Nutanix & Microsoft Expand Hybrid Cloud Flexibility

Nov 20, 2025 · 8 min read · Nutanix Microsoft Azure NC2 AVD Hybrid Cloud ·

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Overview

Nutanix made two significant announcements this week that expand their collaboration with Microsoft Azure, offering customers more flexibility for both infrastructure workloads and virtual desktop deployments in hybrid cloud environments.

A Migration Path Forward: From AVS to NC2

The first announcement addresses a pressing challenge many organizations are facing: finding alternatives to Azure VMware Solution (AVS) in the wake of Broadcom's licensing changes. Nutanix has introduced enhanced capabilities in Nutanix Move to help customers migrate from AVS to Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on Azure, all while staying within the Azure ecosystem.

Why This Matters

Many organizations initially migrated from on premises VMware to AVS specifically to escape the dramatic licensing cost increases following Broadcom's acquisition of VMware. AVS was attractive because VMware licensing was included with the service. However, Broadcom's recent decision to remove the ability for hyperscalers to include VMware licensing has created yet another hurdle for these organizations. They're now looking for exit strategies that don't force them to abandon their Azure investments or undergo painful replatforming projects. NC2 on Azure offers a compelling alternative that provides:

A simplified consumption model without the complexity or uncertainties of VMware licensing
Freedom from hypervisor lock-in while maintaining Azure infrastructure benefits
Cost predictability with Nutanix's unified licensing approach

How Nutanix Move Simplifies Migration

Nutanix Move has long been a proven tool for migrating VMware workloads to Nutanix AHV, supporting migrations from on premises vSphere environments as well as other sources. The addition of AVS support extends these capabilities into Azure VMware Solution environments, providing a consistent migration experience regardless of where your VMware workloads are running.

With AVS support, Nutanix Move will bring its proven capabilities to Azure VMware Solution migrations:

Connecting directly to AVS environments to inventory and assess workloads
Converting VMware formats to AHV-native workloads automatically, just as it does for on premises migrations
Providing guided workflows for VM mapping and network translation
Supporting incremental replication to minimize downtime during cutover
Enabling testing in NC2 before final migration to reduce risk

The beauty of this approach is that it's all included at no additional cost for Nutanix customers. Organizations will be able to test their workloads in NC2, validate performance, and execute a controlled migration without massive professional services engagements.

Availability: Nutanix Move support for AVS is not yet available. You can watch for the release date on the Nutanix support portal.

Elastic SAN: Solving the Storage Scalability Challenge

A key technical enhancement announced alongside the migration capabilities is support for Azure Elastic SAN with NC2. This addresses one of the most frustrating limitations of traditional converged infrastructure: having to add entire compute nodes just to get more storage capacity.

Back in June, I wrote about NC2's scaling capabilities on AWS and Azure, including the then newly announced Elastic SAN support. At that time, Elastic SAN was introduced as a way to scale storage independently from compute, similar to how AWS EBS volumes work with NC2. What's new and exciting about this week's announcement is how Elastic SAN support is specifically being leveraged to facilitate migrations from AVS to NC2.

Side note: This latest blog post is written by Dwayne Lessner from Nutanix, and anytime I see his name on an article, I know it's going to be worth the read. His deep technical insights consistently deliver real value, so I always make sure to follow his content.

Elastic SAN will deliver:

Independent storage scaling from 60 to 144 TB of remote storage per node, depending on hardware
Predictable performance with a minimum of 5,000 IOPS and 150 MB/s throughput per TiB at around 4ms latency
Cost efficiency by eliminating the need to purchase unnecessary bare-metal instances just for capacity
Flexibility to right-size compute and storage resources independently

This will be particularly valuable for workloads with unbalanced compute to storage ratios, like databases, file servers, or content repositories that need capacity without proportional compute resources. For organizations migrating from AVS, this means they won't have to overprovision compute just to accommodate their existing storage footprint, a common challenge in hyperconverged migrations.

Availability: Starting in January 2026, Nutanix will open a tech preview for Elastic SAN integration with the NC2 Azure solution. This gives organizations time to plan their migration strategies while the feature moves toward general availability.

Azure Virtual Desktop Comes to On Premises Infrastructure

The second announcement, made at Microsoft Ignite 2025, expands deployment options for Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) by bringing support to on premises infrastructure through Arc-enabled servers. This represents a significant shift in Microsoft's strategy, opening AVD to multiple hypervisor platforms including Nutanix AHV, VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, and even physical Windows servers.

Microsoft Opens the Door to Hybrid AVD

Until now, organizations wanting to deploy AVD had two primary options: run it in Azure or deploy it on Azure Local (formerly Azure Stack HCI). Microsoft's announcement of new hybrid deployment options for AVD changes this by acknowledging that customers need flexibility to meet them "where they are — whether in the cloud, on premises, or across both."

