Fresh off its initial public offering last fall, Nutanix Inc. is continuing to look for ways drive innovation and add value to customers as it competes with larger, more established players. To do so, the company is turning to key partners to enhance its ability to innovate, as exemplified in its latest announced partnership with Google Inc., where the search giant will enable Nutanix-based applications to move from on-premises data centers to the Google Cloud Platform.

“We can’t rest on our laurels. We have to figure out how to continue to invest and innovate. We have to be in places that you least expect us,” said Raj Badarinath (pictured), head of corporate communications at Nutanix.

Badarinath spoke with Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the recent Zuora Subscribed event in San Francisco, California. They discussed Nutanix’s business strategy moving forward, including a partnership with Zuora Inc. (* Disclosure below.)

Providing more purchasing options with Zuora

In addition to the Google partnership, Nutanix is driving innovation through it’s buying model. By partnering with Zuora, it allows customers to consume their services using a subscription-based model.

“Nutanix tries to provide all kinds of ways customers can purchase software from us. What we’re looking at Zuora to do is to be the billing and monetization engine as we embark on this interesting new journey. It takes us into new verticals like Internet of Things, extending the data center from a central cloud all the way to drones and edge computing, which is why we’re here,” Badarinath said.

This innovation in payments and consumption is driving value for Nutanix’s customers that is key in differentiating the company from its established competition.

“A lot of other larger players in the infrastructure space are not changing as fast. They are not giving the range of choices needed to match with the public cloud. Nutanix is not only giving the delivery models of the public clouds, we’re going to give it to you in a user friendly way of consuming this, bringing the economics of the public cloud into the private cloud paradigm. And that’s true choice,” according to Badarinath.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Zuora Subscribed 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Zuora Subscribed 2017. Neither Zuora Inc., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial influence on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE