Nutanix Software Solution Product Guide

The Lenovo-Nutanix partnership has been going strong since 2015, with deep cross-functional collaboration that delivers to market the most advanced and efficient solutions for customer’s edge-to cloud IT needs. The highly secure and compliant infrastructure products from Lenovo seamlessly integrate and interoperate with the customer’s existing environment and are optimized to lower the costs.

The Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series deliver the industry’s most feature-rich hyperconverged infrastructure to enterprise datacenters. Nutanix brings the benefits of web-scale technologies to enterprise applications through enterprise storage, data protection, infrastructure resilience, management and analytics, and security.

Lenovo has proven experience in developing and delivering Nutanix-based solutions that help customers modernize and simplify their IT infrastructure to dramatically drive down operating costs and open the door to cutting-edge innovations. Built around the latest Lenovo ThinkSystem servers' hardware, the Lenovo solution with Nutanix provides businesses with an affordable, interoperable, and reliable industry-leading solution to manage their virtualized workloads.

Enterprise licensing agreements (> US$250K) are also available. Please contact your Lenovo salesperson for more information.

Nutanix PnP licenses are sold as a license which include 3 years, 4 years, or 5 years of support and subscription with Lenovo hardware. There is also an option to buy standalone software with licenses that include a 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5-year subscription. The license is transferable to Lenovo and non-Lenovo x86 hardware. Nutanix software licenses can be sold with Lenovo Part Number to simplify the configuration and purchase cycle. The support provided by Lenovo is only valid for Lenovo servers. Lenovo can provide Nutanix based Level 0 support and subscription offerings with end-to-end case management. For PnP software licenses, all software support is offered only by Nutanix. Additionally, for Integrated Systems, Lenovo provides end-to-end single point of contact support.

Continuing with the strong relationship between partners, Lenovo has included in the Lenovo-Nutanix portfolio a new licensing option, PnP licensing. As Nutanix is moving to a subscription-based model, Lenovo is progressively including new parts that align with this licensing model.

The following table provides details on the charge metric for each of the Nutanix software options.

In next sections you will see the latest Nutanix PnP software options. The software options listed in this section offer PnP licenses which include 3 years, 4 years, or 5 years of support and subscription with Lenovo hardware. There is also an option to buy standalone software (customer needs to upgrade software on the existing HX hardware) with licenses that include a 1-year, 2-year, 3-year, 4-year or 5-year subscription.

To upgrade products, customers must have the original base product on a current Lenovo services contract and must have registered for Lenovo support on the original base product so that upgrades can be added to an existing service contract.

The new, simplified product portfolio includes:

• Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)
• Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) along with additional packages
• Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP)
• Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure - Edge (NCI-Edge)
• Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS)
• Nutanix Database Service (NDB)
• Nutanix Desktop Services (NDS): Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and Nutanix Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

The Nutanix software is available for all base CTO models.

The three licensing levels are Starter, Pro and Ultimate.

Note: For PnP, part numbers are available only for licenses and separately not for S&S.

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is a complete software stack to unify your hybrid cloud infrastructure including compute, storage and network, hypervisors, and containers, in public or enterprise clouds; all with built-in resilience, self-healing, disaster recovery capabilities, and security. It includes enterprise data services and consolidated storage, data protection and disaster recovery, native virtualization and container management, networking, and security.

For more information on NCI, see:
https://www.nutanix.com/products/nutanix-cloud-infrastructure

For details on software editions, see:
https://www.nutanix.com/products/cloud-platform/software-options#nci 

For details on Mission Critical and Production Support, see:
https://www.nutanix.com/sg/support-services/product-support/product-support-programs

The following table lists the ordering part numbers for Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI).

Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) offers our customers simplicity and ease of use to build and grow their cloud deployments faster and realize rapid ROI, by providing intelligent operations, self-service and orchestration, visibility, and governance of spend, security and teams, all through a unified multi-cloud management solution.

For details on NCM, see:
https://www.nutanix.com/products/cloud-manager

For details on software editions, see:
https://www.nutanix.com/products/cloud-platform/software-options#ncm

The following table lists the ordering part numbers for Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM).

Nutanix Cloud Platform is the complete software edition package that includes both Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) and Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM). It is available in several editions to meet your infrastructure needs with the right set of capabilities, as listed in the following table.

The following table lists the ordering part numbers for Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP) Bundles.

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure – Edge (NCI-Edge) provides a distributed infrastructure platform for small edge deployments. NCI-Edge provides the same capabilities as NCI, combining compute, storage, and networking resources from a cluster of servers into a single logical pool with integrated resiliency, security, performance, and simplified administration. NCI-Edge is limited to a maximum of 25 VMs in a cluster, with each VM being limited to a maximum of 96GB of memory. With NCI-Edge, organizations can efficiently extend the Nutanix platform to remote office/branch office (ROBO) and other edge use cases.

NCI-Edge is priced on a per VM basis as measured by the maximum number of concurrently powered-on VMs.

