Lenovo TruScale and Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Accelerate Enterprise Transformation Digital transformation is an enterprise imperative. Enabling that transformation is the focus of Lenovo’s TruScale data center infrastructure services. The combination of TruScale infrastructure services and Nutanix application services creates a powerful accelerant for enterprise transformation. Cloud is the Transformation Trigger Many enterprises are seeking to go to the cloud, or at least to gain the benefits associated with the cloud. These benefits include: pay-as-you-go operational costs instead of large capital outlays agility to rapidly deploy new applications flexibility to adapt to changing business requirements For many IT departments, the trigger for serious consideration of a move to the cloud is when the CFO no longer wants to approve IT acquisitions. Unfortunately, the journey to the cloud often comes with a loss of control over both costs and data assets. Thus many enterprise IT leaders are seeking a path to cloud benefits without sacrificing control of costs and data. TruScale Brings True Utility Computing to Data Center Infrastructure The Lenovo Data Center Group focused on the needs of these enterprise customers by asking themselves: What are customers trying to do? What would be a winning consumption model for customers? The answer they came up with is Lenovo TruScale Infrastructure Services. Nutanix invited DCIG analysts to attend the recent .NEXT conference. While there we met with many participants in the Nutanix ecosystem, including an interview with Laura Laltrello, VP and GM of Lenovo Data Center Services. This article, and DCIG’s selection of Lenovo TruScale as one of three Best of Show products at the conference, is based largely on that interview. As noted in the DCIG Best of Show at Nutanix .NEXT article, TruScale literally introduces utility data center computing. Lenovo bills TruScale clients a monthly management fee plus a utilization charge. It bases this charge on the power consumed by the Lenovo-managed IT infrastructure. Clients can commit to a certain level of usage and be billed a lower rate for that baseline. This is similar to reserved instances on Amazon Web Services, except that customers only pay for actual usage, not reserved capacity. Source: Lenovo This power consumption-based approach is especially appealing to enterprises and service providers for which one or more of the following holds true: Data center workloads tie directly to revenue. Want IT to focus on enabling digital transformation, not infrastructure management. Need to retain possession or secure control of their data. Lenovo TruScale Offers Everything as a Service TruScale can manage everything as a service, including both hardware and software. Lenovo works with its customers to figure out which licensing programs make the most sense for the customer. Where feasible, TruScale includes software licensing as part of the service. Lenovo Monitors and Manages Data Center Infrastructure TruScale does not require companies to install any extra software. Instead, it gets its power utilization data from the management processor already embedded in Lenovo servers. It then passes this power consumption data to the Lenovo operations center(s) along with alerts and other sensor data. Lenovo uses the data it collects to trigger support interventions. Lenovo services professionals handle all routine maintenance including installing firmware updates and replacing failed components to ensure maximum uptime. Thus, Lenovo manages data center infrastructure below the application layer. Lenovo Provides Continuous Infrastructure (and Cost) Visibility Lenovo also uses the data it collects to provide near real- time usage data to customers via a dashboard. This dashboard graphically presents performance versus key metrics including actual vs budget. In short, Lenovo’s approach to utility data center computing provides a distinctive and easy means to deploy and manage infrastructure across its entire lifecycle. Lenovo Integrates with Nutanix Prism Lenovo TruScale infrastructure services cover the entire range Lenovo ThinkSystem and ThinkAgile products. The software defined infrastructure products include pre-integrated solutions for Nutanix, Azure HCI, Azure Stack and VMware. Lenovo has taken extra steps to integrate its products with Nutanix. These include: ThinkAgile XClarity Integrator for Nutanix is available via the Nutanix Calm marketplace. It works in concert with Prism to integrate server data and alerts into the Prism management console. ThinkAgile Network Orchestrator is an industry-first integration between Lenovo switches and Prism. It reduces error and downtime by automatically changing physical switch configurations when changes