyond that with the PowerFlex software-defined storage,” Strechay said.

Collaboration highlights market strategy

A partnership spanning more than 14 years has led Dell and Nutanix to join forces in fashioning a more streamlined, unified cloud operating model. This collaboration puts a spotlight on the evolving dynamics of the enterprise IT world where major players are positioning for an influential role in how the AI-driven infrastructure gets built.

“The recent developments between Dell and Nutanix, coupled with Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, illustrate the shifting dynamics and competitive pressures that are reshaping the industry,” Strechay said. “This collaboration, just the beginning in our view, is more than just a technological alignment. It represents a strategic move to capture market share in a highly competitive environment.”

For Dell, a combination of local compute, networking, storage and software platforms must operate in close proximity to data sources for customers to generate value from their AI investments. The hybrid cloud is becoming hybrid AI. For Nutanix, it’s about serving the needs of the vast majority of organizations that use multiple public cloud platforms or plan to do so in the near future. Shifting dynamics in the virtualization market have given Nutanix an opportunity to expand its footprint in anticipation of how the modern data stack will evolve.

“The whole idea here is an evolution of the architecture,” said Thomas Cornely, senior vice president of product management at Nutanix, in an interview with theCUBE. “We evolved from appliance to software. We made the software portable across all servers, across all clouds, and we’re now extending the reach of the software to existing environments that are combining compute on one side and IP-based storage on the other. The whole foundation here is to have one environment and a consistent way of doing things wherever you’re running. It’s about being ready for the future.”

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Hybrid Cloud Made Easy With Dell Technologies and Nutanix event. Neither Dell Technologies, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

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