Deployment requirements:

• NCI-Edge term licenses run on and are portable across vendor platforms
• NCI-Edge licenses must run on a dedicated licensed cluster with no core-based licensing. Mixing of NCI-Edge licenses with other types of NCI licensing within a cluster is not supported.
• NCI-Edge licenses are available on AOS 6.7 and require Prism Central 2023.3 or higher version
• NCI-Edge licensing cannot be mixed with legacy AOS ROBO licenses within a cluster but can be mixed within a Prism Central provided each cluster under the Prism Central’s purview is wholly on NCI-Edge or wholly on legacy AOS ROBO licensing.
• NCI-Edge editions are determined at the cluster level, clusters with mixed Starter/Pro/Ultimate licensing will default to the lowest tier.
• For deployment on public cloud, a minimum of Pro edition is required. NCI-Edge Starter is not eligible for deployment on public cloud.
• Maximum allowed VMs in an Edge cluster may not exceed 25. Maximum allowed memory per VM in an Edge cluster may not exceed 96 GB.
• Maximum number of nodes in an NCI-Edge cluster may not exceed 5.
• Scope included for Nutanix Security Central in NCI-Edge Ultimate is infrastructure running Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure. Public cloud capability requires NCM Security Central SaaS SKU.

For more information on Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure - Edge, see:
https://www.nutanix.com/library/datasheets/nci-edge

The following table lists the ordering part numbers for Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure - Edge.

Nutanix Unified Storage provides software-defined, scale-out storage solutions for enterprise NAS and object workloads for unstructured data, block storage for structured data, and backup storage. Nutanix Unified Storage replaces traditional independent storage services and brings NAS, object, and block workloads into a consolidated unified storage platform with all its benefits, including a unified control plane.

Nutanix Data Lens delivers cloud-based data governance for unstructured data stored in the Nutanix Unified Storage platform, including data lifecycle management, data security, ransomware protection, and audit compliance.

Nutanix Unified Storage and Data Lens are purchased and licensed on a per TiB usable basis. A tebibyte (TiB) is a unit of measure used to describe computing capacity.

For more information on Nutanix Unified Storage, see:
https://www.nutanix.com/solutions/unified-storage

For details on software editions, see
https://www.nutanix.com/products/cloud-platform/software-options#nus

The following table lists the ordering part numbers for Nutanix Unified Storage.

Nutanix Database Service (NDB) is a Hybrid Multicloud Database as-a-Service (DBaaS) that enables small, nimble teams of DBAs to easily manage large fleets of databases using a single console and API, while enabling developers to self-service their database requests.  NDB is purchased and licensed on a per core basis and is available either as a standalone or as an add-on to NCI.

In the standalone version, NDB includes NCI Ultimate functionality in addition to database-specific capabilities and is licensed on a per-core basis.

For more information about NDB, see:
https://www.nutanix.com/products/database-service

For details on software editions, see:
https://www.nutanix.com/products/cloud-platform/software-options#database

The following table lists the ordering part numbers for Nutanix Database Service.

The Nutanix Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) per user model offers hybrid cloud infrastructure capabilities appropriate for on-prem VDI and Desktop as a Service (DaaS) use cases with pricing based on a Maximum Concurrent User basis (maximum number of provisioned end-user VMs).

VDI per user model is designed to provide simple, transparent licensing for all VDI users, regardless of the underlying hardware, hypervisor, or cloud.

Features of the licensing model:

• Agnostic: Works with any EUC management platform including Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and VMware Horizon
• Term license: 1-year through 5-year options
  • Term license must run on a dedicated software licensed VDI cluster with no core-based licensing. Mixing of non-VDI workloads is not supported.
• Unified Storage: Built-in and available as a per TiB base add-on
• No additional license cost for DR site
• Portable across on-premises and public cloud, public cloud use requires Ultimate edition
• Available in Starter, Pro, and Ultimate editions
• Cloud Native and Database Service Add-ons not available with NCI VDI. Advanced Replication and Security Add-on features require NCI Ultimate edition

For more information about Nutanix VDI, see:
https://www.nutanix.com/products/vdi

For details on software editions, see:
https://www.nutanix.com/products/cloud-platform/software-options#vdi

The following table lists the ordering part numbers for Nutanix Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and Nutanix Desktop as a Service (DaaS).

Lenovo offers a broad range of Nutanix based solutions in varying levels of integration to meet different customer requirements and business needs. Solutions range from the turnkey factory-integrated, highly configured Lenovo ThinkAgile HX series of Integrated Systems to Certified Nodes based on Lenovo’s proven reference architecture, and everything in between.

ThinkAgile HX Integrated System

Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series is designed to help you simplify IT infrastructure, reduce costs, and accelerate time to value. These offerings are factory-integrated, highly configured ready-to-go solutions and are based on Lenovo ThinkSystem servers and Nutanix Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) software. Nutanix offers a unique, software-defined approach to hyper convergence, leveraging the hypervisor to deliver compute, storage, and management in a tightly integrated software stack.

