With the enterprise IT landscape shifting under the weight of major acquisitions and new strategic alliances, we sat down with cloud technology authority Maryanne Baines to make sense of the latest developments. Our conversation delves into the recent collaboration between AWS and Nutanix, exploring its technical underpinnings and its place within the broader competitive battle for the private cloud. We also touched upon the strategic maneuvering of tech giants as they position themselves to capitalize on the market disruption surrounding VMware and what this signals for the future of hybrid cloud infrastructure.
The article notes AWS now supports Nutanix’s KVM-based AHV in its Storage Gateway. Could you walk us through the integration steps for a Nutanix user, and what specific metrics or performance gains they should expect when connecting to S3 this way?
For a Nutanix user, this integration is less about a complex, multi-step process and more about unlocking a new capability. Because AHV is fundamentally based on KVM, which AWS already supported, this was not a heavy lift for them. It’s essentially about deploying the Storage Gateway appliance as a workload directly onto the Nutanix cluster, just as you would with ESXi or Hyper-V. The real gain here isn’t a specific throughput number; it’s about architectural simplicity. You are creating a seamless data bridge from your on-premises private cloud to the virtually limitless and cost-effective object storage of S3. This move streamlines tiering, backup, and archival workflows, removing friction that previously existed and making a hybrid cloud strategy feel much more native and cohesive.
Gartner predicts VMware could lose 35% of its workloads due to Broadcom’s strategy. How does this AWS support for AHV capitalize on that market uncertainty, and can you share an anecdote about a customer’s journey from “inquisitive exploration” to “implementation contemplation” with Nutanix?
This is an incredibly shrewd move by AWS, perfectly timed to capitalize on the market’s anxiety. With Gartner forecasting such a significant potential migration away from VMware—a staggering 35 percent of workloads—AWS is placing a bet on where those workloads will land. By extending this olive branch to Nutanix, they are essentially paving an escape route for VMware customers, with a direct on-ramp to the AWS cloud. I can tell you the tone of conversations has changed dramatically. A year ago, discussions about leaving VMware were purely exploratory, almost academic. Now, those same customers are in deep implementation planning. The dialogue has shifted from “What if?” to “How and when?” This AWS integration gives those customers a very tangible and compelling answer to the “how.”
The piece highlights Nutanix’s recent integrations with Pure Storage and Dell. How does adding AWS Storage Gateway support complement that strategy of embracing external arrays, and what does this signal about the evolution of Nutanix’s own native software-defined storage offering?
It complements it perfectly. The deals with Pure Storage and Dell were a clear admission from Nutanix that customers have massive investments in best-of-breed external storage arrays and aren’t just going to abandon them. This demonstrated a strategic pivot towards openness and integration. Adding AWS Storage Gateway support is the logical extension of that philosophy, expanding the ecosystem from on-premises hardware to the public cloud. It signals that Nutanix sees its core value proposition evolving. While their own software-defined storage is excellent, they are positioning themselves more as the central management and orchestration plane for a hybrid cloud, regardless of where the data ultimately resides—be it on a Dell array, a Pure box, or an S3 bucket.
The article states AWS wants its “share of the action” as Nutanix grows. Beyond driving S3 adoption, what are the deeper strategic benefits for AWS in supporting a key VMware rival, and can you outline what a potential roadmap for this partnership might look like?
Driving S3 adoption is the immediate, tactical win, but the strategic play for AWS is far more profound. For years, VMware’s on-premises dominance was a barrier to public cloud adoption. By actively supporting a primary VMware alternative like Nutanix, AWS helps to weaken that on-prem stronghold and positions itself as an indispensable partner in the new hybrid reality. They become the default cloud destination for any enterprise migrating away from the Broadcom ecosystem. A potential roadmap could see this partnership deepen significantly. I would expect to see tighter integrations with other AWS services for things like disaster recovery, data analytics, and container orchestration, making the Nutanix-on-AWS experience feel less like a simple connection and more like a fully unified hybrid cloud platform.
What is your forecast for the server virtualization and private cloud market over the next three years, especially regarding the competition between Nutanix, VMware, and the role of hyperscalers?
My forecast is for a period of intense realignment. The market is moving away from a single dominant player. While VMware will remain a significant force, Broadcom’s actions will inevitably cause them to lose a portion of their current workloads, just as Gartner predicts. Nutanix is poised to be the primary beneficiary on the private cloud side. However, the true kingmakers in this new era will be the hyperscalers like AWS. They will increasingly use strategic partnerships and integrations to influence infrastructure decisions, making their platforms the gravitational center of a more fragmented and genuinely hybrid enterprise landscape. The future isn’t about one stack winning, but about how gracefully these different ecosystems can interoperate.
