Dell is enhancing its Dell Private Cloud offering by introducing support for Nutanix deployments, broadening its multi-hypervisor strategy beyond VMware and Red Hat OpenShift. This move reflects the growing demand among enterprises for private cloud solutions that prioritize flexibility and workload optimization rather than locking into a single virtualization platform.
Meeting Evolving Private Cloud Needs
Organizations today are rethinking how they architect private clouds. IT leaders increasingly value infrastructure that can adapt to diverse application requirements, procurement realities, and operational models. Dell notes that 52% of IT leaders are exploring multiple hypervisor options to minimize vendor dependency and increase operational agility.
Deploying Nutanix on Dell Infrastructure
With this update, Dell Private Cloud customers can deploy Nutanix on Dell PowerFlex immediately, with integration for Dell PowerStore expected this summer. This alignment allows IT teams to choose storage platforms that balance scale-out performance with traditional enterprise storage characteristics, all while maintaining a consistent private cloud operating model.
Dell highlights that its platform provides an appliance-like experience across Dell PowerEdge servers and storage, supported by the Dell Automation Platform. This platform simplifies the full lifecycle—from Day 0 deployment, through Day 1 management, to Day 2 ongoing operations—ensuring operational consistency across multiple hypervisors.
Why This Matters
The hypervisor conversation in enterprises has shifted. While hyperconverged infrastructure simplified operations by consolidating compute, storage, and networking, modern workloads demand flexibility, risk management, and efficiency beyond consolidation. Enterprises now want to:
Align infrastructure behavior with specific workload requirements without overhauling the entire environment.
Leverage existing hardware investments across various modernization and deployment strategies.
Maintain operational continuity while introducing new platforms or reducing dependency on legacy systems.
By adding Nutanix, Dell Private Cloud now offers enterprises a third mainstream virtualization and HCI option alongside VMware and Red Hat OpenShift. Dell emphasizes that this is about choice and flexibility, not merely branding, allowing organizations to retain leverage while maintaining a unified operational model.
Operational Benefits and Platform Implications
Dell positions this update as a way to minimize friction for organizations adopting multi-hypervisor strategies:
Workload-focused platform selection: Enterprises can pair Nutanix AHV with Dell compute and storage based on the specific needs of each workload.
Operational continuity: Teams can continue using Nutanix’s familiar Prism UI and management tools without changing existing workflows.
Automation-driven management: The Dell Automation Platform ensures standardized deployment and lifecycle management across all infrastructure and hypervisor choices, covering provisioning to long-term operations.
Investment protection: Organizations can extend the life of existing Dell infrastructure instead of replacing hardware to adopt new virtualization stacks.
The Bigger Picture
Dell Private Cloud initially launched with VMware support and later expanded to include Red Hat OpenShift. With Nutanix now part of the ecosystem, Dell is reinforcing its commitment to multi-platform private cloud flexibility, while preserving a Dell-led automation and infrastructure foundation.
For enterprises and service providers navigating vendor lock-in concerns, budget pressures, and mixed workload requirements, Nutanix support signals Dell’s strategy: deliver choice, operational consistency, and infrastructure control, all within a unified private cloud experience.