Key attributes include:

• Firmware controlled
• Lifecycle managed
• Single Lenovo point of support

For more information, refer to the ThinkAgile HX Series data sheet:
https://lenovopress.lenovo.com/datasheet/ds0019-lenovo-thinkagile-hx-series

Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series Integrated Systems include Lenovo Premier Support, a unique Lenovo Service that helps to ensure your systems are up and running quickly and easily. Lenovo Services will set up and configure your new solution and provide any training needed to get the system operational. Lenovo Premier Support includes a direct phone line to a team of experts who support only ThinkAgile solutions. The experts will rapidly diagnose any hardware or software issues and remain as your single point of contact throughout the entire support process.

ThinkAgile HX Certified Node

Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Certified Nodes allow customers to purchase hardware from Lenovo that does not include the software licensing or deployment services bundled in. ThinkAgile HX Certified Nodes include Nutanix software preloaded at the factory. Hardware firmware, drivers, and software updates are tested for interoperability and release with the product. ThinkAgile Certified Nodes are assigned Lenovo part numbers for ease of ordering.

Key attributes include:

• Firmware controlled
• Lifecycle managed
• Requires specialized IT skills

For more information, refer to the ThinkAgile HX Certified Nodes data sheet:
https://lenovopress.lenovo.com/datasheet/ds0046-lenovo-thinkagile-hx-certified-nodes

The following sales training courses are offered for employees and partners (login required). Courses are listed in date order.

1. A Lenovo Seller’s Journey in the Cloud Space – Clarifying Your Customer's Challenge
   2024-01-03 | 20 minutes | Employees and Partners
   Details
   A Lenovo Seller’s Journey in the Cloud Space – Clarifying Your Customer's Challenge
   
   

   The intention of this learning module is to provide suggestions and guidance for those first customer conversations after the opportunity has been initially identified. In this simulation, the Seller’s objective is to learn about the business and qualify the business gap.
   
   After completing this course, you will be able to:
   • Verify the customer business need
   • Guide the customer conversation to qualify and confirm the business gap
   • Determine next steps to progress the sale

   Published: 2024-01-03
   Length: 20 minutes
   Employee link: Grow@Lenovo
   Partner link: Lenovo Partner Learning
   Course code: DCLDB217r2
2. Gaining Insight to Lenovo Cloud Solutions Customers - Practical Scenario
   2024-01-03 | 20 minutes | Employees and Partners
   Details
   Gaining Insight to Lenovo Cloud Solutions Customers - Practical Scenario
   
   

   In this course we are going to explore a productive sequence of questions to gather information about the customer’s business, business processes, and data flow to help position related Lenovo Cloud Solutions.
   
   This course aims to help Lenovo and Partner Sellers identify customers' business landscape in relation to their intended and/or current IT Cloud eco-system.
   
   Completing this learning content will enable you to:
   • Ask questions to uncover your customer's business operations and IT landscape
   • Assess and identify possible opportunities for Lenovo Cloud Solutions and Services
   • Identify the next step to progress the conversation with the customer

   Published: 2024-01-03
   Length: 20 minutes
   Employee link: Grow@Lenovo
   Partner link: Lenovo Partner Learning
   Course code: DCLDO115r2
3. Gaining Insight to Lenovo Cloud Solutions Customers
   2024-01-03 | 25 minutes | Employees and Partners
   Details
   Gaining Insight to Lenovo Cloud Solutions Customers
   
   

   In this course we are going to explore how to start the conversation about customer's business and technology.
   
   This course aims to provide the Lenovo and Partner sellers with the foundation to ask fundamental questions about customers’ business and technology to help position related Lenovo Cloud Solutions.
   
   After completing this training, you will be able to:
   • Ask fundamental questions about your customers' business
   • Ask fundamental questions about your customers' technology
   • Understand what a company needs to consider to execute a cloud strategy

   Published: 2024-01-03
   Length: 25 minutes
   Employee link: Grow@Lenovo
   Partner link: Lenovo Partner Learning
   Course code: DCLDO114r2
4. The Basics of Cloud Computing
   2024-01-03 | 20 minutes | Employees and Partners
   Details
   The Basics of Cloud Computing
   
   

   As the first course in the ISG Cloud Solutions curriculum, it goes all-out to help Lenovo and Partner General/Technical sellers by providing the foundational information regarding the cloud technology.
   
   This course aims to increase the seller's ability to articulate basic cloud technology concepts and help position related Lenovo Solutions and services.

   Published: 2024-01-03
   Length: 20 minutes
   Employee link: Grow@Lenovo
   Partner link: Lenovo Partner Learning
   Course code: DCLDO111r2

See the following documents for information about Nutanix offerings from Lenovo.

Reference Architecture for SAP Applications using Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series

This document provides a technical overview of SAP applications ThinkAgile HX Series and explains why the combination of Lenovo servers and Nutanix software provides best of breed system performance and reliability.

https://lenovopress.lenovo.com/lp1413-reference-architecture-for-sap-applications-using-lenovo-thinkagile-hx-series

Reference Architecture for Workloads using Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series

This document includes following workloads:

• Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops
• Microsoft SQL Server
• Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform
• VMware Horizon
• VMware vCloud Suite
• Veeam Backup with ThinkSystem DE/DM/DG

https://lenovopress.lenovo.com/lp0665-thinkagile-hx-series-reference-architecture