Nutanix Cloud Platform Software Options

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)

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.

NCI Software Editions

_{* Refer to Nutanix Configuration Maximums on the Nutanix portal}

_{1: 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.).}

_{2: 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).}

^{3: Scope included for Nutanix Security Central in NCI Ultimate and Security Add-on for NCI Pro is infrastructure running Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure. Public cloud capability requires NCM Security Central SaaS SKU.}

^{4: Nutanix Kubernetes Platform Pro and Ultimate can be purchased as add-on licenses to any NCI cluster. Refer to the Nutanix Kubernetes Platform section below for license tier details.}

^{5: For Async-only multiple site DR deployments, the Adv Replication license is not required. For mixed environments, where either NearSync or SyncRep are deployed between any two sites, the Adv Replication license is required with NCI Pro.}

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 Kubernetes Platform

NKP licenses can be purchased and applied to worker nodes in both management and workload/attached clusters based on either the number of physical CPU cores if running on bare-metal, or the number of vCPUs in your deployment if running on VMs (including in the public cloud). Control plane nodes do not require licenses.

NKP can either be purchased on its own for deployments on NCI, on vSphere, on public cloud, or on bare-metal, or it can be purchased as a Full Stack SKU that includes NCI, NKP, as well as NDK, NUS, and NDB for Pro and Ultimate editions. See below for additional information on Full Stack licensing.

A separate “NKP Cloud Kubernetes” SKU is available for managing Amazon EKS or Azure AKS clusters. This is an NKP Ultimate SKU designed specifically for managing the EKS or AKS environments. A dedicated NKP management cluster is deployed for in these environments that requires and uses the same licenses.

 Nutanix Kubernetes Platform Full Stack Editions

NKP Full Stack licenses are purchased and applied on the number of physical CPU cores capacity in your deployment with no additional NKP licenses required for worker nodes.

Nutanix Enterprise AI

Deployment Options

Nutanix GPT-in-a-Box 2.0 full-stack, bare metal servers, supported public clouds, three-tier infrastructure with a CNCF-compliant Kubernetes runtime, or deployed on any CNCF-compliant Kubernetes distribution.

License and Entitlement Details

Nutanix Enterprise AI (NAI) is available in three bundles with 'Pro' being the only tier. Services can be included separately across all bundles:

• Nutanix Enterprise AI for GPT-in-a-Box 2.0 (metered by quantifying all physical (pCPU) CPU Cores; GPU RAM is metered per GB quantified across all cards in a defined quantity)*
  
  Provides a complete Nutanix validated full-stack of solutions with your choice of compatible HCI servers including Nutanix Enterprise AI Pro, Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) Full-Stack (includes NKP Pro**, as well as NCI Pro, NDK, NUS Pro 50 Tib, and NDB for 20 vCPUs), and Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) Starter. (Does not include Public Clouds)
• Nutanix Enterprise AI for Bare Metal (metered by either per virtual (vCPU) or per physical (pCPU) CPU Cores; GPU RAM is metered per GB quantified across all cards in a defined quantity)*
  
  Provides all features of Nutanix Enterprise AI Pro and Nutanix Kubernetes Platform Pro** for use on bare metal servers and hardware. (Does not include Public Clouds)
• Nutanix Enterprise AI Stand-Alone (a la carte) (metered per virtual CPU (vCPU) Core; all vCPUs are not needed to be licensed; GPU RAM is metered per GB quantified across all cards in a defined quantity)*
  
  Provides all features of Nutanix Enterprise AI Pro for use on any CNCF-certified Kubernetes anywhere, including three-tier and Public Clouds.

_{*Each NAI entitlement has two components that must be both quantified together to license: CPU cores (denoted as virtual or physical) and GPU RAM Required CPU core types (virtual or physical) are denoted at each license level. GPU RAM is provided in 1 GB entitlement increments that can be quantified across all GPUs in a cluster, or individually.}

_{**Nutanix Kubernetes Platform Pro can also be purchased as an Ultimate upgrade. This upgrade cannot be included with Nutanix Enterprise AI Stand-Alone (a la carte)}

Nutanix Central

All tiers of Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP) now include Nutanix Central.

• Nutanix Central delivers a unified, cloud-based console to manage your hybrid multicloud. Get centralized visibility across clusters and access all Nutanix products through one platform. The integrated marketplace streamlines the deployment of Nutanix and partner apps across domains. Centralized administration simplifies user, license, and lifecycle management at scale.
  
