VMware, Nutanix Battle For Hyperconverged Software Market Supremacy

‘Our integrated architectural approach and our investment protection value across the hybrid cloud make us the clear strategic choice now that HCI is serious business,’ says Lee Caswell, vice president of marketing for VMware’s HCI business unit.

Nutanix And VMware Are The HCI Software Standouts

VMware and Nutanix have been battling for hyperconverged infrastructure software dominance for years. The two companies have consistently gone toe-to-toe for global market share leadership in terms of the software ownership of hyperconverged systems.

Global revenues from hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) systems reached $2.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2019, representing a 17.2 percent increase year over year, according to research firm IDC.

The research firm offers two ways to rank technology suppliers within the hyperconverged market: by the brand of the hyperconverged solution and by the owner of the software providing the core hyperconverged capabilities. Regarding the later, CRN breaks down the three market share leaders based on the owner of the hyperconverged software in the fourth quarter of 2019.

3. Cisco

Q4 Market Share: 6%

The San Jose, Calif.-based networking giant won the bronze medal for hyperconverged software in the fourth quarter due to a sales spike of 84 percent year over year to $138 million. Cisco captured 6 percent share of the worldwide HCI software market, up from 3.8 percent share in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Cisco is dedicating $225 million in cash and product donations to support both global and local responses to the coronavirus pandemic. “While our world will be different as we move into the future, it is important that we stay focused on making a positive impact in every way possible,” said Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins in a blog post.

The company is giving businesses and organizations on the front lines access to its security and collaboration solutions, including Cisco Umbrella and WebEx, for free. In March, Cisco’s WebEx registered a record 324 million attendees with usage doubling in the Americas as the U.S. workforce has moved to the home. Additionally, Cisco is extending the deadlines for its Cisco Certified Partners to renew their statuses so that their specializations don’t run out.

2. Nutanix

Q4 Market Share: 27%

The San Jose, Calif.-based hyperconverged pioneer placed second by winning 27 percent share of the worldwide HCI software market, representing a decline from Nutanix’s 29.6 percent share it won during the fourth quarter of 2018. Nutanix generated more than $616 million in hyperconverged software revenue in fourth quarter 2019, up nearly 7 percent year over year.

Nutanix, which celebrated its 10-year anniversary last year, is helping channel partners meet customers urgent virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) needs during the coronavirus pandemic by launching FastTrack for VDI. The new offer provides partners with assistance for rapid VDI deployment, simplified pre-built configurations, estimated delivery dates and enhanced channel incentives that gives rebates to both the solution provider as a company as well as individual sales reps and engineers.

“The enterprise has temporarily moved to the home. We’ve also realized that VDI has become paramount,” said Nutanix channel chief Christian Alvarez in a recent interview with CRN. “We’re seeing this stuff being deployed in healthcare, mission critical -- just so many industries that it’s great to see our technology being put to good use and helping people. … We’re making an easy button for VDI.

1. VMware

Q4 Market Share: 41.1%

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based virtualization star won a whopping 41.1 percent share of the global HCI software market in the fourth quarter of 2019, up from 38.1 percent share year over year. VMware generated $938 million in software revenue in the quarter, up more than 26 percent compared to $743 million in fourth quarter 2018.

“Our integrated architectural approach and our investment protection value across the hybrid cloud make us the clear strategic choice now that HCI is serious business,” said Lee Caswell, vice president of marketing for VMware’s HCI business unit, to CRN. “VMware vSAN is following the same adoption pattern we saw with vSphere. We started off in less critical application areas but quickly moved into mission-critical enterprise infrastructure once customers experienced the operational value of a software-defined data center at scale.”

To help customers battle the coronavirus, VMWare last month began offering free trials of Workspace ONE and its new SD-WAN Work @Home offering, while also extending free trials of Horizon. A special price break for VMware Cloud on AWS is also available to customers through channel partners.