Given the changing market dynamics around virtualization infrastructure, new opportunities have started to emerge for expanded partnerships. Artificial intelligence is taking center stage, and cloud operating models have become a mainstream requirement.

In that new landscape, Dell Technologies Inc. and Nutanix Inc. have joined forces. Being able to scale compute and storage separately has always been a desire for companies, according to Rob Strechay, principal analyst at theCUBE Research.

“Nutanix and Dell customers are probably sitting there, clapping at home, saying it’s about time for this,” Strechay said.

Strechay and theCUBE Research Chief Analyst Dave Vellante discussed the latest news from Dell and Nutanix at the Hybrid Cloud Made Easy With Dell Technologies and Nutanix event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the Dell/Nutanix partnership and the impact of AI and cloud operating models on infrastructure modernization. (* Disclosure below.)

Dell/Nutanix partnership aims to simplify scalable infrastructure

The Dell/Nutanix partnership specifically relates to Dell’s PowerEdge XC Plus and the integration of PowerFlex software-defined storage into the Nutanix stack. For its part, Dell claims XC Plus brings a new level of simplicity in getting started with Nutanix on PowerEdge by allowing customers to order and have delivered the Nutanix Cloud platform already installed in the system.

The bigger news, however, is that companies can now use PowerFlex software-defined storage with Nutanix. This allows organizations to scale storage and compute separately in their hyperconverged infrastructure.

“I think that with the PowerFlex and beyond, as they evolve that storage stack as well, I think that when you see also the XC Plus will allow them to get up and running, and quicker time to ROI, while they determine if they need to go beyond that with the PowerFlex software-defined storage,” Strechay said.

Now, one can go from a scale-up or a scale-out perspective. That will be key as people look to infrastructure modernization projects or things like AI out at the edge, Strechay added.

“Especially where you’re talking about, maybe I want to bring RAG or something like that out to the edge,” he said. “I may need a lot more, a deeper storage layer, but keeping the compute about the same so you don’t have to necessarily scale out to scale up as well.”

Cloud operating models: Looking to streamline AI and cloud management

These days, everyone is looking for an “easy button” when it comes to AI. It used to be that stair step, Strechay pointed out.

“Every time you wanted to get more storage, you had to buy more compute. I think what this allows people to do is do it in a much more managed way,” he said. “This way, they’re not hitting that stair step as often. Or, they can do that, but for the reasons of bringing new workloads on, which, again, is helpful to both companies from that perspective.”

The new developments are likely to help organizations as they look to do more cloud operating models, according to Strechay. Cloud is, of course, not a place, but an operating model, a statement often made by theCUBE.

“When you start to look at where Nutanix has, all the way from hyperscaler to on-prem to colo all the way out to the edge, this is where we see a lot of applications that are cloud-native in origination and virtualized,” Strechay said. “You still have a lot of virtualized applications out there. SQL server, as we’ve talked about, is still a very popular database out there.”

That goes to show that there are still traditional IT applications out there that are modernizing. That goes all the way out to the edge to get closer to consumers of that data of those applications, Strechay added.

“One of the things that I like to say is, when you’re putting gen AI out, and you’re doing inference at the edge, and you’re interacting, milliseconds kind of count at that point,” he said.

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage of the Hybrid Cloud Made Easy With Dell Technologies and Nutanix event:

Watch the entire event episode here:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Hybrid Cloud Made Easy With Dell Technologies and Nutanix event. Neither Dell Technologies, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE