COLUMN: Nutanix’s Winning Channel Formula

CRN’s Steve Burke says Nutanix has become a formidable hybrid multi-cloud alternative to Broadcom’s virtualization powerhouse VMware.

There are critical moments in history when a company’s no-holds-barred channel and technology commitment pays off in a big share shift.

Years from now, we’ll look back at 2025 as a pivotal point in a market-share-gain blitz for Nutanix, a fiery company that is becoming a hybrid multi-cloud alternative to Broadcom’s virtualization powerhouse VMware.

For those who doubt the power of channel choice to drive share gains, look no further than Nutanix, which has pounced on the VMware channel and technology changes that have left customers and partners longing for a long-term virtualization strategic partner for the AI era.

Nutanix’s channel-first culture starts at the top with CEO Rajiv Ramaswami, who views the channel as a force multiplier for the company.

Nutanix, in fact, has doubled down on partners in the wake of Broadcom’s $61 billion acquisition of VMware in November 2023. After the deal closed, VMware took the top 2,000 accounts direct, terminated partner agreements and invited select partners to rejoin the channel program, reduced the product portfolio and initiated a new per-core processor pricing model that resulted in hefty price increases for many customers.

Nutanix, meanwhile, went in the opposite direction, embracing partners and customers with new benefits, including a partner incentive called Nutanix Surge aimed at accelerating sales growth.

“We have 100 different vendor partners we work with, and to me Nutanix has the best channel program in the business,” said Les Roach, CRO at XenTegra, a Huntersville, N.C.-based solution provider that is one of the partners benefiting from the Nutanix full-court channel press.

“Nutanix has really sweetened the pot to help us go after new logos and net-new business for them. At the same time, we’re seeing all the legacy vendors that have been in the data center for the last 10 to 20 years cutting partner incentives and becoming harder to work with.”

XenTegra has transformed into a full-fledged cloud service provider with its own cloud Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service platform and hosted private cloud service, both built on top of Nutanix. Both are XenTegra-branded managed services that are even for sale via a white-label offering through other solution providers.

XenTegra’s DRaaS is a runaway hit with customers looking for a reliable, consumption-based disaster recovery service for their Nutanix environment. The service has won rave reviews from customers, including one that experienced a network outage earlier this year and was back up and running in just seven minutes with a single push of a button.

Ramaswami, for his part, told CRN: “We want to make sure we are the most competitive out there with respect to enabling channel partners to be profitable as they sell Nutanix.”

Sounds like the makings of a beautiful long-term partnership that will pay off for years to come with share gains for Nutanix and big sales growth for partners.