NCSE-Core plan - Nutanix Certified Systems Engineer-Core (NCSE-Core) Updated: 2024

“The pricing and the metering is really going to deliver our customers now the ability to pay per core. And that’s going to deliver them a lot more flexibility and control around their cost structure,” Nutanix’s Channel Chief Christian Alvarez tells CRN.

Nutanix is changing the way it sells its software portfolio by now enabling core-based pricing and metering, while also streamlining its 15 different products and brands into just five offerings.

“We’re going to a core-based pricing model and metering. This has been big-time demand by our customers and partners,” said Christian Alvarez, Nutanix’s senior vice president of worldwide channel sales and global channel chief in an interview with CRN. “The pricing and the metering is really going to deliver our customers now the ability to pay per core. And that’s going to deliver them a lot more flexibility and control around their cost structure.”

On Tuesday, the San Jose, Calif.-based hyperconverged software star launched a simplified product portfolio to better align with customer requirements in a multi-cloud world. Nutanix has simplified packaging, metering and pricing to allow partners to offer better hybrid cloud solutions to customers without the complexity.

“Many customers have gone to the public cloud and then they’ve realized, ‘Whoa, my cost is really getting out of control.’ And this is why multi-cloud, on-prem and hybrid cloud have really become such a huge use case and very attractive to them,” said Alvarez. “So by going towards a core-metered offering, from a billing and cost perspective, it really gives the customer more control of their investments.”

[Related: AWS, GCP, Oracle, Azure, SAP Lead Cloud DBMS Market: Gartner Magic Quadrant]

Nutanix has built new unified cloud platforms by moving its 15 products and brands into five new offerings: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure; Nutanix Cloud Manager; Nutanix Unified Storage; Nutanix Database Service; and Nutanix End User Computing Solutions.

Rick Gouin, chief technology officer at Winslow Technology Group, a Waltham, Mass.-based Nutanix partner, said a simplification of Nutanix’s portfolio was needed in the channel.

“A simplification of branding, licensing and pricing is a huge benefit to our own sellers,” said Gouin. “Today, it can definitely be challenging to figure out which software titles are required for which features and how they are licensed. Is it by CPU? Is it by number of SSPs? Is it by this system score? For a seller who maybe doesn’t live and breathe in the Nutanix environment every day, it can be confusing to wrap your arms around what do we need as a solution for a particular customer. For a partner—who represents multiple vendors—simplifying the titles, the licensing and the packaging, is going to make it easier for us to position the product.”

Nutanix’s New 5 Offerings

The new simplified portfolio brings together Nutanix’s product capabilities across on-premises and public clouds to deliver consistent infrastructure, data services, management, and operations for applications in virtual machines and containers.

The Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) provides a complete software solution including virtual compute, storage and networking for virtual machines and containers, that can be deployed in data centers or in public clouds.

The Nutanix Cloud Manager is for building and managing cloud deployments with a focus on driving consistent governance across private and public clouds, with features such as monitoring and automated remediation.

Nutanix’s Unified Storage delivers distributed and software-defined storage for file, volume and object storage to support a variety of workloads deployed anywhere with license portability in between.

The Nutanix Database Service aims to simplify database management across hybrid multi-cloud environments for database engines like PostgreSQL, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle Database, with automation for provisioning, scaling, patching, protection, and cloning of database instances.

Lastly, the new Nutanix End User Computing Solutions delivers virtual apps and desktops to users worldwide from public, private, and hybrid cloud infrastructure. It provides a per-user licensing option for NCI that simplifies capacity planning by matching the infrastructure cost model to that of the end user computing platform.

‘Cloud Is No longer A Destination’

“Cloud is no longer a destination or a nice to have—it’s truly become an operating model,” said Nutanix’s Alvarez. “Getting customers to effectively move their critical infrastructure, their core applications and workloads to the cloud is certainly a journey. It’s been made more complicated than it really needs to be. At Nutanix, we’ve been at war with complexity, and obsessed with customer satisfaction.”

Years ago, Alvarez said Nutanix began working on a single mission: to streamline and simplify its portfolio offerings. Nutanix has now built an enterprise-ready, unified cloud platform on HCI solutions as the core foundation.

