Wendy M. Pfeiffer, Nutanix CIO: ‘Joining Nutanix is the Culmination of My Highest IT Aspirations’

Cloud computing has existed since the dawn of the internet, but only in recent years has it become a household term. Anyone who has touched a computer, tablet or smartphone over the last decade is regularly using cloud services.

Whenever we scroll through Facebook or Twitter, watch streaming videos, access an online email service like Gmail or Outlook, or use the apps on our phones, we are accessing data stored on the cloud. The general public has been quicker to adopt cloud services than the business world, mostly because the data that companies use to run and grow their businesses is highly sensitive.

In light of the foregoing, we’re thrilled to present Nutanix.

Nutanix, a leader in enterprise cloud computing, provides an enterprise cloud platform that converges silos of server, virtualization and storage into one integrated solution and connects to public cloud services. The company’s software-driven platform delivers the scalability and pay-as-you-grow economics of the public cloud while addressing enterprise requirements of application mobility, security, data integrity and control. It has combined web-scale technologies with consumer-grade design to deliver an enterprise cloud platform that elevates information technology (IT) organizations to focus on the applications and services that manage their businesses. The company refers to its platform as invisible infrastructure as it provides availability and low-touch management, and enables application mobility across computing environments. Its platform is designed to run on commodity x86 servers with off-the-shelf central processing units (CPUs), memory and storage media.

Nutanix was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.

Nutanix: Synopsis

Solutions: That Make Nutanix Stand Out from the Competition

The company’s solution comprises two software product families: Acropolis and Prism, and is delivered on commodity x86 servers. Acropolis includes the company’s distributed storage fabric and application mobility fabric. Acropolis delivers distributed storage, application mobility capabilities and a built-in hypervisor, software that allows multiple operating systems to share a single hardware host. Acropolis is available in various software editions, such as Starter, Pro and Ultimate. Prism delivers integrated virtualization and infrastructure management, operational analytics and one-click administration capabilities. Its solutions address a range of workloads, including enterprise applications, databases, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), unified communications and big data analytics. It has end-customers across a range of industries, including automotive, consumer goods, education, energy, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, media, public sector, retail, technology and telecommunications.

Nutanix sells to service providers utilizing its platform to provide a range of cloud-based services to their customers. It had a diverse base of approximately 2,100 end-customers as of October 31, 2015. The company offers technical support in the form of approximately three different subscription and support programs, available in one, three or five-year package: Basic (Gold), Production (Platinum) and Mission Critical (Platinum Plus). Nutanix has various appliance models, including NX-1000 Series, NX-3000 Series, NX-6000 Series, NX-7000 Series, NX-8000 Series and NX-1000 Series.

The company competes with EMC Corporation, NetApp, Inc., Hitachi Data Systems, Hewlett-Packard Company, Cisco Systems, Inc., Lenovo Group Ltd., Dell, IBM Corporation, and VMware, Inc.

Wendy M. Pfeiffer: An Aspiring Leader

Nutanix named Wendy M. Pfeiffer, former vice president of IT at GoPro, as Chief Information Officer (CIO). In this role, Pfeiffer will lead the global IT team to support Nutanix’s business operations and employees.

Over the next year, Pfeiffer and her team will be dedicated to helping Nutanix scale and add IT capabilities to make sure that employees have innovative and frictionless tools to support their work. In her role, she will also work to create an IT function that takes into account new ideas and viewpoints in order to constantly improve the Nutanix IT infrastructure. Finally, she will apply her expertise to lead the IT team to use and shape Nutanix’s current and future enterprise cloud offerings.

“Joining Nutanix is the culmination of my highest IT aspirations,” Ms Pfeiffer said. “I look forward to operating IT infrastructure at a thriving public company and to personally use Nutanix’s revolutionary technologies on a day-to-day basis. My team and I are focused on ensuring Nutanix retains the nimble, responsive and boundless culture of a startup while keeping business operations and company data stable and secure. I am honored to join a company that values my contribution, and look forward to helping mold the company’s culture.”Ms Pfeiffersaid in a statement.

Pfeiffer joins Nutanix following a successful career leading technology teams for high-profile industry-makers. She began her career in IT leadership running professional services at Exodus Communications, supporting production operations and privacy initiatives at Yahoo and helping companies like Robert Half and GoPro make their private and public cloud operate at enterprise-class. This diverse experience has provided Pfeiffer with a clear understanding of the benefits and limitations of technologies and operating models which she hopes to apply to her role at Nutanix.

“We are delighted to welcome Wendy to our leadership team,” said Dheeraj Pandey, founder, chairman and CEO of Nutanix. “She is a proven leader with an impressive track record building high-performance IT organizations within world-class companies.Wendy and her team will play a key role in shaping Nutanix’s enterprise cloud platform and fulfilling our mission to make infrastructure invisible.” Mr. Pandey said in a statement.

“Nutanix’ssolution addresses a range of workloads, including enterprise applications, databases, virtual desktop infrastructure, unified communications, and big data analytics.”