Nutanix Bests VMware As Hyperconverged Software Leader

‘Nutanix continues to be the clear market leader as shown by recognition from customers, partners and analysts,’ Nutanix CEO Dheeraj Pandey tells CRN.

Nutanix And VMware Battle For HCI Software Leadership

Nutanix and VMware owned a combined 93 percent of the global hyperconverged infrastructure software market in the second quarter of 2020, according to new data from IT research firm Gartner.

Nutanix CEO Dheeraj Pandey said that hyperconverged software and subscription, not hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) hardware, is the true technology driver in the market today.

“Just like photography morphed from film rolls to digital cameras to a camera app in its journey of digitization, HCI has moved from hardware appliances to software to subscription and cloud software,” said Pandey in statement to CRN. “Through this process, Nutanix continues to be the clear market leader as shown by recognition from customers, partners and analysts.”

CRN breaks down Gartner’s hyperconverged software market-share numbers for the second quarter of 2020.

Gartner HCI Software-Only Market-Share Methodology

Gartner defines HCI software as a commercially available software product, where software-defined storage, compute virtualization and management tools are either preintegrated or can be integrated with a third-party hypervisor and management tools and can run on commodity hardware.

Gartner’s measurements and tracking of hyperconverged software sales and market share differ from fellow research firm IDC. IDC’s software market-share numbers include hardware sales. While IDC’s software numbers represent the value of all HCI hardware, HCI software and systems infrastructure software sold, Gartner excludes hardware sales when tracking HCI software market share. Some believe Gartner provides a more accurate view of the HCI software market because it measures only software sales and excludes hardware revenue.

Gartner gives revenue credit to the actual HCI software provider. It includes software maintenance or services revenue, but excludes professional or consulting services. Software revenue for perpetual and term-based subscription licenses are included together. Individual hypervisor license revenue is excluded from Gartner’s overall HCI software revenue quarterly tracking.

Worldwide HCI Software Market In Q2 Fell 5 Percent

Total worldwide hyperconverged software sales reached $373 million in the second quarter of 2020, representing a drop of 5 percent year over year, according to Gartner. Hyperconverged software has become a major component for enabling hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments.

There are two dominant leaders in the software hyperconverged infrastructure market, Nutanix and VMware, which combined won a total of 93.3 percent share of the global market.

Other software HCI vendors, such as Pivot3, Stormagic and Maxta, owned a combined 6.7 percent share of the total $373 million in sales during the second quarter.

No. 2: VMware

HCI Software Q2 2020 Share: 40.5%

VMware placed second in the worldwide HCI software-only market by generating $151 million in software revenue in the second quarter of 2020, representing a 7.9 percent sales decline year over year. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based virtualization star won 40.5 percent share of the global market, down 3 points compared with 43.7 percent share in second quarter 2019.

VMware’s vSAN-powered HCI software is part of an appliance sold by OEMs or technology partners such as Dell Technologies and Lenovo. vSAN software is certified with 500 server platforms as vSAN ReadyNodes in offerings including Dell EMC VxRail, HPE Integrated ReadyNodes, Hitachi UCP and Lenovo ThinkAgile VX. Gartner does not include revenue VMware generates from vSphere licenses in its quarterly HCI software market-share measurement.

No. 1: Nutanix

HCI Software Q2 2020 Share: 52.8%

Nutanix won the gold medal for hyperconverged software share in the second quarter of 2020 by capturing $197 million in sales, up 8.6 percent year over year. The San Jose, Calif.-based hybrid cloud software superstar won more than half of the worldwide market with 52.8 percent share, up from 48.3 percent share in second-quarter 2019.

Nutanix sells NX appliances and HCI software only via OEMs such as Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lenovo and Dell Technologies. Gartner does not include Nutanix HCI software sales from third-party hypervisors in its quarterly HCI software market-share measurement.

According to Forester analysts, Nutanix has the best-ranked hyperconverged software product in the world with Nutanix AOS. In the new “Forrester Wave: Hyperconverged Infrastructure Q3 2020” report, Nutanix AOS version 5.16 had near-perfect scores in terms of product offering, strategy and market presence.