“This perfectly fits our new pricing and packaging for our partners that want to go after new customers that are new to Nutanix and really build their solutions and offerings,” said Alvarez. “Remember, partners are attaching other complementary technologies that aren’t Nutanix. Our new pricing and packaging caters nicely for our partners to make even more with attaching services and other complementary solutions.”

Winslow’s Gouin touted Nutanix’s portfolio revamp and simplification as a win for channel partners everywhere.

“This simplification is very welcomed,” he said. “I fully expect that the strength of their product set and the breadth of their ecosystem is going to remain top notch for the foreseeable future. I expect that we will ramp up our Nutanix sales, and we’re going to continue to put a focus on Nutanix as a hyper converged vendor. We really do think it has best of breed products.”

Nutanix’s new product portfolio is currently available to customers.

David Ingram has written for multiple publications since 2009, including "The Houston Chronicle" and online at Business.com. As a small-business owner, Ingram regularly confronts modern issues in management, marketing, finance and business law. He has earned a Bachelor of Arts in management from Walsh University.

Nutanix said it is "serious" about revamping its partner strategy and is unleashing software rebates for Dell EMC's new hyper-converged infrastructure XC Core platform.

"This isn't a light-hearted announcement. This isn't fluffy. This moves the needle," said Rodney Foreman, Nutanix's new channel chief, in an interview with CRN. "We're making a strong statement to the partners in the market that we're serious. We want to grow our market share with partners and want to reward them for their growth and investment in us."

The San Jose, Calif. hyper-converged technology pioneer is offering software rebates as well as a net new customer incentive to partners who sell Dell EMC's new XC Core hyper-converged solution, which is part of the Nutanix and Dell Technologies popular XC Series.

[Related: Nutanix CEO On Potential Dell-VMware Merger, Reducing Channel Conflict, And Helping Partners Elevate Their Services]

The new XC Core, unveiled on Tuesday, uses the same Dell EMC hardware and software as the XC Series appliances, but the software is licensed and supported directly by Nutanix. The solution lets customers buy Nutanix software licenses from partners and then add the licenses to pre-validated XC Core systems that are configured, built and tested by Dell.

Nutanix is offering a three-tiered software rebate based on the size of the XC Core system sold. Partners will receive either $1,000, $2,000 or $3,000 rebates per node when they sell Nutanix software depending on the size of the XC Core.

"These rebates are just the start of what we're going to work on to transform and mature our channel business and grow with our partners as we evolve as transform to more of a software company," said Foreman.

Nutanix is also launching a net new customer rebate where partners can earn up to an additional 5 percent of the software deal when they onboard a new client that hasn't purchased Nutanix in the past. Foreman said the rebate is attacking the "white space" through both Nutanix and Dell partners.

The third rebate Nutanix is unveiling is for the top six partners in each of its main regions: the Americas, Asia-Pacific (APJ) and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Nutanix is giving these 18 partners an additional 2 percent of total software sales if they achieve specific growth goals on a quarterly basis.

"So for each top partner, we're setting a goal to grow off of their current growth rate," said Foreman. "The goal is quarterly growth on top of their run rate. That's 2 percent of their total software sales. You can stack the new customer rebate and this top partner rebate. That's significant. That really shows that we're really making an investment and focused on making our partners successful in the market."

Rob Steele, practice manager for RoundTower Technologies, a Cincinnati-based solution provider and Dell EMC partner, said the hiring of Foreman is revamping Nutanix's channel strategy.

"It's great getting a guy like Rodney in where he's coming in, kicking down the doors and putting the partners first," said Steele. "The rebates are going to get them some extra traction. It helps partners like us take those rebate dollars and reinvest to getting more technical talent to help deploy the [XC Series]."

Steele said the new XC Core is a win-win for both Dell and Nutanix as the hyper-converged market begins to truly "blossom" in 2018. Nutanix, Dell EMC, and VMware were all named leaders in Gartner's first-ever Magic Quadrant For Hyper-Converged Infrastructure report.

