Brian Cox, Nutanix, sits with Stu Miniman & Rebecca Knight for Microsoft Ignite 2018 in Orlando, FL #MSIgnite #Microsoft #theCUBE https://siliconangle.com/2018/10/03/hyperconverged-infrastructure-pioneer-envisions-simplified-future-msignite/ Hyperconverged infrastructure pioneer envisions ‘simplified IT future’ From the complexities of cloud computing emerged hyperconverged infrastructure, a software-led method for information technology departments to virtualize the many elements of conventional hardware systems. The fully integrated approach is gaining popularity, scooping up market share from the hardware-defined technique of converged infrastructures. As business opportunities emerge, Nutanix Inc. takes the macro perspective on its hyperconverged pipeline. Brian Cox (pictured), director of product marketing at Nutanix, spoke with Rebecca Knight (@knightrm) and Stu Miniman (@stu), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Microsoft Ignite event in Orlando, Florida. They discussed Nutanix’s role in pioneering hyperconverged infrastructure, how the company continues to influence businesses as large as Microsoft Corp., and where Nutanix is heading in the future. (* Disclosure below.) [Editor’s note: The following answers have been condensed for clarity.] Knight: Nutanix really pioneered hyperconverged infrastructure. But, the vision is bigger; Nutanix is about more than hyperconverged. Cox: Yeah, and we’re very glad to see here at Microsoft Ignite that Microsoft, in the next version of Windows, is touting the whole hyperconverged concept. So, we are seeing validation from one of the most established computing companies in the world. We were really thinking of something, I think, bigger and beyond, which is, how can we simplify IT, because at the end of the day, all the business cares about are the services that IT delivers. IT, finance, marketing and HR, they’re all just means to an end. When we looked at this we said, “What can we do to just deliver those services and apps and simplify everything else?” Miniman: Help explain Nutanix in the Microsoft ecosystem and how that fits in the overall view of Nutanix’s value in the marketplace. Cox: Sure, the larger vision that Nutanix had is, “Let’s simplify everything below the app layer.” So we said, “The first thing we need to do is eliminate that complexity.” We brought that down into a single building block appliance, which ultimately got termed hyperconverged infrastructure, but that wasn’t our destination. That was just, we needed common building blocks like LEGO pieces that can snap together without any fuss and allow the companies to build that up. We can then raise the level of simplification all the way between the physical infrastructure to the app. So, no longer do you have that long hop from the compute with the servers all the way out to the external storage arrays. It all collapses; performance gets better; we eliminate points of failure. And, in fact, even when you have multiple of these LEGO blocks, this cluster, we try to always associate the data and the compute onto the same node, so there’s very little latency at all. Microsoft SQL, Exchange performance goes up, the up-time goes up, and then to manage it, is also simpler. Miniman: We hear from Microsoft, it’s a multi-hypervisor and multicloud world. How does Microsoft fit in with the Nutanix story? Cox: Well, we realize that customers want to have a choice. So, if you look at really the three pillars that come from our founding, we want to be able to make it simple, we want to make it scalable, and we do want to give you choice. Whatever is your standard, we’ll go ahead and work with that. We’ll give you choices, [such as] different clouds. The software to manage and optimize is not only just for your on-premises environment; you can use this if you’re in a distributed environment, whether it’s [remote office/branch office] or edge sites, like oil rigs and other [internet of things], we can give the same interface, and then the same interface out to the public cloud as well. So we give you the choice of different clouds, different platforms, different hypervisors, and then different operating systems. We support everything from a Windows server environment to Linux and even IBM’s [Application Integration Suite]. All are supported on the platform, so you get to have it fit the way you want to work, versus the other way around. ... Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Microsoft Ignite event. (* Disclosure: Nutanix, Inc. sponsored this segment, with additional broadcast sponsorship from Cohesity Inc. Nutanix, Cohesity, and other sponsors do not have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)