Nutanix pushes private cloud

Unlike Amazon Web Services (AWS) and other public cloud services, Nutanix says it represents a new generation of IT solutions for small and large enterprises needing “anywhere, anytime and any device” access to their networks.
In Thailand, Prince of Songkla University’s medical school is one of its clients, using the private cloud service to allow some 200 doctors to access hundreds of thousands of patient files remotely for tele-medicine.
Thawipong Anotaisinthawee, Nutanix country manager, said patients’ medical records were confidential so the university could not use the public cloud.
“They need a flexible and potentially hybrid cloud service for maximum benefits in terms of providing the best healthcare and treatment to patients. Doctors can also consult with professors and specialists online to tackle challenging cases,” he said.
Another example is Easy Buy, a consumer credit company, which was hit hard by massive floods and political unrest keeping its staff from going to work a few years ago. These business disruptions prompted the company to invest in a disaster recovery centre in Rayong province to allow employees to work from anywhere at any time and with any device.
“Easy Buy, which provides micro financial services, has hundreds of thousands of customers whose data are confidential, so it could not use the public cloud, which might compromise data security,” Thawipong said.
F Matthew Young, vice president for Asia-Pacific at Nutanix, said the global market for private and public cloud services was estimated to be worth around US$120 billion (Bt4 trillion) annually.
Some public cloud services appear cheaper at the start, since providers may have adopted the “pay as you grow” business model, but over time private clouds are more cost-effective, especially when an enterprise’s IT needs reach a certain threshold, Nutanix says. In addition, users have better control of their IT infrastructure.
Besides healthcare and financial services, Nutanix aims to tap customers in education, banking, retail, e-commerce and other online businesses. Thawipong said the firm also planned to capitalise on efforts by the Thai government to promote a “digital economy” to boost the country’s competitiveness, especially in terms of using cloud computing to deliver solutions for industrial automation and business innovation.
In terms of digital technology, Young noted that Asian economies had a good chance of leapfrogging other regions because they do not have a lot of the legacy technology that is still in use in developed countries.
However, private clouds may not be the choice for tech start-ups’ IT infrastructure at the beginning when only a few people use the network. Once these start-ups become successful and have to expand their business and users rapidly, they will find the private cloud service competitive in terms of cost saving, security, flexibility and compliance, the company says.
For large and medium enterprises, private clouds also give the flexibility of hybrid services, allowing users to take advantage of both private and public clouds to leverage their different strengths depending on their specific needs, it says.