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Nutanix boosts data management services in the cloud

Nutanix is aiming to make it easier to manage, deploy and protect data and databases across hybrid and multi-cloud environments with a series of product updates.

Converged infrastructure vendor Nutanix is growing its data management capabilities with a series of new capabilities revealed on Tuesday at its Global .NEXT Digital Experience 2021 conference.

Among the features is a set of database management updates for the Nutanix Era service that are now generally available.

Nutanix Era enables organizations to deploy, patch and manage databases, including PostgreSQL, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle, into hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

Nutanix also unveiled a series of unstructured data management features, including the Nutanix Data Lens for its Nutanix Cloud Platform, that are under development and will be publicly available at a future date that is yet to be determined.

Nutanix Data Lens is a new SaaS-based governance service that enables lifecycle management across file and object data regardless of deployment location.

IDC analyst Eric Burgener said the Nutanix Data Lens helps to improve Nutanix's overall hybrid cloud management capabilities.

"This [Nutanix Data Lens] makes managing far-flung data assets much easier, making those using it more productive," Burgener said.

Screenshot of Nutanix Era service
The Nutanix Era service enables organizations to deploy, manage and scale database deployments across hybrid and multi-cloud deployments.

Nutanix Era moves data management forward

The Nutanix Era database management platform also got easier deployment options.

Burgener said the updated Nutanix Era offerings provide faster, easier deployment for the most popular database environments with one-click scaling. He noted that Nutanix is also introducing performance features that allow for more demanding databases to be hosted on the Nutanix Cloud Platform.

This [Nutanix Data Lens] makes managing far-flung data assets much easier, making those using it more productive.
Eric BurgenerAnalyst, IDC

In a media briefing before the virtual conference, Nutanix CTO Rajiv Mirani explained that a key part of the Era update was specifically related to onboarding existing databases to Nutanix. Mirani noted that the vendor's goal was to make it simpler for users to migrate databases without the need for manual reconfiguration.

"All the best practices that you need to get optimal performance have now been baked into the migration process itself," Mirani said.

Nutanix brings storage scaling to data management

Nutanix Era is also being improved with support for storage scaling.

Mirani explained that a common problem that comes up across organizations is that as they run a database, it grows and eventually storage capacity becomes constrained.

Often, database storage capacity is provisioned alongside a database deployment and expanding it would require some downtime. That is now changing at Nutanix with the Era update.

The update introduces what Mirani referred to as a "one-click operation" that enables organizations to scale and resize the databases in real time without downtime.

It also includes a series of security enhancements, including enhanced role-based access control. Mirani said the goal is to enable secure sharing of databases across different users.

Providing unstructured data management insight

The goal of the Nutanix Data Lens, which is currently under development, is to provide insights into an organization's unstructured data that is found across files and object storage, Mirani said.

Data Lens provides users with insights into different aspects of data, including understanding access patterns for who is reading and writing data.

Mirani noted that Data Lens can also help enable lifecycle management for data quality that will support an organization's compliance efforts. Nutanix is also integrating security into Data Lens with ransomware protection that will help identify potential risks.

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