The Nutanix .NEXT 2025 conference aims to position the company as a central enabler of enterprise hybrid multicloud operations, with a sharpened focus on agentic AI, cloud-native applications, and simplified IT operations. The theme, “Run Anything Anywhere,” encapsulates Nutanix’s core value proposition—delivering application, data, and AI mobility across data centers, public clouds, and edge environments through a unified platform.
Keynote Announcements and Strategic Initiatives
Cloud-Native and Multicloud Expansion
Nutanix introduced Cloud Native AOS, a reimagined architecture that runs Kubernetes and enterprise workloads consistently across hybrid environments. Enhancements to NC2 (Nutanix Cloud Clusters) span major public clouds, including Google Cloud, AWS, and Azure, signifying Nutanix’s continued investment in multi-cloud flexibility.
- Over 90% of enterprises will embrace a hybrid or multicloud strategy by 2026, with containerized workloads comprising more than 20% of enterprise applications by 2027.
Infrastructure Modernization
As enterprises navigate digital transformation, many prioritize modernization strategies that enhance existing infrastructure rather than undertake costly rip-and-replace overhauls. Nutanix is responding to this demand by deepening its ecosystem integrations, enabling organizations to extend their current investments while adopting modern cloud operating models. These efforts reflect a practical and scalable approach to hybrid IT that blends performance, flexibility, and operational continuity.
Several infrastructure partnerships were highlighted:
- NCP with Dell PowerFlex and Pure Storage for shared storage scalability and snapshot management.
FlashStack (with Cisco UCS and Pure Storage) is integrated with Nutanix Compute Clusters and Prism management for converged infrastructure deployments. - These solutions cater to enterprises seeking performance and capacity scaling without abandoning familiar enterprise storage ecosystems.
This aligns with findings that 64% of enterprises prefer modernizing existing IT stacks rather than ripping and replacing them.
As for Security and VDI enhancements, Nutanix expanded integrations with Citrix, Omnissa (formerly VMware EUC), and security ecosystem partners, reinforcing Nutanix’s ambition to be the platform of choice for secure virtual desktop and endpoint services, which is critical amid the persistent hybrid workforce trend.
Nutanix Enterprise for Agentic AI Enablement
Nutanix has significantly advanced AI by expanding its Nutanix Enterprise AI (NAI) platform, which is now optimized for production-ready agentic AI. The enhanced platform integrates NVIDIA NeMo capabilities, including embedding, reranking, and robust guardrail models. It also features key operational tools such as lifecycle management, inference control, and a curated model library, designed to streamline and secure the deployment of advanced AI applications.
Beyond tooling, Nutanix delivers turnkey agentic AI applications for real-world use cases like document summarization, translation, and client support. These capabilities allow the company to meet growing demands for secure, scalable AI without requiring deep in-house expertise or reliance on public cloud-only solutions. This turnkey approach is especially valuable for organizations seeking faster time-to-value in their AI initiatives.
Crucially, Nutanix is positioning itself as a platform and infrastructure provider for emerging “AI factories”—dedicated environments for training, deploying, and managing large language models (LLMs) and agentic services. Forecasts show that 30% of enterprises will adopt AI model factories by 2026. With the generative AI market projected to surpass $100 billion by 2030, Nutanix is strategically aligned to capitalize on this shift with a solution stack tailored for private, secure, and hybrid AI deployment.
Nutanix identifies three pivotal challenges enterprises face on their AI journey: the “cold start” problem stemming from limited internal AI expertise, heightened concerns around security and intellectual property that drive a preference for on-premises deployment, and the demand for turnkey, end-to-end solutions rather than disjointed tools. These hurdles reflect a broader market trend where organizations seek faster time-to-value, simplified integration, and greater control over sensitive data, especially in regulated industries or use cases involving proprietary models and workflows.
In response, Nutanix delivers tightly integrated solutions through a unified management plane that spans AI, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), and cloud-native workloads. This positions the company not just as an infrastructure provider but as a strategic solution orchestrator, offering a platform capable of holistically addressing operational, security, and adoption challenges. By aligning with customer needs in both emerging AI use cases and established enterprise workloads, Nutanix strengthens its value proposition as a trusted partner for digital transformation.
Nutanix’s “Run Anything Anywhere” strategy builds on its hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) foundation while expanding into high-growth markets such as agentic AI, cloud-native applications, and Kubernetes-based data services. The plan also encompasses federated infrastructure seamlessly extending from edge to core to public cloud, reflecting enterprise demand for workload mobility, consistent operations, and unified data governance across diverse environments.
