What's Happening?
Nexcess, a cloud service provider managing over 100,000 servers for 185,000 customers globally, has announced the expansion of its service offerings to include managed cloud solutions powered by Nutanix. This new offering provides businesses with enterprise-grade
infrastructure, expert support, and managed environments, aiming to deliver predictable costs. The service is built on Nutanix's hyperconverged infrastructure, offering a single, software-defined platform for compute, storage, and networking, all managed by the Nexcess team. Michael Ohayon, General Manager, Managed Cloud, Nexcess, stated that the company chose Nutanix due to its trusted platform for critical workloads, emphasizing Nexcess's full ownership of design, migration, and day-to-day operations. This expansion is designed to alleviate the burden on companies that struggle with running their infrastructure, rather than acquiring it.
Why It's Important?
This expansion by Nexcess is significant for U.S. businesses, particularly small and midsize enterprises, facing increasing virtualization costs and stringent cyber insurance requirements. Many companies are pressured to demonstrate up-to-date cloud environments to renew policies, pushing IT teams to seek partners who can manage costs and ensure readiness. The managed cloud solution offers the reliability and control of dedicated infrastructure combined with the operational simplicity of a managed service, eliminating the need for specialized in-house skills. This can lead to reduced operational overhead, improved security posture, and greater efficiency for businesses. By handling architecture, migration, and environment management, Nexcess allows companies to modernize their cloud infrastructure without increasing headcount or retraining existing teams, thereby impacting their bottom line and competitive edge.
What's Next?
Nexcess's new managed cloud service is immediately available in both single and multi-tenant environments. Existing Nexcess customers have the option to upgrade to the Nutanix-powered managed cloud, while new customers can initiate their services with this environment from the outset. This indicates a direct and immediate impact on the market, as businesses can begin adopting these solutions without delay. The company's focus on simplifying the cloud experience, lowering risk, and enabling performance and scalability suggests a continued push towards comprehensive, managed IT solutions. This move is likely to influence other cloud service providers to enhance their managed offerings, potentially leading to increased competition and innovation in the managed cloud sector.
Beyond the Headlines
The trend of cloud service providers offering fully managed solutions, as exemplified by Nexcess's expansion, highlights a broader shift in the IT industry. Companies are increasingly seeking to offload the complexities of infrastructure management to focus on their core business functions. This development also underscores the growing importance of hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) like Nutanix, which simplifies data center operations by integrating compute, storage, and networking into a single system. Furthermore, the emphasis on meeting cyber insurance requirements reflects a heightened awareness of cybersecurity risks and the need for robust, compliant IT environments. This could lead to a greater demand for certified and secure managed cloud services, influencing industry standards and best practices for data protection and operational resilience.
