Capitalizing on the cloud with Nutanix, WEI, and the Microsoft commercial marketplace

WEI and Nutanix: partnering to deliver custom cloud solutions

When a prominent financial corporation based in the Northeastern United States wanted to leave its datacenters and move workloads to the public cloud, it sought assistance from WEI. An award-winning IT solutions provider specializing in supporting global Fortune 500 companies in optimizing their cloud infrastructures, WEI embarked on a strategic collaboration with Nutanix and Microsoft. Together they designed a solution tailored to the customer’s requirements that used Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on Microsoft Azure and was sold through the Microsoft commercial marketplace with a multiparty private offer. WEI guided the solution’s architecture and executed a successful proof of concept. 

Because WEI packaged Nutanix’s solution with its own services and sold it to their customer through the marketplace, their customer benefited by maximizing its cloud investments. Nutanix Cloud Platform is eligible for Azure benefits via the marketplace, so WEI’s customer was able to count its purchase toward fulfilling its Azure consumption commitment, unlocking discounts on its cloud infrastructure. 

Nutanix: accelerating Azure migrations

NC2 on Azure combines the Nutanix AHV hypervisor and storage capabilities with co-engineered Azure specialized bare-metal nodes to provide an integrated platform designed for a wide variety of applications and data workloads. This robust solution operates within the customer’s own Azure account and virtual networks, simplifying access to dedicated and high-performance Azure infrastructure and services without requiring additional networking or security complexity to link accounts together. It empowers customers to intelligently put workloads or extend their applications on Azure quickly and without any modification, streamlining operations, enhancing workload mobility, and enabling efficient hybrid cloud management. 

Staffed by certified Azure solutions architect experts, WEI collaborated closely with Nutanix, creating a multiparty private offer to build a customized, automated, and preconfigured solution delivered through the marketplace. Nutanix relied on WEI’s in-house process to help ensure that a complete solution was available for the client.

The Nutanix-WEI partnership

WEI, a longtime Nutanix partner, holds the highest certifications in both architecture and deployment, helping make the successful launch of Nutanix’s product on the marketplace possible. Nutanix sells its solutions through its network of channel partners. With multiparty private offers, Nutanix gained the ability to meet customer demand for marketplace transactions, maintain its partnerships with resellers, and scale even more through the marketplace. Nutanix uses private offers not only to furnish negotiated pricing but also to tailor terms and conditions to meet each customer’s precise requirements. This approach ensures that customers receive custom solutions that align with their needs, adding significant value to the partnerships.

Today, core Nutanix software and End User Computing licensing is available in the marketplace. Over time, Nutanix anticipates making its full portfolio of products available on the marketplace.

Customer benefits of procuring through the marketplace

A significant number of Nutanix’s enterprise clientele maintain Azure consumption agreements, making the ability to acquire NC2 while having it contribute toward their existing cloud commitments advantageous. Being able to apply 100 percent of Azure benefit–eligible purchases toward customers’ existing cloud commitments is a compelling selling point. Moreover, in the case of large enterprise customers, volume discounts and unique terms and conditions often necessitate thorough review and approval, something that the marketplace easily facilitates.

Customer adaptation to the marketplace is being driven by their agreements to long-term commitments with cloud vendors like Microsoft as they increasingly rely on cloud infrastructure and cloud-based services and solutions. The combination of the marketplace, Azure Consumption Commitment, and the ability to consolidate external partner spends like Nutanix into a single comprehensive contract tailored to each customer’s unique needs simplifies transactions for customers. This emerging trend is something Nutanix and WEI expect to gain momentum and continue into the future.

For many customers, this approach can result in expedited procurement times due to its well-established route to market. It aligns with the processes they’re already using to procure software or products from various vendors on the marketplace. The advantage lies in that customers no longer need separate budgets, agreements, and purchase orders for each unique provider that they wish to buy from. Instead, they can have one procurement workflow and resulting invoice via the marketplace, which not only streamlines operations but also fosters a more repeatable and efficient process. Microsoft further enhances this by seamlessly integrating custom contract terms and amendments into a standard contract framework.

Selling through the marketplace is all about consolidation and simplification. Microsoft’s established partnerships with numerous Fortune 500 companies make it easier for partners to connect with new customers, reducing the need for extensive customer acquisition efforts. Sellers are pushing the boundaries, seeking creative ways to expand the range of products and services available via the marketplace in response to customer demand. This transformative landscape underscores the industry’s adaptability to meet evolving customer needs in an always complex digital environment.