Nutanix Cloud Platform Software Editions
Available as part of a turnkey appliance solution, or as software-only on a choice of qualified hardware platforms

Overview:

Nutanix Xtreme Computing Platform is available in different software-based editions so that you can easily select the right capabilities to meet your infrastructure needs. For maximum flexibility, all software editions are available across the entire line of Nutanix appliances.

Choose the edition that is right for your datacenter needs:

Nutanix Software - Starter Edition	Nutanix Software - Pro Edition	Nutanix Software - Ultimate Edition
The Starter edition offers the core set of Nutanix software functionalities. This edition is ideal for small-scale deployments with a limited set of workloads.	The Pro edition offers rich data services and resilience and management features. This edition is ideal for enterprises running multiple applications on a Nutanix cluster or with large-scale single workload deployments.	The Ultimate edition offers the full suite of Nutanix software capabilities to tackle complex infrastructure challenges. This edition is ideal for multi-site deployments and for advanced security requirements.

MapReduce Compression:

Post-process Compression (Pro)
Use the powerful Snappy compression algorithm to increase the effective storage capacity of your cluster up to 4X. Nutanix compresses data at the sub-block level for increased efficiency and greater simplicity. With MapReduce Compression, you can compress the data post-process, or post-ingest, to eliminate any performance impact on the write path. MapReduce Compression is highly distributed and automatically runs on all nodes in the cluster.

MapReduce Deduplication:

Global Post-process Deduplication (Pro)
Leverage powerful post-process deduplication capability to significantly boost the effective capacity of your Nutanix cluster. MapReduce Deduplication is highly distributed and automatically runs on all nodes in the cluster. As nodes are added, the deduplication functionality also linearly scales out, effectively minimizing deduplication overhead.

Tunable Redundancy:

Software-defined Data Resilience (Pro)
A suite of configurable resilience features allows customers to configure different degrees of availability for applications in the same cluster. Businesses typically demand different levels of resilience for enterprise applications. With tunable redundancy, you can now host applications with a range of resilience requirements on a single Nutanix cluster.

Availability Domains:

Bullet-proof Protection from Hardware Failures (Pro)
Get robust protection from even catastrophic hardware failures with availability domains. This feature allows Nutanix clusters to survive the failure of entire physical appliances without loss to data or service. By combining powerful data redundancy with intelligent data placement, the system automatically ensures that both data and data access will always be available.

Time Stream:

Unlimited Snapshots at VM Granularity (Pro)
Create unlimited point-in-time snapshots on your primary cluster, getting production-level data protection without sacrificing performance. Nutanix uses a redirect-on-write algorithm for faster, more efficient snapshots. Nutanix VMCaliber snapshots are at VM granularity for more fine-grained data protection with lower operational complexity.

Prism Central:

Multi-cluster Management (Pro)
Manage Nutanix clusters around the world centrally from a single pane of glass with Prism Central. The rich interface gives administrators a bird’s eye view of resources across multiple clusters, and lets them zoom in to manage individual clusters as required.

Multi-site Disaster Recovery (Ultimate)

Set up advanced replication and disaster recovery topologies for data protection using integrated DR functionality in Nutanix. Customers can set up one-to-many and many-to-many replication schedules between Nutanix clusters across the world. All data sent over the WAN is automatically deduplicated enabling efficient remote backup and restore.

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Software Editions:

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is a complete software stack to unify your hybrid cloud infrastructure including compute, storage and network, hypervisors and containers, in public or enterprise clouds; all with built-in resilience, self-healing, disaster recovery capabilities, and security. It includes enterprise data services and consolidated storage, data protection and disaster recovery, native virtualization and container management, networking and security.

	STARTER	PRO	ULTIMATE
	Core set of software functionality	Rich data services, resilience and management features	The full suite of Nutanix software capabilities to tackle complex infrastructure challenges
Ideal For	Small-scale deployments with a limited set of workloads	Running multiple applications or large-scale single workload deployments (on-prem or in public clouds)	Multi-site deployments and advanced security requirements (on-prem or in public clouds)
Enterprise Data Services
Cluster Size	12	No enforced limits on-prem. 28 nodes validated in AWS	No enforced limits on-prem. 28 nodes validated in AWS
Heterogeneous Clusters
VM-centric Snapshots & Clones
Data Tiering
Online Cluster Grow/Shrink
Data Path Redundancy
Tunable Redundancy Factor	2	2 or 3	2 or 3
Availability Domains	Node	Node, Block, Rack	Node, Block, Rack
Basic Compression (LZ4) - Inline and post process
Deep Compression (LZ4HC) - Greater efficiency for cold data
Data Deduplication
Erasure Coding (EC-X)
VM Centric Storage QoS
VM Flash Mode
Consolidated Storage Services
Volume Groups - for in-cluster VMs1
Volume Groups - external access
Files/Objects Storage (included capacity)	1 TiB Free Capacity	1 TiB Free Capacity	1 TiB Free Capacity
Data Protection and Disaster Recovery
Async Replication (RPO = 1 hr or greater)
Application Consistent Snapshots
Self-Service Restore
Multiple Site DR (many to one, one to many, many to many)
Metro Availability2		Adv Replication add-on license
Sync Replication (RPO = 0)2		Adv Replication add-on license
NearSync Replication (RPO = 1-15 min)1		Adv Replication add-on license
Advanced Orchestration with Runbook Automation2		Adv Replication add-on license
Security
Client Authentication
Cluster Lockdown
Data-at-Rest Encryption (SED and Software Based)3		Security add-on license
Native KMS3		Security add-on license
Enterprise Compute
Nutanix AHV Virtualization
Credential Guard
vGPU and GPU Passthrough
HA Guaranteed Failover
Nutanix Kubernetes Engine	Limit one managed Kubernetes cluster per NCI cluster	Limit one managed Kubernetes cluster per NCI cluster, Cloud Native add-on license
Cross-Cluster Live Migration		Adv Replication add-on license
Networking and Network Security
Overlay Networking
Microsegmentation		Security add-on license
Nutanix Security Central4		Security add-on license
Management and Analytics
Multi-Cluster management with Prism Central
Infrastructure management, monitoring and health
Enterprise authentication and RBAC
REST API
Comprehensive search
Insights
LCM
Foundation
Foundation Central

1: NUS licenses are not needed if the storage is deployed on NCI-Pro/Ultimate Cluster. In case of NCI-Starter Cluster deployment, customers need to purchase NUS Pro license.
2 For any model on the hardware compatibility list, an Advanced Replication SKU is available as an add-on for the Pro licensing tier. This add-on license is applicable to Advanced Orchestration (Multiple Boot Stages, Script Execution, Re-IP, Test Failover), Metro Availability, Sync or NearSync Replication (RPO = or RPO = 1-15 min.).
3: Encryption support is subject to export laws. Contact your account representative to confirm eligibility. For any model on the hardware compatibility list, an Encryption SKU is available as an add-on for the Pro licensing tier. This add-on license includes data-at-rest-encryption required for Self Encrypting Drives (SED) or software-based encryption. License includes an optional native Key Management Service (KMS).
4: Scope included for Nutanix Security Central in NCI Ultimate and Security Add-on for NCI Pro is infrastructure running Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure. Multi-cloud capability requires Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) Ultimate edition.

Nutanix supports freedom of choice of hypervisor and container platform, by offering a version called NCI Data that delivers rich data and storage services but does not include Nutanix compute and networking capabilities (grey rows in the table above are not included in NCI Data). Support for Hypervisor specific features, such as GPU support on ESXi, is not impacted by NCI Data licensing tiers.

NCI licenses are purchased and applied on the number of physical CPU cores capacity in your deployment. Licenses are portable across hardware platforms and are available in 1 through 5-year term options.

Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) and Nutanix Database Service (NDB) can also be added to clusters running NCI (minimum Pro version required to add NDB, no minimum version to add NUS).

Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) Software Editions

Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) offers our customers simplicity and ease of use to build and grow their cloud deployments faster and realize rapid ROI, by providing intelligent operations, self service and orchestration, visibility and governance of spend, security and teams, all through a unified Multi-cloud management solution.

