How Nutanix and AWS Enable Existing System Migration in Just Weeks and at Low Cost

Challenges of On-Premises Systems and the Need for Cloud Migration

In recent times, uncertainties surrounding the procurement of on-premises systems have been increasing. One reason is the sharp rise in prices and shortages of memory and SSDs since the end of last year, making planned procurement difficult both financially and in terms of lead times. Moreover, the acquisition of a major virtualization software company, which many enterprises rely on, has further complicated matters. Unannounced changes to product licensing and pricing have led to increased costs and growing concerns about the future of these products.

Against this backdrop, leveraging and expanding cloud adoption, building hybrid cloud and disaster recovery solutions, and eventually transitioning to modernization and cloud-native architectures are gaining attention as powerful strategies for system infrastructure and IT planning.

The Vision Behind Nutanix and AWS Partnership

Takashi Takahashi of Nutanix Japan LLC explains, “Our customers place great importance on cloud options, and many of them are eager to migrate from on-premises to the cloud. At the same time, there are customers already using the cloud who are considering hyper-converged infrastructure for their on-premises needs.”

Tetsuya Kawahara of Amazon Web Services Japan LLC adds, “It is difficult for many customers to immediately transform all their systems into cloud-native architectures due to time and technical constraints. As such, there is a strong demand to first migrate existing assets to the cloud as they are.” According to Kawahara, by using solutions like Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on AWS, which provide an abstraction layer, customers can ease their migration burdens and achieve cloud migration and hybrid cloud setups. Afterward, leveraging managed services like Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) enables customers to fully benefit from cloud capabilities. This two-phased approach has proven effective.

Fast and Cost-Effective Migration with NC2 on AWS

By abstracting infrastructure, NC2 enables seamless migration and operation of applications, data, and AI across on-premises environments and leading cloud platforms like AWS. This capability facilitates the easy construction of hybrid clouds, multi-cloud setups, and disaster recovery solutions.

The “Layer 2 extension” feature allows the extension of on-premises networks to the cloud, enabling flexible network configurations between on-premises and cloud environments. A major advantage is the ability to natively utilize Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC), AWS’s virtual network environment. This facilitates seamless integration with AWS services within Amazon VPC, allowing for migration to the AWS environment without altering existing system configurations or applications—a key benefit of Nutanix’s solution.

Achieving Migration in Weeks with Nutanix Move

Nutanix Move is a tool designed to facilitate swift and straightforward migrations to NC2 environments from on-premises systems or other clouds besides AWS. Supporting platforms like VMware ESXi, Hyper-V, Amazon EC2, and Microsoft Azure VM, Nutanix Move analyzes system configurations and prepares the target cloud environment. It handles tasks such as provisioning instances, configuring virtual private spaces like Amazon VPC, and executing the migration.

Since infrastructure changes or application rewrites are unnecessary, data centers can be migrated in as little as a few weeks. Takahashi notes that globally, Nutanix has successfully migrated tens of thousands of VMs within five weeks, showcasing exceptional speed and cost efficiency in migrations.

Simplifying Kubernetes Management with NKP

As businesses evolve towards cloud-native systems, the complexity of adopting and managing Kubernetes, the de facto standard for container environments, has become a challenge. Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) integrates technology from the former D2iQ company to address these challenges.

Shuichi Machida of Nutanix explains, “Managing multiple container environments individually—whether on-premises or across multi-clouds—creates a high technical burden. The key benefit of NKP is its ability to enable unified management across environments, including on-premises and AWS.”

NKP offers a comprehensive environment with lifecycle management, security, and observability for Kubernetes clusters. It packages key components from the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) into a user-friendly solution, equipping businesses with all necessary functionalities. It enables centralized management of Kubernetes environments, including those on-premises, NC2, and Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS), ensuring operational consistency and reducing technical overhead.

Conclusion

As uncertainties surrounding on-premises systems increase, the partnership between Nutanix and AWS offers a compelling option for businesses to migrate their existing systems to the cloud quickly and cost-effectively without requiring modifications. The combination of NC2 on AWS for migration, Nutanix Move for rapid transitions, and NKP for Kubernetes management plays a critical role in advancing hybrid cloud strategies for enterprises.