Incredible Success: Nutanix Reaches 1,000 Customers, Dominates 55% of the HCI Space and Receives Unmatched NPS of 90+”

In this exclusive interview, Faiz Shakir, Managing Director of Sales at Nutanix India & SAARC, shares his insights into the top challenges facing customers today and offers ways to tech leaders to avoid failure in digital transformation initiatives. He also talks about the best practices to ease transition and migration on the cloud, as well as his predictions for the future of cloud technology. Learn how to stay ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving world of cloud technology with valuable advice and insight from Faiz, and get the inside scoop on Nutanix’s impressive growth and market leadership with over 1,000 customers and 90+ NPS.

What according to you are the top challenges customers are facing currently?

In the previous two to three years, many customers and CIOs were not fully prepared to deal with the sudden transition to work from home, the security issues that arose, or the lack of knowledge in managing infrastructure remotely. This was something that they could not have planned for, resulting in a mass movement to public cloud as the go-to solution. Nevertheless, surveys indicate that public cloud is not the only answer and that a multi-cloud, hybrid cloud strategy is the preferred approach for most CIOs. The challenges of the last few years cannot simply be addressed by relying on a single public cloud provider.

What are your suggestions for tech leaders to avoid failures in digital transformation initiatives?

My suggestion for tech leaders to prevent failures in digital transformation initiatives is to start with infrastructure modernization. Assess the current infrastructure and consider migrating to a hyperconverged solution to consolidate and simplify IT resources. This will help to reduce cost and decrease complexity while allowing for greater scalability and flexibility. Additionally, it’s important to evaluate the existing network and storage technologies to ensure they meet the needs of the digital transformation goals.

The next step in digital transformation is to create a strong bridge between modernized infrastructure and a multi-cloud or hybrid cloud platform, where applications can run reliably on a private cloud setup with the ability to easily move to a public cloud at any time. The single pane of glass management would allow for this to be done with ease and security features would be in place for long-term scalability. This is the right approach to take instead of immediately moving from legacy systems to the public cloud in one go, as that could be costly. Rather than opting for an immediate shift from on-premises to a public cloud, this approach may not be the most cost-effective solution. It is possible to be caught off guard by the additional expenses incurred with the full public cloud deployment due to the unforeseeable costs which can cause budget blow-outs.

What are the best practices you suggest to ease transition and migration on the cloud?

To facilitate an easier transition and migration to the cloud, I suggest a few best practices. First, having a platform with a common console that can manage applications in your data center, on a hyper-converged system, or on a cloud provider, such as AWS or Azure, allows you to manage the environment without the need to develop new skills or use multiple interfaces. Additionally, Nutanix offers a solution that allows for this kind of flexibility and ease of operation.

To ensure a smooth transition and migration to the cloud, I suggest utilizing the Nutanix Management Console for managing data across both private and public clouds. This gives customers the added benefit of leveraging an OPEX pay-as-you-use business model, while being able to access the same console for all cloud solutions. Many customers are now taking advantage of this offering and are finding great success in the process.

How do you see the cloud as a technology to evolve over the next couple of years?

I envision the cloud technology evolving significantly over the next few years. I believe the growth of multi-cloud solutions will become increasingly popular, with customers utilizing a variety of services such as AWS, GCP, Azure, and Nutanix. Furthermore, customers will have the ability to choose which virtual machine to put where, depending on cost and other factors. Ultimately, customers will be able to manage all virtual machines through a single console.

Please talk about your top focus areas over the next couple of years?

Nutanix will remain focused on maintaining its core philosophy of simplicity over the next couple of years. This will involve continuing to develop its cloud-like Hyperconvergent Infrastructure platform, which combines servers, storage, and virtualization onto a single platform. This platform will simplify the process of managing data center technology, making it as easy and intuitive as using an iPhone, and eliminate the need for complex skill sets and significant effort.

Nutanix’s main focus points over the upcoming years will be to provide customers with the freedom of choice to run their software on any hardware, virtualization partner, or cloud. This includes maintaining the same consistent management console across all platforms, and forming strong relationships with providers such as Red Hat for container and Kubernetes platforms. Moreover, Nutanix cloud will allow customers to select a service provider of their own preference. All in all, the goal is to provide customers with the freedom to choose without any form of lock-in, while maintaining the same quality of service.

What are your recent business achievements?

I am proud to report that Nutanix has achieved tremendous success. Our customer base has grown over the last year to an impressive 1,000 customers, and our growth rate has been an impressive 60-65% annually. According to IDC, we are market leaders in the HCI space for 15 consecutive quarters, and hold a market share of 55%, which is larger than our competitors combined. Nutanix is the preferred choice of CIOs; 10 of the 10 major banks, five of the five large ITeS companies, multiple large hospitals, conglomerates, and government agencies are all Nutanix customers. Most impressively, we have a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 90+, which is unmatched in the industry.

Nutanix is dedicated to customer satisfaction and relevance, truly immersing ourselves in the notion that our customers and partners are at the heart of everything we do. We strive every day to ensure that we are providing the best possible service and support. This is our passion and our mission.