	STARTER	PRO	ULTIMATE
Ideal for	Infrastructure AIOps: monitoring, planning, rightsizing and low code automation	IaaS across private and public clouds, plus cost governance	Enterprise deployments, supporting complex app automation, security features and governance workflows
Intelligent Operations
Reporting
Capacity Forecast and Planning
Resource Inefficiency Detection and Right-sizing
Support for ESXi on non-NCI Environments
Low-code/No-code Operations Automation
SQL Server Monitoring for IT Ops
Application Discovery
Self-tuning with Machine Learning
Cost Governance
Cost Metering for Private Cloud Resources
Multi-Cloud Visibility and Optimization
Budgeting and Chargeback
Self-Service
Self-Service Marketplace
IaaS VM Blueprints
Advanced Orchestration Runbooks
App Blueprints
Governance (Approvals & Scheduler)
Security Compliance
Security Monitoring & Remediation
Network Security Planning
Regulatory Compliance

NCM licenses can be purchased and applied on the number of physical CPU cores capacity in your deployment. Licenses are portable across hardware platforms and are available in 1 through 5-year term options.

NCM Cloud Add-ons

By default, NCM provides coverage for all Nutanix and on-prem VMWare environments, metered per core. For adding support to public cloud environments using the same NCM deployment, customers should purchase NCM Cloud Add-on SKU's. There are two Cloud add-ons available - NCM Cloud Pro and NCM Cloud Ultimate, corresponding to the tier features above. These add-ons are metered by the number of Virtual Instances (VI), such as VM, Containers, IP Address, endpoints, managed in the public cloud. 

NCM SaaS (Software as a Service) 

NCM is also available as a fully managed Software as Service Option. Customers can experience multi-cloud self-service, app automation, governance, and security compliance capabilities, without requiring to run any on-prem Nutanix software. The NCM SaaS offering will not be available in the Starter, Pro, Ultimate tiered model and will be available to  purchase as à la carte SaaS licenses for these . 4 NCM SaaS modules:

• NCM SaaS – Operations
• NCM SaaS – Self-Service
• NCM SaaS – Cost Governance
• NCM SaaS – Security Central

NCM SaaS licenses are metered by the number of Virtual Instances (VI), such as VM, Containers, IP Address, endpoints, managed in the public cloud.

Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP) Bundles

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) and Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) can be purchased together in 3 ‘better together’ Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP) bundles:

Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP) Edition	Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Edition included	Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) Edition included
NCP Starter	NCI Pro	NCI Pro
NCP Pro	NCI Ultimate	NCI Pro
NCP Ultimate	NCI Ultimate	NCI Ultimate

Nutanix Unified Storage Editions:

Nutanix Unified Storage provides software-defined, scale-out storage solutions for enterprise NAS and object workloads for unstructured data, block storage for structured data, and backup storage. Nutanix Unified Storage replaces traditional independent storage services and brings NAS, object, and block workloads into a consolidated unified storage platform with all its benefits, including a unified control plane.

Nutanix Data Lens delivers cloud-based data governance for unstructured data stored in the Nutanix Unified Storage platform, including data lifecycle management, data security, ransomware protection, and audit compliance.

Nutanix Unified Storage and Data Lens are purchased and licensed on a perTiB usable basis.

	STARTER	PRO
Nutanix Files
Nutanix Objects
Nutanix Volumes
Add-ons2	Adv Replication (Streaming) Security (Encryption, KMS)	Adv Replication (Streaming, NearSync, Adv. Runbooks) Security (Encryption, KMS)

1: A cluster has a single identity; Starter and Pro cannot be applied to the same cluster. NUS licenses are not needed if the storage is deployed on NCI-Pro/Ultimate Cluster. In case of NCI-Starter Cluster deployment, customers need to purchase NUS Pro license.
2: Unified Storage Add-Ons apply only to Dedicated clusters; NCI clusters require NCI add-ons to enable Security and Advanced Replication capabilities

Nutanix Unified Storage can be deployed either as a dedicated software-defined storage cluster or alongside Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) for further consolidation. Dedicated Mode allows for a maximum of 1 VM per node, if more VMs are required, NUS must be run in NCI mode. Additionally, Nutanix allows customers to convert between Dedicated and NCI mode. Depending on the deployment mode, different add-ons are required to enable features as shown in the following table:

Capability	NCI Mode	Dedicated Mode
Advanced Replication	NCI Advanced Replication Add-On	NUS Advanced Replication Add-On
Security	NCI Security Add-On	NUS Security Add-On

Nutanix Mine Integrated Backup

Nutanix Mine is a dedicated storage platform for integrated data protection and backup solutions, providing both the compute and the storage for the data protection software to run and store its backups. 

