Nutanix — Hyperconverged Infrastructure for Citrix Workloads
The leading HCI platform that converges compute, storage, and virtualisation. Nutanix provides the on-premises infrastructure for Citrix virtual desktop workloads and VMware migration.
Overview
Nutanix provides the on-premises and hybrid cloud infrastructure that powers OAS's Citrix virtual desktop deployments. The Citrix-on-Nutanix architecture is a validated reference design. It combines Citrix session management with Nutanix's simplified, software-defined infrastructure.
Nutanix converges compute, storage, and virtualisation into a single platform managed through one console. This eliminates the complexity of traditional three-tier infrastructure — separate servers, SANs, and hypervisors — reducing operational burden for IT teams while delivering enterprise-grade performance.
What Ecosystem Partnership Means for Your Organisation
OAS's Nutanix expertise delivers direct infrastructure benefits:
- Validated Citrix integration — Citrix DaaS now natively supports Nutanix AHV through Prism Central host connection. This enables single-pane management of virtual desktop workloads across Nutanix clusters
- VMware displacement path — OAS provides a validated migration from VMware vSphere to Nutanix AHV. Organisations affected by Broadcom's licensing changes move without disrupting Citrix delivery
- Licence-free hypervisor — Nutanix AHV eliminates VMware vSphere licensing costs while providing enterprise-grade virtualisation for Citrix workloads
- Hybrid cloud flexibility — Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on Azure extends on-premises infrastructure to the cloud without re-architecting, using the same management tools
- Simplified operations — A single Prism Central console replaces multiple management interfaces for compute, storage, and virtualisation
Nutanix Capabilities Delivered by OAS
Nutanix Cloud Platform
The unified HCI platform includes AOS (distributed storage), AHV (native hypervisor), and Prism (management console). It runs on commodity x86 hardware from Dell, Lenovo, HPE, and Nutanix-branded NX nodes — no proprietary hardware lock-in.
The Nutanix Distributed Storage Fabric provides enterprise storage features including deduplication, compression, erasure coding, and replication without requiring a SAN.
Citrix-on-Nutanix Reference Architecture
The Citrix + Nutanix integration is a validated, jointly supported reference design. Citrix DaaS and CVAD manage Virtual Delivery Agents (VDAs) hosted on Nutanix AHV through native Prism Central integration — now generally available.
Multi-cluster management enables OAS to operate large-scale Citrix deployments across multiple Nutanix clusters from a single control plane. Single image management simplifies desktop provisioning across distributed environments.
NetScaler VPX deploys natively on Nutanix AHV, providing application delivery and security services within the same infrastructure.
Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on Azure
NC2 extends Nutanix infrastructure to Azure bare-metal instances. Organisations run the same Nutanix stack in the cloud for disaster recovery, capacity bursting, or phased migration — without replacing management tools or operational procedures.
For SA enterprises using Azure's Johannesburg data centre, NC2 provides a hybrid cloud extension that keeps the familiar Nutanix experience while adding cloud flexibility.
AHV — Licence-Free Enterprise Virtualisation
Nutanix AHV is a native, licence-free hypervisor that eliminates VMware vSphere licensing costs. Following Broadcom's VMware acquisition and aggressive licensing changes, many SA enterprises are evaluating AHV as a direct VMware replacement.
OAS migrates Citrix workloads from VMware vSphere to Nutanix AHV without disrupting the Citrix delivery layer. This preserves your virtual desktop investment while eliminating hypervisor licence costs.
VMware Displacement Opportunity
Broadcom's VMware licensing changes have created significant disruption for SA enterprises. Bundling, price increases, and partner programme consolidation now affect every VMware client. Organisations that built on VMware vSphere face sharply higher costs and reduced flexibility.
Nutanix AHV is the primary alternative. For OAS clients running Citrix on VMware, the migration path is well-documented:
- Deploy Nutanix AHV alongside existing VMware infrastructure
- Migrate Citrix VDAs from vSphere to AHV using validated migration tools
- Redirect Citrix Delivery Controllers to AHV-hosted machines
- Decommission VMware licensing
OAS manages the complete migration — assessment, planning, execution, and validation — ensuring zero disruption to virtual desktop services.
Nutanix Solutions Delivered by OAS
Nutanix Cloud Platform
Converged compute, storage, and virtualisation in a single software-defined platform. Validated reference architecture for Citrix workloads. VMware migration pathway via AHV.
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