In his recent blog, Redefining infrastructure strategy for a fragmented, hybrid future, Cisco Senior Vice President and General Manager Jeremy Foster outlined how organizations are moving toward intelligent distribution-balancing performance, governance, and agility across data center, cloud, and edge environments.

As customers plan for this shift, they're looking for infrastructure that supports both mission-critical applications and the rapid expansion of modern, data-intensive workloads. They consistently ask for flexibility, operational simplicity, and the ability to extend existing investments without disruption.

Today, we're announcing the general availability of FlashStack with Nutanix, a jointly validated solution from Cisco, Pure Storage, and Nutanix that brings together compute, storage, and software innovation in a modular converged architecture.

What FlashStack really is (and why it matters)

For more than a decade, FlashStack has represented a tightly engineered partnership between Cisco and Pure Storage, combining the following into a single, pre-validated system:

• Cisco UCS compute and Cisco networking
• Pure Storage FlashArray

Every FlashStack architecture is built from rigorously tested and jointly documented Cisco Validated Designs (CVDs).

FlashStack eliminates the guesswork of building infrastructure from standalone components, offering:

• Predictable, high-performance architecture
• Guaranteed interoperability
• Reduced deployment risk
• Faster time to resolution with coordinated support
• End-to-end visibility through Cisco Intersight, including storage insights from Pure1

This is a trusted, proven foundation and, with this milestone, FlashStack now expands to support Nutanix Cloud Platform and Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV).

Announcing FlashStack with Nutanix

Together, Cisco, Pure Storage, and Nutanix are announcing the general availability of FlashStack with Nutanix, a jointly validated architecture that unifies the strengths of all three platforms into one modular solution:

• Cisco UCS X-Series, C-Series, and B-Series servers, built on the latest Intel Xeon Scalable processors
• Pure Storage FlashArray for independent, high-performance storage scaling
• Nutanix Cloud Platform, including Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) and Nutanix's enterprise-grade hypervisor, AHV
• NVMe/TCP connectivity, bringing NVMe performance over familiar Ethernet networks
• Unified lifecycle management through Cisco Intersight, Nutanix Prism, and Pure1

The result is a modular, AI-ready converged infrastructure platform that gives IT teams a single foundation for:

• Core business applications and databases
• Data-intensive workloads such as analytics and large-scale processing
• Modern cloud-native and containerized applications

This reference architecture illustrates how Cisco UCS, Pure Storage FlashArray, and Nutanix Cloud Platform come together in a unified FlashStack with Nutanix design.

Figure 1. FlashStack with Nutanix, featuring Cisco UCS, Pure Storage FlashArray, and Nutanix Cloud Platform

FlashStack with Nutanix is delivered as a preintegrated, validated solution, without sacrificing architectural choice.

Convergence with true choice

A key theme in our partnership has been "convergence with choice." Customers want the simplicity and dependability of converged systems, but they don't want to be boxed into a rigid, one-size-fits-all stack.

FlashStack with Nutanix is designed around that balance and provides:

• Hypervisor choice, including the ability to run Nutanix AHV on Cisco UCS X-Series, C-Series, and B-Series servers
• Modular expansion, enabling compute and storage to be scaled independently
• Operational choice, allowing management using familiar tools, including Cisco Intersight, Pure1, and Nutanix Prism
• Deployment flexibility, supporting both greenfield deployments and extensions of existing Cisco, Pure, and Nutanix environments

With this architecture, organizations can design a predictable, consistent foundation for databases, enterprise applications, analytics, and cloud-native workloads-while maintaining the operational models they trust.

Partner perspectives

"Enterprises are increasingly looking for infrastructure that gives them freedom-freedom to modernize at their own pace, scale efficiently, and operate consistently across environments. FlashStack with Nutanix brings together the simplicity and resilience of the Nutanix Cloud Platform with the proven, validated FlashStack architecture from Cisco and Pure Storage. This collaboration gives customers a modular, enterprise-ready foundation that preserves existing investments while enabling a more flexible path to modern applications and data-intensive workloads."

Saveen Pakala, Vice President, Product Management, Nutanix

"Enterprises want infrastructure that performs reliably, operates simply, and gives them confidence as their environments evolve. For more than a decade, FlashStack has delivered that through a deeply validated Cisco and Pure partnership, removing complexity while providing a trusted foundation at scale. With Nutanix, we're extending that value by expanding customer choice and flexibility-while preserving the operational models and investments teams already rely on."