Nutanix Mine is licensed on a per usable TiB basis. Please consult the below table to determine which Nutanix Unified Storage Tier.

Backup Vendor	NUS Tier
Veeam Backup & Replication Primary Tier	NUS Pro
All Other Supported ISVs and Veeam Capacity Tier	NUS Starter

Existing Mine customers with Mine v2 licenses will be migrated to United Storage Pro and current Mine v3 licenses will be migrated to US Starter edition. Mine v2 licenses will be converted from TiB raw to TiB usable at a 50% conversion ratio (e.g. 100 TiB RAW will be migrated to a 50 TiB usable capacity license)

Nutanix Database Service:

Nutanix Database Service (NDB) is a Hybrid Multicloud DBaaS that enables small, nimble teams of DBAs to easily manage large fleets of databases using a single console and API, while enabling developers to self-service their database requests. NDB is purchased and licensed on a per core basis and is available either as a standalone or as an add-on to NCI. In the standalone version, NDB includes NCI Ultimate functionality in addition to database-specific capabilities and is licensed on a per-core basis.

	NDB Add-on for NCI	NDB Standalone
NCI Ultimate Feature Set
NDB Feature Set

Nutanix Database Service (NDB) Feature Set

Provisioning
Provision single instance and highly available database clusters
Integrated Best Practices
Customized Images and T-shirt Sizes
Support most popular Databases including Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL and MongoDB
Data Protection
Point in Time Backups
In Place and Side by Side Recovery
Hybrid / Multi-cloud Backup tiering
Patching and Upgrades
Rolling Database Patching for single instance and Database Clusters
Major upgrade support for Oracle
Data Management
Thin Database cloning
Scheduled clone refreshes
Scaling
Online database storage scaling with best practices
Database Fleet Management
Manage both new and already deployed Database
Full control over Database Servers

Nutanix Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) & Nutanix Frame:

The Nutanix VDI per user model offers hybrid cloud infrastructure capabilities appropriate for on-prem virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and Desktop as a Service (DaaS) use cases with pricing based on a Maximum Concurrent User basis (maximum number of provisioned end-user VMs). VDI per user is an alternative to the core-based NCI licensing option and is designed to provide simple, transparent licensing for all VDI users, regardless of the underlying hardware, hypervisor, or cloud.

• Agnostic: Works with any EUC management platform including Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktops and VMware Horizon
  
• Term license: 6month through 5-year options
  
  • Term license must run on a dedicated software licensed VDI cluster with no core-based licensing. Mixing of non-VDI workloads is not supported.
• Unified Storage: Built-in and also available as a per TiB base add-on
  
• No additional license cost for DR site
• Portable across on-premises and public cloud, public cloud use requires Ultimate edition
• Available in Starter, Pro, and Ultimate editions
  
• Cloud Native and Database Service Add-ons not available with NCI VDI. Advanced Replication and Security Add-on features require NCI Ultimate edition

	VDI STARTER	VDI PRO	VDI ULTIMATE
NCI Feature Set	Everything in NCI Starter	Everything in NCI Pro*	Everything in NCI Ultimate*
Nutanix Files	1 TiB Free Capacity	50 GB Per User	100GB Per User

*No add-ons are supported on VDI Pro.

Nutanix Frame is sold as a separate per-user subscription service in addition to NCI VDI based on either Named Users or Max Concurrent Users (maximum number of provisioned end-user VMs). Subscriptions range from pay-as-you-go per month to pre-paid subscriptions for up to 5 years. For more information, please visit the Nutanix Frame pricing page.

Documentation:

Download the Nutanix Software Edition Solution Brief (.PDF)