• Customers on PnP 2.0 are entitled to Nutanix Central when they have any Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) tier license and Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) license.
• Customers on PnP 1.0 are entitled to Nutanix Central when they have any AOS tier license and a Prism Pro, Prism Ultimate or Calm license.
  

Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM)

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.

NCM Software Editions:

¹ Scope included for Cost Governance in NCM Pro and NCM Ultimate is infrastructure running Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure. Multi-cloud capability requires NCM Cost Governance SaaS SKU

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.

Nutanix Central

All tiers of Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) now include Nutanix Central.

• Nutanix Central delivers a unified, cloud-based, console to manage your hybrid multicloud. Get centralized visibility across clusters and access all Nutanix products through one platform. The integrated marketplace streamlines the deployment of Nutanix and partner apps across domains. Centralized administration simplifies user, license and lifecycle management at scale.
• Customers on PnP 1.0 are entitled to Nutanix Central when they have any AOS tier license and either a Prism Pro, Prism Ultimate or Calm license.

NCM Cloud Add-ons

By default, NCM provides coverage for all Nutanix and on-prem VMWare environments, metered per core. For supporting public cloud environments using the same NCM deployment, customers should purchase appropriate NCM Cloud SKUs as add-ons. There are three public cloud focused add-ons available as SKUs- NCM Self-Service add-on for Public Cloud SKU, NCM Cost Governance SaaS SKU and NCM Security Central SaaS SKU. These add-ons are metered by the number of Virtual Machines (VM) managed in the public cloud. Note: For on-prem environments, Cost Governance is available for AHV and ESXi on AOS and Security Central is available for AHV.

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 is available to purchase as à la carte SaaS licenses for these four NCM SaaS modules:

• NCM SaaS – Operations (in development) 
• NCM SaaS – Self-Service
• NCM SaaS – Cost Governance
• NCM SaaS – Security Central
  

NCM SaaS licenses are metered by the number of Virtual Machines (VM) 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 Unified Storage

Nutanix Unified Storage is a software-defined data services platform that consolidates file, object, and block storage services. Built on top of Nutanix Cloud Platform, Unified Storage is built for scale and performance with a rich set of advanced data services. NUS offers agility, flexibility, and simplicity to deploy and manage modern applications and services at the core, in the cloud, or edge.

Nutanix Unified Storage can be deployed in two possible ways:

• Mixed Mode: Applications and storage services run on the same cluster. When running in mixed mode, NCI or NCP licenses are needed in addition to NUS licenses.
• Dedicated Mode: Cluster is used only for storage with applications running on external servers. Only NUS licenses are needed when running in dedicated mode.

When running in dedicated mode, a max of 1 user/application VM is allowed per node in the cluster excluding any system VMs (CVM and FSVMs). If more user/application VMs are needed, the cluster must be configured in mixed mode with the appropriate NCI or NCP licenses.

Nutanix Unified Storage is licensed per usable TiB.

Nutanix Unified Storage Editions:

^{1:  A cluster has a single identity; Starter and Pro cannot be applied to the same cluster.
2: NUS licenses are not needed for Volume Groups if the storage is deployed on an NCI-Pro/Ultimate Cluster. For NCI-Starter licenses, Volume Group access is only supported for VMs running within the cluster.}

NUS Add-ons

The following optional add-on licenses are available with NUS:

• Advanced Replication add-on includes Metro File Sync Replication, Near-sync FSVM-level Replication. Advanced Replication add-on is available only with NUS Pro and is licensed per usable TiB.
• Security add-on includes Data-at-Rest Encryption (Software-based and SED). Security add-on is available with both NUS Pro and NUS Starter and is licensed per usable TiB.
• Nutanix Data Lens (NDL)
  • Data Lens Basic includes File and Object Data Analytics only. Data Lens Basic add-on is available only with NUS PRO
  • Data Lens Premium includes Ransomware Protection and Recovery, Permissions Risk Analysis, Auditing, Behavioral Analytics and Alerts, Active Risk Remediation. Data Lens Premium is available for both NUS Pro and NUS Starter

Depending on whether the cluster is deployed in mixed mode or dedicated mode, the appropriate NCI or NUS add-on license needs to be added as follows:

NDL - Software Options

Nutanix Data Lens is a SaaS-based cyberstorage solution offering ransomware resilience and global data visibility for unstructured data on Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP). This cloud-based data analytics service proactively assesses and mitigates data security risks by identifying anomalous activity, auditing user behavior, and adhering to compliance requirements. while enabling efficient data lifecycle management.