Nutanix’s cloud-neutral abstraction layer sets it apart, enabling organizations to avoid vendor lock-in while maintaining operational consistency across platforms. This differentiates Nutanix from hyperscalers, who prioritize their own ecosystems, and legacy storage providers, which often lack multi-cloud agility. Nutanix is well-positioned to serve enterprises navigating complex, hybrid IT landscapes by addressing the growing need for platform independence and architectural flexibility.
Nutanix Strengthens Its Kubernetes Strategy with NKP 2.14, Delivering Enhanced Multi-Cloud Management, Integrated Services, and Enterprise-Grade Flexibility
Nutanix has advanced its Kubernetes offerings with the transition from Nutanix Kubernetes Engine (NKE) to the Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP), aiming to provide a more robust and enterprise-ready solution for managing containerized applications across diverse environments.
The latest release, NKP 2.14, introduces several key enhancements:
- Integrated Image Registry: Incorporation of a Harbor-powered, production-ready image registry simplifies the management of container images
- Integration with Nutanix Objects: Seamless integration with Nutanix Objects Storage allows for easier exposure of object storage to cloud-native applications, facilitating declarative definitions and enabling GitOps workflows
- Updated Software Support: NKP 2.14 supports Kubernetes version 1.31 and Traefik v3.x as the ingress controller. It also supports Ubuntu 22.04 and RHEL 8.10 across all NKP infrastructure providers.
From an analyst’s perspective, these enhancements position NKP as a comprehensive solution for enterprises seeking to streamline Kubernetes operations. The platform’s ability to manage clusters across on-premises, public cloud, and air-gapped environments through a centralized management plane reduces operational complexity and costs.
User feedback indicates that while NKE was appreciated for its simplicity, there were areas needing improvement, such as dynamic scaling, GUI verbosity, and documentation. NKP addresses these concerns by offering enhanced management capabilities, better interoperability, and improved support for advanced Kubernetes functionalities.
NKP’s integration with Nutanix’s broader ecosystem, including data services and AI capabilities, provides a unified platform for running virtualized and containerized workloads. This holistic approach supports enterprises’ digital transformation journeys, offering scalability, security, and flexibility across various deployment scenarios.
In summary, Nutanix’s evolution from NKE to NKP reflects a strategic move to meet the growing demands of modern enterprises. By enhancing its Kubernetes platform with integrated services, multi-cloud support, and AI-driven operations, Nutanix positions itself as a formidable player in the cloud-native infrastructure landscape.
Analyst Take
Nutanix is evolving into a platform company for hybrid cloud and enterprise AI operations. Its emphasis on agentic AI readiness, multicloud interoperability, and ecosystem partnerships signals a bold move into strategic IT transformation domains. With enterprises seeking to consolidate infrastructure complexity while embracing next-gen workloads, Nutanix appears well-positioned to expand its TAM (total addressable market) and deepen its relevance across CIO and CDO priorities.
At Nutanix .NEXT 2025, theCUBE Research provided an in-depth analysis of Nutanix’s strategic advancements in AI and hybrid multicloud infrastructure. John Furrier, co-CEO and executive analyst, and Bob LaLiberte, Principal Analyst at theCUBE, highlight the surge in enterprise adoption of AI-enabled applications, emphasizing the integration of AI across infrastructure, software, and hardware. They noted a significant increase in AI infrastructure, software, and hardware working cohesively, leading to a new wave of AI-enabled applications tailored for enterprise use. I encourage you to view the video coverage.
Nutanix’s focus on simplifying AI deployment at scale was a central theme, with discussions on how the company enables enterprises to build scalable hybrid multicloud AI foundations. theCUBE’s coverage underscored Nutanix’s efforts to address real-world challenges in deploying ROI-driven AI solutions across hybrid multicloud environments. This includes tackling complexities in managing large language models (LLMs), endpoints, and business-specific data securely and efficiently.
theCUBE analysts explored Nutanix’s role in reshaping enterprise infrastructure to make AI deployment more practical and profitable. They discussed how Nutanix’s platform strategy is designed to support the secure management of AI workloads, emphasizing the importance of infrastructure modernization in achieving scalable AI deployments. theCUBE’s insights provided a comprehensive view of Nutanix’s initiatives to simplify hybrid multicloud infrastructure and secure enterprise data in the evolving landscape of AI integration.
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