Maciej Kranz, General Manager, Enterprise, Pure Storage

What FlashStack with Nutanix means for existing Cisco UCS customers

If you already run Cisco UCS, FlashStack with Nutanix gives you one of the most flexible and investment-protecting modernization paths available in the industry.

Unlike other approaches that require new hardware or tightly coupled node configurations, FlashStack with Nutanix allows you to continue using a broad range of your existing UCS systems, including generations as far back as the B200 M5. This backward compatibility is a unique advantage Cisco brings to the partnership and ensures that you can modernize without disruption.

With FlashStack with Nutanix, as a Cisco customer, you can:

• Run Nutanix Cloud Platform on your existing UCS X-Series, C-Series, or B-Series servers, bringing AHV and Nutanix's simplified virtualization model to infrastructure you already own.
• Choose when-and what-to refresh, thanks to decoupled compute and storage that allow independent upgrade cycles.
• Avoid new capital investments if you are already running FlashArray with UCS because you can add Nutanix without replacing hardware.
• Introduce new workloads on a validated, converged architecture while preserving your current compute and storage platforms.
• Continue managing your environment using Cisco Intersight, extending policy-based operations and lifecycle automation across both existing and new systems.

This solution delivers clear, tangible value. You can modernize your virtualization and storage architecture without discarding proven UCS investments, while gaining more flexibility in how-and when-you scale.

What FlashStack with Nutanix means for existing Pure Storage customers

If you're already a Pure Storage FlashArray customer running Cisco UCS-based FlashStack, this new solution gives you a clear, low-risk path to add Nutanix. You can:

• Run Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure and Nutanix AHV on Cisco UCS with your existing FlashArray systems, gaining hypervisor choice and a simplified operations model from Nutanix without discarding your current storage investment.
• Use FlashStack with Nutanix as a landing zone for demanding, mission-critical workloads, while keeping your storage architecture intact.
• Extend familiar FlashStack operational processes, while maintaining a unified operational experience across compute, storage, and cloud platforms.

In short, as a Pure Storage customer, you gain hypervisor flexibility and simplified operations while continuing to take full advantage of your existing FlashArray environment.

What FlashStack with Nutanix means for existing Nutanix customers

If you're already a Nutanix customer, FlashStack with Nutanix opens a new path toward a disaggregated compute-and-storage architecture-without giving up the Nutanix experience you rely on. You can:

• Add or scale Cisco UCS X-Series, C-Series, and B-Series compute nodes independently with NCI or NCI-C licensing, and then attach external Pure Storage FlashArray for shared, high-performance storage.
• Scale compute precisely for demanding workloads, without over-provisioning storage on each node.
• Keep the same Nutanix Cloud Platform operating model: Prism, automation, and integrated data services, now extended across a converged stack.

For Nutanix customers, this solution is about architectural freedom-gaining more control over how you scale, modernize, and optimize total cost of ownership.

Watch FlashStack with Nutanix in action (01:36)

 

Operational consistency, end-to-end

FlashStack with Nutanix is designed to simplify day-to-day operations by unifying visibility, policy, and lifecycle management across Cisco Intersight, Pure1, and Nutanix Prism. This gives IT teams a consistent operating experience across compute, storage, and cloud environments, reducing complexity and helping them deliver services faster.

Cisco, Pure Storage, and Nutanix: Stronger together

FlashStack with Nutanix represents the next step in building open, modular, ecosystem-driven infrastructure strategies.

Together, Cisco, Pure Storage, and Nutanix are committed to:

• Expanding architectural choice
• Preserving and extending existing UCS, FlashArray investments, and Nutanix Cloud Platform
• Delivering flexible, hybrid-ready infrastructure that adapts as business needs evolve

This is preintegrated modularity in action-validated end-to-end while still giving customers choice in how they design and grow.

What's next: Learn more and get started

FlashStack with Nutanix is available today. To learn more and explore the full architecture, benefits, and supporting content visit Cisco Compute Hyperconverged with Nutanix.

On behalf of Cisco, Pure Storage, and Nutanix, thank you for your continued trust. Together, we're helping you build a flexible, modern infrastructure foundation-one that adapts to what's next without requiring you to start over.

Learn more about FlashStack with Nutanix

Additional resources:

• Read the NAND Research Report on Cisco FlashStack with Nutanix
• Visit FlashStack from Cisco and Pure Storage