are made to virtual Nutanix networks. Nutanix Automates the Application Layer Nutanix software simplifies the deployment and management of enterprise applications at scale. The following graphic, taken from the opening keynote lists each Nutanix component and summarizes its function. Source: Nutanix The Nutanix .NEXT conference featured many customers telling how Nutanix has transformed their data center operations. Their statements about Nutanix include: “stable and reliable virtual desktop infrastructure” “a private cloud with all the benefits of public, under our roof and able to keep pace with our ambitions” “giving me irreplaceable time and memories with family” “simplicity, ease of use, scale” Lenovo TruScale + Nutanix = Accelerated Enterprise Transformation I was not initially a fan of the term “digital transformation.” It felt like yet another slogan that really meant, “Buy more of my stuff.” But practical applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence are here now and truly do present significant new opportunities (or threats) for enterprises in every industry. Consequently, and more than at any time in the past, the IT department has a crucial role to play in the success of every company. Enterprises need their IT departments to transition from being “Information Technology” departments to “Intelligent Transformation” departments. TruScale and Nutanix each enable such a transition by freeing up IT staff to focus on the business rather than on technology. Together, the combination of TruScale infrastructure services and Nutanix application services creates a powerful accelerant for enterprise transformation. Transform and thrive. Disclosure: As noted above, Nutanix invited DCIG analysts to attend the .NEXT conference. Nutanix covered most of my travel expenses. However, neither Nutanix nor Lenovo sponsored this article. Updated on 5/24/2019. HYCU-X Piggybacks on Existing HCI Platforms to Put Itself in the Scale-out Backup Conversation Vendors are finding multiple ways to enter the scale-out hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) backup conversation. Some acquire other companies such as StorageCraft did in early 2017 with its acquisition of ExaBlox. Others build their own such as Cohesity and Commvault did. Yet among these many iterations of scale-out, HCI-based backup systems, HYCU’s decision to piggyback its new HYCU-X on top of existing HCI offerings, starting with Nutanix’s AHV HCI Platform, represents one of the better and more insightful ways to deliver backup using a scale-out architecture. To say that HYCU and Nutanix were inextricably linked before the HYCU-X announcement almost goes without saying. HYCU was the first to market in June 2017 with a backup solution specifically targeted and integrated with the Nutanix AHV HCI Platform. Since then, HYCU has been a leader in providing backup solutions targeted at Nutanix AHV environments. In coming out with HYCU-X,HYCU addresses an overlooked segment in the HCI backup space. Companies looking for a scale-out secondary storage systems to use as their backup solution typically had to go with a product that was: 1. New to the backup market 2. New to the HCI market; or 3. New to both the backup and HCI markets. Of these three, a backup provider that fell into either the 2nd or 3rd category where it was or is in any way new to the HCI market is less than ideal. Unfortunately, this is where most backup products fall as the HCI market itself is still relatively new and maturing. However, this scenario puts these vendors in a tenuous position when it comes to optimizing their backup product. They must continue to improve and upgrade their backup solution even as they try to build and maintain an emerging and evolving HCI platform that supports it. This is not an ideal situation for most backup providers as it can sap their available resources. By HYCU initially delivering HYCU-X built on Nutanix’s AHV Platform, it avoids having to create and maintain separate teams to build separate backup and HCI solutions. Rather, HYCU can rely upon Nutanix’s pre-existing and proven AHV HCI Platform and focus on building HYCU-X to optimize Nutanix AHV Platform for use in this role as a scale-out HCI backup platform. In so doing, both HCYU and Nutanix can strive to continue to deliver features and functions that can be delivered in as little as one-click. Now could companies use Nutanix or other HCI platforms as a scale-out storage target without HYCU-X? Perhaps. But with HYCU-X, companies get the backup engine they need to manage the snapshot and replication features natively found on the HCI platform. By HYCU starting with Nutanix, companies can leverage the Nutanix AHV HCI Platform as a backup target. They can then use HYCU-X to manage the data once it lands