This platform-agnostic approach addresses organizations that need to keep workloads on premises due to performance, data residency, or compliance constraints while maintaining a clear pathway to cloud solutions.

Why Nutanix AHV Makes Sense for AVD

Among the launch partners for this initiative, Nutanix stands out with a particularly strong position. According to Tarkan Maner, Nutanix's Chief Commercial Officer, "Customers with end-user compute deployments ranging from hundreds to 100,000+ seats, run on Nutanix — on prem as well as on Azure, using our Nutanix Cloud Clusters solution."

For organizations already standardized on Nutanix infrastructure, AVD support on AHV provides compelling benefits:

Hybrid flexibility with the ability to burst to Azure for capacity or disaster recovery
Data sovereignty by keeping virtual desktop workloads on premises when required
Performance optimization for latency-sensitive and graphics-intensive workloads
Existing infrastructure leverage for organizations already standardized on Nutanix

Integration with Microsoft Services

The solution isn't just about running AVD workloads; it's about maintaining full integration with the broader Microsoft ecosystem through Azure Arc:

Native support for Microsoft 365 and Teams
Integration with Microsoft Entra (formerly Azure AD) for identity management
Access to Microsoft's security and compliance services
Unified management experience across hybrid environments

This level of integration is critical for organizations that have invested heavily in Microsoft's productivity and security stack.

Important notes:

The hybrid deployment option supports Windows 11 Enterprise and Windows Server 2016-2025, but Windows 11 Enterprise Multi-Session remains unavailable for on premises environments at this time.
The implementation details matter significantly here. I'm hopeful that we'll see true integration with AHV for both persistent and non persistent desktop workloads, rather than simply deploying VMs on AHV and then enabling Azure Arc to onboard them to AVD. True integration would unlock the full potential of Nutanix's storage and management capabilities for virtual desktop environments. Only time will tell how deep this integration goes, but the possibilities are exciting.

What This Means for Customers

As Maner notes:

"This collaboration with Microsoft will empower our customers with more options for virtual desktops, whether they're modernizing on premises or extending into hybrid cloud environments."

The key word here is options. Different workloads and business requirements call for different deployment models:

Regulatory compliance might require certain data to stay on-premises
Branch offices with limited connectivity might benefit from local VDI
Development and test environments could leverage Azure's scalability
Cost optimization strategies might use a mix of on premises and cloud resources

Adding Nerdio to the Mix

What makes this announcement particularly exciting for many organizations is the potential to combine Nutanix's on premises AVD support with Nerdio, the leading management and cost optimization platform for AVD environments. While not mentioned in the official press release, Nerdio's capabilities could complement this deployment option beautifully:

Unified management across Azure, Azure Local, and now Nutanix deployments
Cost optimization through intelligent scaling and scheduling
Automated deployment and configuration
Enhanced user experience monitoring and troubleshooting

For organizations already using Nerdio to manage their AVD environments, having another infrastructure option that works within the same management framework is incredibly valuable.

The Bigger Picture: True Hybrid Cloud Choice

These two announcements reinforce a critical trend in enterprise IT: the era of single vendor, single platform strategies is over. Organizations need true hybrid cloud architectures that allow them to:

Choose the right infrastructure for each workload based on technical and business requirements
Avoid vendor lock-in while maintaining integration and consistent experiences
Adapt to changing conditions like licensing costs, regulatory requirements, or performance needs
Leverage existing investments while adopting new technologies strategically

Nutanix's enhanced Azure integration for both infrastructure migrations and virtual desktop deployments gives organizations more options to build architectures that truly serve their needs rather than forcing them to work around vendor limitations.

What's Next?

Both of these announcements represent capabilities that are coming soon rather than immediately available:

AVD on Nutanix AHV is currently under development, so we'll need to wait for general availability to see the full capabilities in action
Nutanix Move for AVS is not yet available, but organizations can prepare by reviewing requirements on the support portal
Elastic SAN integration will enter tech preview in January 2026, giving early adopters a chance to test before general availability

For those dealing with AVS licensing pressures, now is the time to start planning your migration strategy to NC2 on Azure. The ability to migrate without leaving Azure is compelling, and the upcoming Elastic SAN support will address real storage scalability challenges once it becomes available.

For those planning VDI strategies, keep an eye on the Nutanix AVD support as it develops. Having another deployment option, particularly one that integrates with the Microsoft ecosystem, will expand your architecture choices significantly.

Resources

What are your thoughts on these announcements? Are you currently running AVS and considering alternatives? Or planning AVD deployments and interested in more infrastructure options? Feel free to reach out at mike@mikedent.io.