Rajiv’s first topic was the modernization of our infrastructure, with a major announcement regarding our platform architecture. Until now, we were used to HCI nodes, but Nutanix decided to change that and open up new possibilities by announcing support for external storage mixed with compute nodes!

Leading the way: DELL PowerFlex, which is already available, supported, and as easy to integrate and use as HCI platforms.

Moody’s was invited on stage to share their customer experience with this announcement. As part of the Early Access program, they were among the first to migrate from VMware to Nutanix on existing Dell PowerFlex hardware!

Following on from this announcement, Rajiv also announced a partnership with storage solutions provider Pure Storage, with support for Flash Arrays in Early Access starting in summer 2025 and Global Access by the end of 2025!

Pure Storage CEO Charles Giancarlo joined Rajiv to discuss this new partnership, the ease of integration, the power of this new combination, and the possibilities now available to customers.

Official Announcement : https://www.nutanix.com/press-releases/2025/nutanix-and-pure-storage-partner-to-deliver-greater-customer-choice

To conclude this segment dedicated to supporting external storage solutions, Rajiv presented “FlashStack,” a complete architecture based on:

• CISCO Nexus switches
• Pure Storage FlashArray / FlashBlade storage arrays
• CISCO UCS Fabric Interconnect switches
• CISCO UCS servers

This initial announcement may seem like a regression to the old 3-tier architecture models that differentiated network, compute, and storage, but that’s not the case. Until now, when you wanted to replace your infrastructure, for whatever reason, you were forced to discard your external storage arrays, which often required a significant investment and were not compatible with Nutanix.

Nutanix’s goal with this announcement is to enable customers looking for a high-performance and reliable hyperconverged system to reuse their existing hardware, thereby removing one of the barriers to adopting their hyperconverged system.

Official Documentation : Nutanix Cloud Platform with Dell PowerFlex Deployment Guide