At the recent Nutanix .NEXT event, Pure Storage and Nutanix announced a collaboration to deliver a jointly certified solution combining Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure with Pure Storage FlashArray over NVMe/TCP.
The alliance targets enterprise customers seeking alternatives to traditional virtualization stacks, particularly VMware deployments. Early access begins summer 2025, with general availability expected by end of calendar year 2025.
Technical Overview
The new Pure/Nutanix solution will enable Nutanix AHV hypervisor to work with Pure Storage external arrays through certified configurations, supported by major server vendors including Cisco, Dell, HPE, Lenovo, and Supermicro.
The key capabilities of the solution include:
- External Storage Support: This is Nutanix’s first major partnership for certified external storage integration, expanding beyond its traditional hyperconverged model (though it follows Dell’s announcement of providing Nutanix external storage through its software-defined PowerFlex solution).
- Security Features: Integration of Pure SafeMode immutable snapshots with Nutanix Flow micro-segmentation and disaster recovery orchestration.
- Data Efficiency: Leverages Pure’s data reduction technologies (typically achieving 3:1 to 5:1 ratios depending on workload type).
- Performance Profile: NVMe/TCP connectivity delivers sub-millisecond latency for critical workloads.
Impact to IT ORganizations
The joint solution promises IT organizations several tangible operational benefits:
- Reduces operational complexity by standardizing on Nutanix AHV for compute virtualization while maintaining external storage flexibility.
- Simplifies infrastructure scaling by decoupling storage and compute growth.
- Improves disaster recovery capabilities through integration of both platforms’ native protection features.
- Allows phased migration from VMware without wholesale infrastructure replacement.
The Pure/Nutanix solution is a good fit for several enterprise use cases:
- Enterprise VMware Migration
- AI and ML Infrastructure
- Edge Computing
- Storage-Heavy Workloads
Analysis
The Pure Storage-Nutanix partnership creates a credible alternative in the enterprise virtualization market, especially in enterprises concerned about VMware licensing costs but are reliant on an external storage architecture (like Dell’s vxRAIL offerings).
The announcement addresses a specific market need for modern virtualization infrastructure that maintains separation between compute and storage resources.
The alliance with Nutanix arrives at a time of rapid innovation for Pure. Over the past several months, the storage company introduced FlashBlade//EXA, its new disaggregated, massively parallel data storage platform for AI and high-performance computing workloads.
The company also announced the integration of the NVIDIA AI Data Platform into its FlashBlade system. The moves are paying off for Pure, with the company beating analyst estimates for revenue and earnings for the past eight consecutive quarters.
Similarly, Nutanix’s rapid innovation and aggressive pursuit of both greenfield and VMware-replacement opportunities are paying off. Nutanix’s expansion into AI and cloud have given the company an edge, resulting in four consecutive quarters of earnings beats.
For enterprises, this partnership merits serious evaluation as part of a broader virtualization strategy, particularly for organizations with existing Pure Storage investments or those actively seeking VMware alternatives.
Competitive Outlook & Advice to IT Buyers
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