The rebate news comes after Nutanix reported solid second fiscal quarter earnings on March 1. The company has now achieved a $1 billion annualized software and services run rate as Nutanix shifts to becoming a software-only vendor.

"As it unties itself from the hardware, Nutanix can become the ultimate software company," said Steele.

Calvin’s core curriculum is designed to provide a foundation and context for the engineering courses you take. Drawing on a long tradition of liberal arts education, the core curriculum prepares you to think clearly, communicate effectively, and act virtuously in your chosen career—whether in engineering or another field.

We invite you to view the core curriculum not as a mere list of requirements to be checked off or as an impediment to your engineering studies. Rather, the core curriculum exists to help you become an engineer who is also a good citizen and a leader in your field.

In January 2020, following more than one year of conversations, planning and collaborative effort of our faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends, we launched Drexel Engineering’s new strategic plan, “Building on Tradition for Tomorrow: Engineering Our Future Together.” 

Initially, this work served as a critical mechanism of self-assessment and reevaluation of our college’s mission and goals. Today, it acts as a valuable roadmap in the implementation of our efforts to reimagine engineering education, and remain flexible and responsive in adapting our curricula and support systems to match student and workforce needs.

Our work is guided by the call: to respond efficiently to rapid change; to provide the tools and approaches for maximum impact on creating a sustainable future; to promote collaborative engineering solutions; and to advance engineering education through research on engineering pedagogy.

Aligning our efforts within this framework is how we will deliver on our mission, how we will provide a distinctly Drexel engineering experience and how we will build on our tradition for a better tomorrow as we collaborate and innovate together.

Sharon L. Walker, Ph.D.
Dean and Distinguished Professor

Full course requirements, admissions information, course descriptions, and a suggested four-year plan of study for the BME major can be found in the UAB Undergraduate Catalog.

The bachelor’s degree program is accredited by ABET, the Engineering Accreditation Commission, and is the only accredited BME undergraduate program in Alabama. Learn more about our education objectives and student outcomes.

Program Overview

When you major in Biomedical Engineering you will take engineering core courses, mathematics, calculus-based physics, biology, chemistry, humanities, social and behavioral sciences, biomedical engineering core courses, and electives. Your studies will culminate in a capstone design experience — you'll be a member of an interdisciplinary team solving real-world engineering problems.

Concentrations

After you have become familiar with the field and are taking adanced-level classes, you can choose to concentrate in three areas:

• Biomechanics — the study of how internal and external forces interact with living tissue to influence structure and function. Biomechanical engineers are involved in implantable device design, studies of cell function in response to applied forces, device design for rehabilitation and therapy, and other areas. For more information, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Biomaterials — the study of how synthetic or natural materials are used in constructing artificial organs and tissues as well as how devices or prostheses interact with living tissue. Biomaterials are critical to the performance of everything to orthopedic implants to tissue engineered vascular grafts. For information, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Tissue Engineering — the practice of combining scaffolds, cells, and biologically active molecules into functional tissues. The goal of tissue engineering is to assemble functional constructs that restore, maintain, or Strengthen damaged tissues or whole organs. Artificial skin and cartilage are examples of engineered tissues that have been approved by the FDA. For information, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Admission to the BME Program

You must meet minimum ACT/SAT scores and high-school GPA requirements to be admitted directly into the program. These minimums are listed in the UAB Undergraduate Catalog.

An emergency or "disaster" is an event that seriously disrupts the normal functions of the UAB Campus, regardless of the cause. Special detailed plans are included which address such scenarios as fire, bomb threat, loss of electrical power, dangerous person or active shooter, severe weather, and medical emergencies. UAB's School of Engineering has a comprehensive Emergency Action Plan - faculty, staff, and students can access the plan by clicking the button below.

Calvin’s core curriculum is designed to provide a foundation and context for the engineering courses you take. Drawing on a long tradition of liberal arts education, the core curriculum prepares you to think clearly, communicate effectively, and act virtuously in your chosen career—whether in engineering or another field.

We invite you to view the core curriculum not as a mere list of requirements to be checked off or as an impediment to your engineering studies. Rather, the core curriculum exists to help you become an engineer who is also a good citizen and a leader in your field.