Summary
A new integrated solution from Nutanix and Pure Storage combines the simplicity and flexibility of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure and the blazing speed and rock-solid reliability of Pure Storage FlashArray.
Today, we announced something big at Nutanix .NEXT 2025. Nutanix and Pure Storage are teaming up to give enterprise IT a smarter, more powerful choice for virtualization. This new integrated solution brings together the simplicity and flexibility of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure with the blazing speed and rock-solid reliability of Pure Storage® FlashArray™. Translation? You get a full-stack virtual infrastructure that’s modern, scalable, and ready to handle your most mission-critical, data-intensive workloads—AI included.
Why now? Because the virtualization market is shifting fast. Licensing costs are climbing, vendor lock-in is real, and IT leaders are rethinking their entire stack. Nutanix and Pure Storage are stepping in with a fresh alternative—one that’s built for change and tuned for performance.
Whether you’re dealing with sprawling VMs or planning your next AI deployment, this partnership is all about freedom, resilience, and future-ready infrastructure. And the best part? It’s simple to deploy, easy to manage, and coming soon.
Nutanix + Pure Storage FlashArray: Unbeatable Performance and Scale
Pure Storage FlashArray is designed from the ground up for high-performance and enterprise scale. The Pure Storage platform delivers key capabilities enterprises need, including:
- Industry-leading data efficiency: FlashArray offers always-on, global compression and deduplication, while other options support only basic compression with no dedupe, often requiring significantly more hardware to match capacity.
- True disaggregated simplicity: Pure Storage FlashArray is a modular, independently scalable NVMe platform that cleanly separates compute and storage, delivering sub-millisecond latency across all workloads.
- Integrated VM-centric management: Full integration with Nutanix Prism supports Day 1 and Day 2 workflows, enabling true VM-level snapshots, SafeMode™ ransomware protection, and simplified operations from a single interface.
- Proven six-nines availability: FlashArray delivers 99.9999% uptime even during non-disruptive, in-place generational upgrades, unlike other options, which rely on N+1 redundancy with only two data copies.
- Higher performance, lower footprint: FlashArray DirectFlash® Modules scale up to 150TB per drive (300TB announced), offering more usable capacity with far fewer devices than others.
- Advanced replication: Pure Storage supports asynchronous replication at GA with a roadmap toward ActiveDR™ and ActiveCluster™, enabling near-zero RPO/RTO recovery for Nutanix deployments.
The Pure Storage platform architecture is simpler, faster, and more efficient—delivering a superior experience for Nutanix environments without the scale burden or complexity of traditional scale-out architectures.
Let’s be clear: Pure Storage isn’t just another storage option for Nutanix—it’s the first truly external, enterprise-grade storage platform in the ecosystem.
Not All External Storage Is Created Equal
External storage options for Nutanix come in two flavors: scale-out x86 server-based storage versus a purpose-built external storage platform. What may appear similar on slideware actually differs dramatically in terms of architecture, management, and scale. Here’s a closer look at the two dominant approaches:
Scale-out x86 Server-based Storage
This approach transforms general-purpose servers into a storage system through commodity software. While flexible in theory, the reality often introduces unexpected complexity. Each node typically requires local SSDs just to boot, leading to excess hardware and higher costs. Management is fragmented—storage tasks are handled through a separate interface that doesn’t natively integrate with Nutanix Prism, making operations less intuitive and more error-prone. Features like deduplication, compression, and snapshots may be basic or absent, often requiring bolt-on tools or manual configuration. And when it comes time to scale, additional capacity usually means adding more compute nodes—even when compute isn’t needed—resulting in architectural inefficiency and operational overhead. Upgrades can be equally disruptive, often requiring partial rebuilds or full hardware swaps.
Purpose-built External Flash Storage
In contrast, purpose-built storage arrays are comprehensively engineered from the ground up to deliver enterprise-grade performance, availability, and scale—without excess hardware or complexity. These systems cleanly separate storage from compute, so you can scale each independently. Because they’re engineered specifically for the most performant and efficient storage, they offer deep, native integration with Prism for full visibility and control over provisioning, snapshots, health monitoring, and more—all from a single interface. Inline deduplication and compression are always on, with no need for tuning or trade-offs. And with non-disruptive upgrades and subscription-based lifecycle management, organizations can stay on the latest technology without forklift replacements. This approach brings true, industry-leading external storage to Nutanix—not just in name, but in architecture and experience.
Enterprise Storage That Grows with You
Pure Storage FlashArray isn’t just attached to Nutanix—it’s engineered to evolve with it.
With the Pure Storage Evergreen® model, you never have to repurchase storage. No re-licensing. No new forklift projects. Just ongoing, non-disruptive upgrades. It’s the only storage subscription that future-proofs your infrastructure and aligns with how Nutanix customers think about long-term value.
Add in real-time Prism integration, ultra-dense DirectFlash Modules, and hands-off efficiency, and you’ve got a true first-class storage experience for your Nutanix environment. The difference between Pure Storage FlashArray and other external storage options in a Nutanix environment isn’t subtle—it’s structural.
If you’re serious about performance, simplicity, and real enterprise storage for Nutanix, there’s only one answer.
Pure Storage FlashArray.
The only real external storage for Nutanix.
A Dynamic Duo
Learn more about the Pure Storage and Nutanix partnership from Pure Storage CEO Charlie Giancarlo.
Dive Deeper
Learn more about how FlashArray delivers a superior experience for Nutanix environments.