Nutanix Data Lens is currently offered through a “Freemium” licensing model, consisting of two tiers.

1. “Basic Tier” comprises limited capabilities that are available free for NUS Pro customers
2. “Premium Tier” comprises extended capabilities, including Ransomware security, and is licensed on a per TiB basis for all NUS customers.

Self-service onboarding for current Nutanix Unified Storage Customers through My Nutanix Portal

*For a limited time, NUS Pro customers may be eligible for a 60-day trial. Please visit www.nutanix.com/data-lens-promo for more information

_{^**Only For NUS Pro customers
^$Available for Nutanix Files & Objects
^#Available for Nutanix Files only
^*Available for Nutanix Files’ CIFS/SMB shares only}

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.

Existing Mine customers with Mine v2 licenses will be migrated to United Storage Pro and current Mine v3 licenses will be migrated to NUS 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 makes databases a seamless part of software development while reducing the administrative burden and delivering the performance, resilience and security needed for dev, test and production workloads.  NDB is purchased and licensed on a per core basis and is available in two license forms: NDB Platform and NDB Add-on for NCI. NDB Platform includes NCI Ultimate functionality in addition to database-specific capabilities and is licensed on a per-core basis.

Nutanix Database Service (NDB) Feature Set

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure - VDI

The NCI-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 concurrently powered-on 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: 6 month 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

_{*No add-ons are supported on VDI Pro.}

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure - Edge (NCI-Edge)

NCI - Edge is an alternative to the core-based NCI licensing option and offers a per virtual machine pricing model appropriate for edge and remote office/branch office (ROBO) use cases.  NCI-Edge is restricted to small clusters running up to 25 concurrently powered-on VMs, with each VM limited to 96GB memory allocation. NCI-Edge provides the same hybrid cloud infrastructure capabilities and benefits as NCI in a pricing model suitable for small edge deployments..

• Term license must run on a dedicated software licensed Edge cluster with no core-based licensing. Mixing of NCI license types in a cluster is not supported.
  • Term license: 6 month through 5-year options
    
• Unified Storage: Built-in and also available as a per TiB base add-on
• Disaster Recovery sites require separate licensing.
  
• Nutanix system VMs (CVMs, PCVMs, FSVMs) do not require NCI-Edge licenses. However, non-Nutanix system VMs (e.g., vSphere vCLS) must be licensed.
• Portable across on-premises and public cloud, public Cloud deployment requires minimum Pro edition. NCI-Edge Starter is not eligible for public cloud deployment
• Available in Starter, Pro, and Ultimate editions
• Cloud Native and Database Service Add-ons not available with NCI Edge. Advanced Replication and Security Add-on features require NCI Ultimate edition

*No add-ons are supported on NCI-Edge Pro.

Nutanix Cloud Manager - Edge (NCM-Edge)

A unified IT solution for intelligent operations, self-service, security compliance and costs

Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) is a hybrid multi-cloud management platform that offers Intelligent Operations, Self-Service, Cost Governance, and Security, natively with the Nutanix Platform and also through a SaaS subscription. Key features include:

• Self-service VMs and apps defined via simple blueprints, easily created and managed through GUI/CLI.
• IT lifecycle management, providing visibility, optimization, and financial control over multi-cloud deployments.
• Near real-time detection, monitoring, and remediation of security vulnerabilities and compliance issues across multiple cloud environments.

Nutanix Cloud Manager – Edge (NCM-Edge) provides the same capabilities as NCM, enabling intelligent operations, self-service, cost governance, and security for small edge and End-User-Computing (EUC) deployments. NCM-Edge is limited to a maximum of 25 VMs in a cluster, with each VM being limited to a maximum of 96GB of memory. NCM-Edge provides centralized visibility and control to seamlessly manage and connect infrastructure across edge locations, data centers, and public clouds through a single pane of glass, enabling consistent operations and governance.

NCM-Edge is available in Starter, Pro, and Ultimate editions.