• Cisco Systems partnered with Nutanix to sell its hyper-converged systems but has discontinued its Hyperflex portfolio.
• Christian Goffi underscores the commitment to customer choice, with partners recognizing the value of the HCI platform.
• For Nutanix, which relies heavily on channel partners, the partner program highlights its strong commitment to a channel-centric approach.
Nutanix and Cisco Systems have formed a global strategic partnership, which offers channel partners a remarkable opportunity to extend their footprint to a fresh customer demographic, harnessing their existing prowess in architecting hyper-converged platforms.
Christian Goffi, Nutanix's North American Channel Chief, remarked, .
For our partner community, the opportunity really comes from having another platform that they can lean on our solution for. We've always been about customer choice, and this is another one of those areas. Our partners have become very in-tune with the beauty of our HCI platform and what Nutanix does best.
[Source – CRN]
In response to the partnership announcement, he noted that channel partners displayed immediate and enthusiastic interest. Partners eagerly expressed their anticipation for further details, and the overall excitement surrounding the partnership was notably high. This strategic move opens up the possibility of reaching an untapped customer base. Interestingly, the partner community quickly recognized and embraced this excitement without the need for explicit communication.
After the company's earnings announcement, Nutanix CEO Rajiv Ramaswami informed investors that Cisco is acquiring the entire cloud platform, including cloud infrastructure, management, and unified storage. Cisco will integrate this comprehensive portfolio with its Unified Computing System (UCS) and UCS management platform, Cisco Intersight. Subsequently, Cisco will market and sell the entirety of this portfolio. This strategic move will result in fully integrated solutions that combine the cloud and software offerings with Cisco's hardware, networking, and security, all offered by Cisco's sales teams.
John Woodall, Vice President of Solutions Architecture West at General Datatech, a Dallas-based solution provider with a longstanding partnership with Cisco, stated that the hyper-converged infrastructure market has proven favorable. However, he believes Cisco can secure more victories through collaboration with Nutanix. This strategy represents a well-balanced approach toward establishing a prominent market presence alongside Nutanix.
Christian Goffi further observed that various networking challenges persist in today's market, encompassing hybrid deployments and GenAI. Cisco's partnership brings numerous benefits to Nutanix channel partners. The collaboration with a global networking leader empowers them with the agility associated with the public cloud, a model many favor due to its pay-as-you-use approach despite its inherent complexities. Nutanix excels in extending this public cloud excellence into private cloud environments, aligning with its core strengths.