NAND Insider Newsletter: Week of May 12, 2025

Newsletter

Each week NAND Research puts out a newsletter for our industry customers taking a look at what’s driving the week, and what happened last week that caught our attention. Below is a excerpt from this week’s, May 10, 2025.

Research Note: Nutanix & Pure Storage Partnership

Pure Storage Logo

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.

Research Note: VMware Tanzu’s AI Makeover

VMware Tanzu AI

Broadcom’s VMware is repositioning Tanzu from a Kubernetes-centric application platform to a GenAI-first PaaS. The latest release introduces support for Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) for agentic AI, deepens integration with the Claude LLM, and introduces a rearchitected platform focused on private cloud AI workloads.

Research Report: Understanding VMware Alternatives

Digital Transformation

Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware has left a lasting impact on the enterprise IT landscape. Promising simplification, Broadcom’s licensing and bundling changes have instead created confusion, increased costs, and led to widespread dissatisfaction among VMware customers. Many of these customers are actively exploring alternatives, driven by frustration and the need to future-proof their IT environments. This Research Report takes a look at how to best approach looking for a VMware alternative.

Research Note: Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization Engine

Red Hat

Red Hat announced the general availability of Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization Engine, a tailored version of its OpenShift orchestration platform for virtualization workloads.
The new offering utilizes the open-source KVM hypervisor and can run on-premises hardware with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and bare-metal cloud services.

The Next Wave of Digital Transformation Won’t Be Built on VMware 

Digital transformtion

It’s been nearly a year since Broadcom completed its acquisition of VMware, time enough to understand the impact of a deal that disrupted and challenged VMware customers and partners alike—challenges that continue even today. While much of the discussion about VMware focuses on Broadcom’s pricing and bundling changes, moves that have led to dramatic cost increases for its customers, there’s much more to the story.

Application Modernization Takes on New Dimension in the Post-VMware World

Digital Transformation People

From nearly the moment it was first announced, Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware sent ripples through the tech industry. The acquisition triggered a wave of concern among enterprises that have long relied on VMware’s ecosystem for their IT infrastructure—concerns that have become an unfortunate reality for many, driven by Broadcom’s changes to pricing, bundling, and channel programs.

Research Note: VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9

VMware VCF 9

Announced at its most recent VMware Discover event in Las Vegas, VMware Cloud Foundation 9 (VCF 9) is a significant evolution in private cloud technology. Designed to simplify operations, enhance security, and drive digital innovation, VCF 9 is a unified platform that merges public cloud environments’ agility with private cloud infrastructure’s control and security.

Research Note: Dell & Nutanix Expand Relationship & Offerings

Deal

Dell Technologies and Nutanix recently announced a strategic expansion of their partnership aimed at capturing disillusioned VMware customers following Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware.

The updated partnership sees Dell offering Nutanix software on its PowerEdge servers and integrating Dell’s PowerFlex storage with the Nutanix Cloud Platform.

Research Note: NetApp Updates Cloud Offerings

NetApp

NetApp announced new capabilities designed for strategic cloud workloads, including GenAI and VMware, to help reduce the resources and risks for managing these workloads in hybrid multi-cloud environments.

The Breakthrough Verification of vRAN by SoftBank, NEC, and VMware

NEC O-RAN

SoftBank Corp., NEC Corporation, and VMware (recently acquired by Broadcom Inc.) have jointly verified the virtualization of the Radio Access Network (RAN), demonstrating a significant step towards RAN modernization through the convergence of O-RAN architecture and Telco Cloud.

The Unexpected Impact of VMware Cost Reductions

Abstract image of earnings.

While VMware’s new price reductions may seem positive on the surface, there are significant questions as to whether IT buyers are actually saving money, especially as clarity emerges on the details of VMware’s new bundling scheme and the operational limits it’s now placing on products like vSAN.