As enterprises and governments accelerate their digital transformation journeys, Nutanix Vision positions infrastructure as a strategic enabler rather than a background function. At a regional media roundtable, Rajiv Ramaswami, President and CEO of Nutanix, discussed how the company has evolved from a hyper-converged infrastructure pioneer into a full-stack platform powering multi-cloud, AI-driven, and sovereign computing across the Middle East.

During the roundtable, TECHx Media asked Rajiv Ramaswami about Nutanix’s AI and what key differentiates Nutanix AI in today’s landscape of generative AI and emerging technologies. He explained that Nutanix AI is designed to simplify AI adoption, offering a turnkey, out-of-the-box experience for running AI workloads. Instead of requiring developers or users to manage the complexities of GPU servers, storage, networking, and software layers separately, Nutanix integrates all infrastructure components with an AI layer, enabling secure, predictable, and cost-efficient AI inferencing. This approach allows organizations to focus on consuming AI outcomes rather than managing the underlying infrastructure.

From Hyper-Converged Infrastructure to Platform Thinking

Nutanix first came to prominence by pioneering Hyper-Converged Infrastructure(HCI), a software led approach that unified compute, storage, and networking into a single operational platform. This innovation simplified data center operations, reduced costs, and accelerated deployment, helping position Nutanix as a disruptive Silicon Valley startup.

Sixteen years on, the company has continued to evolve in response to market realities. While HCI remains a core strength, Nutanix has expanded its scope into a comprehensive multi-cloud platform supporting compute, storage, networking, orchestration, and security across traditional and modern workloads.

“No technology company can remain static. Customers evolve and so must the platform that supports them.”

Today, flexibility is a defining principle. Nutanix now supports both hyper-converged and external storage architectures, allowing customers to integrate existing investments. Partnerships with vendors such as Dell PowerFlex, Dell PowerStore, and Pure Storage underline Nutanix’s shift from a single-architecture mindset to a platform-first philosophy focused on customer choice.

Designed for a Multi-Cloud World

Modern IT environments are inherently hybrid. Enterprises rarely operate in a single cloud, instead balancing on-premises infrastructure with multiple public clouds. Nutanix has embraced this reality by extending its platform across AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, enabling consistent operations regardless of deployment location.

This approach allows organizations to run applications where it makes the most sense, whether in private data centers, public clouds, edge environments, or sovereign cloud providers without re-architecting or rewriting workloads.

Powering Cloud-Native and AI Workloads

As applications become increasingly cloud-native, containers and Kubernetes have become foundational technologies. Nutanix has responded with the Nutanix Kubernetes Platform, delivering a fully integrated, enterprise-grade Kubernetes environment that aligns with its broader infrastructure stack.

Alongside this, Nutanix AI addresses one of the most pressing challenges enterprises face today: how to deploy and operate AI workloads securely, cost-effectively, and at scale. Rather than focusing on building massive foundation models, Nutanix concentrates on AI inference, fine-tuning, and consumption.

AI models often open source can be downloaded, isolated, and run within secure customer environments. These models never expose proprietary data or intellectual property back to external repositories, giving organizations full control and a built-in “kill switch” through isolation and access management.

“Our focus is not on building the biggest models, but on enabling secure, predictable AI usage where customers own their data and infrastructure.”

Strong Business Momentum

Nutanix’s platform strategy is translating into tangible business growth. The company expects to close the fiscal year with approximately $2.9 billion in revenue, serving close to 30,000 customers worldwide. Around half of the world’s top 2,000 enterprises are Nutanix customers, with 600–700 new customers added each quarter.

Infrastructure modernization remains a key growth driver. Recent market shifts particularly following Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware have prompted many organizations to reassess their virtualization strategies. Nutanix has emerged as a preferred alternative, offering automated migration from VMware environments without requiring application changes.

This trend is especially visible across the Middle East, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and the wider GCC, where enterprises and government entities are actively modernizing their IT estates.

A Culture Built Around Customer Success

Beyond technology, Nutanix places strong emphasis on organizational culture. The company operates around four core principles, led by an unwavering focus on customer success.

Every employee, regardless of role, is expected to priorities customer outcomes, a philosophy reflected in Nutanix’s consistently high Net Promoter Score of 90, maintained for nearly a decade.

“If our customers are successful, we will be successful.”

The remaining principles focus on long-term thinking, teamwork, and accountability. Nutanix reinvests nearly 25% of its revenue into R&D, reinforcing its commitment to sustained innovation rather than short-term gains.

Sovereign Cloud Takes Priority

Sovereignty has become a defining theme for governments worldwide, particularly in the Middle East. Countries are increasingly focused on controlling where data resides, how AI models are trained, and who operates critical infrastructure.

For Nutanix, sovereignty is built on three pillars:

Localization:
Technology must adapt to local languages, regulations, and sector-specific requirements—whether for government, defense, healthcare, or energy.

Self-Reliance:
Many governments aim to own and operate their own cloud environments. Nutanix supports this by building on open-source foundations, such as KVM and Kubernetes, enhanced to meet enterprise and mission-critical standards.

Data Sovereignty:
Customers can deploy workloads in public clouds, private data centers, sovereign cloud providers, or fully air-gapped environments, ensuring compliance with national mandates and regulatory frameworks.

Recent product releases have extended these capabilities, enabling even traditionally SaaS-based services to run on-premises or in isolated environments.

From AI Experimentation to Real ROI

As AI adoption matures, organizations are shifting focus from experimentation to measurable return on investment. Many AI use cases such as customer support automation, document summarization, software development assistance, and business intelligence can run efficiently on modest infrastructure.

Nutanix has demonstrated this internally, deploying AI-driven applications on small clusters to deliver meaningful productivity gains without excessive compute requirements.

More advanced use cases, including multi-agent systems and intelligent process automation, are emerging and will further drive infrastructure demand over time.

Building Skills Alongside Technology

Recognizing that technology alone is not enough, Nutanix actively supports local skills development through training, certification, and education programs across the Middle East. These initiatives help enterprises and governments build expertise in cloud operations and AI deployment.

By pairing skills development with simplified, user-friendly platforms, Nutanix aims to reduce operational complexity and enable organizations to focus on innovation rather than infrastructure management.

Architecting Tomorrow’s Digital Foundations

As the region accelerates toward AI-driven, cloud-native, and sovereign digital ecosystems, Nutanix’s platform-led approach positions it as a key enabler of next-generation infrastructure.

With continued investment in the Middle East and strong alignment with regional priorities, Nutanix is shaping a future where enterprises and governments can innovate confidently on infrastructure they control, in environments they trust.

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