Nutanix Accelerates Migration from VMware: Zero-Copy, Multitenancy, and Incentives for Providers
The acquisition of VMware by Broadcom, completed at the end of 2023, has triggered a profound reorganization of the enterprise virtualization ecosystem. The restructuring of the licensing model, the discontinuation of perpetual licenses, and the revision of partner programs have prompted many companies and service providers to explore alternatives.
Nutanix is among the vendors explicitly aiming to capture this demand, and at the .NEXT 2026 event in Chicago, followed by Edge9 on site, it presented a coordinated set of technical tools and commercial programs designed to facilitate migration for both enterprises and service providers.
Migration Tools
The most significant technical component is the zero-copy migration feature, already available, which converts virtual machines from VMware vSphere to AHV without duplicating data on storage. The format of virtual disks is transformed directly, without requiring additional space or extended maintenance windows. Additionally, as part of the partnership with NetApp announced at the same event, there is integration between NetApp Shift and Nutanix Move for NFS-based conversions, with stated timeframes on the order of minutes.
The new Foundation Central appliance simplifies the initial installation of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure and the AHV hypervisor on enterprise servers from Cisco, Dell, Fujitsu, HPE, and Lenovo. The support for five different manufacturers is significant in the context of migration: those exiting VMware can install Nutanix on the servers they already own, without needing to invest in new hardware at a time when the supply chain remains under pressure.
Platform for Service Providers
For service providers, the discussion is different but complementary. Nutanix explicitly recognizes that partners in the VMware Cloud Service Provider program have been among the most affected by Broadcom's changes, and proposes Service Provider Central as an alternative. This is a new feature of the Nutanix Cloud Platform, currently in early access and expected to be generally available in the second half of 2026, which introduces enterprise-level multitenant capabilities: each customer of the provider receives a dedicated tenant with their own private cloud environment, access to Nutanix Prism, and autonomous management of computing, storage, networking, and authorization resources, while the provider maintains centralized operational control and governance.
For partners, Nutanix is also launching the certification program "Powered by Nutanix: Verified Solutions", which validates the services of providers against the company's architectural standards. The initial certifications pertain to IaaS, Sovereign IaaS, and Disaster Recovery as a Service, with the goal of extending them to Desktop as a Service and cloud-native solutions.
The economic incentive is another element of the package: service providers migrating from VMware can obtain Nutanix software under strongly favorable conditions for an initial period, with consumption-based subscriptions of at least three years tied to the replacement of VMware. The stated goal is to prevent providers from bearing the full cost of both platforms during the transition phase, a tangible issue that has slowed several migrations over the past year.
The picture that Nutanix presents is coherent: technical tools to reduce migration times, a platform that replicates and partially extends the multitenant functionalities necessary for providers, and economic conditions designed to minimize friction in the transition. How this translates into actual migrations will also depend on Nutanix's ability to compete operationally at scale, but the direction is clear.