GCP – Nutanix NC2 is now officially supported on Google Cloud

Today, we are thrilled to announce Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) is generally available on Google Cloud.

NC2 on Google Cloud is designed to migrate and modernize specialized, regulated, and mission-critical applications without refactoring your workloads or compromising on performance. This partnership brings the power of Google Cloud’s infrastructure and advanced AI models to your hybrid cloud, without compromising on data residency, connectivity, or operational consistency. You can now run your Nutanix Hybrid Cloud directly on Google Compute Engine.

“The General Availability of Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on Google Cloud is a significant milestone empowering our joint customers to become AI-ready. We are excited to extend the simplicity and resilience of Nutanix NC2 onto Google Cloud’s high-performance workload-optimized compute. Nutanix on Google Cloud enables our customers to migrate and modernize their critical workloads while unlocking the full power of Google’s industry-leading data and AI capabilities.” – Saveen Pakala, VP, Product Management, Hybrid Cloud, Nutanix

Nutanix and Google Cloud allow you to maximize agility and minimize disruption for your critical applications. By combining NC2’s enterprise flexibility with Google Cloud’s power, you gain access to three core advantages. First, your workloads run on Compute Engine’s dynamically scalable workload-optimized infrastructure powering all machine families. Nutanix NC2 supports Compute Engine bare metal instances in the Z3 and C4 families. These are powered by the Titanium offload system and leverage Titanium SSDs for low-latency, high-throughput storage performance, hosted in Google Cloud with global reach, enterprise-grade security, and commitment to sustainability. Second, you accelerate AI innovation by co-locating data and machine learning services like Gemini Enterprise and Vertex AI. Finally, you can save costs by dynamically scaling capacity and  utilizing committed use discounts (CUDs) and Flex CUDs.

Key use cases to accelerate your cloud journey

The integration of NC2 on Google Cloud offers flexible, strategic options for hybrid cloud operations. Beyond consolidation and cost control, these capabilities set the stage for true modernization:

• Seamless workload migration: Move entire applications between your on-premises Nutanix environment and Google Cloud without re-factoring or re-architecting. This capability saves significant time during data center consolidation.

• Consistent operations: Maintain the same management plane, security policies, and automation across your private data center and Google Cloud, which dramatically reduces operational complexity and training costs.

• Disaster recovery (DR): Leverage Google Cloud as a robust and cost-efficient recovery target. Usage of a minimal “pilot light” cluster reduces compute costs, so you scale up only when a disaster event occurs.

• Capacity bursting: Instantly add capacity in the cloud to handle seasonal demands, VDI workloads, development/test cycles, or requirements from mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

• License portability: Protect your software investments by easily moving your existing Nutanix software licenses to Google Cloud as your business needs evolve.

“Like many others, we are always on a journey to modernize and shift to achieve the best outcomes for our customers. Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on Google Cloud brings us a solid platform to continue our hybrid cloud expansion. Our ability to seamlessly run workloads on-premises and on NC2 on Google Cloud without having to re-factor is increasingly valuable as we continue our modernization journey. We look forward to continuing our strong partnership with Google Cloud and Nutanix.” – VP of IT at a global oil & gas company based in Oklahoma

The architecture 

NC2 on Compute Engine simplifies building a hybrid cloud by deploying the Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) software stack, including the Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV), directly onto high-performance Compute Engine infrastructure.

The key components of the solution include:

• Compute Engine instances: NC2 runs on Google Compute Engine bare metal instances in the recently introduced C4 and Z3 machine families. These powerful instances provide the foundation with high-density compute, memory, local NVMe storage, and high network bandwidth.

• Simplified networking : NC2 runs entirely within your existing Google Cloud Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). Built-in Nutanix Flow Virtual Networking for overlay is integrated to reduce hybrid cloud complexity. 

• Unified management: The entire environment, both on-premises and in Google Cloud, is managed through the familiar Prism Central console, simplifying day-to-day operations and skill requirements for your IT teams.

• Easy procurement: Later this month, you’ll be able to purchase Nutanix NC2 licensing directly from Google Cloud Marketplace . This offers a single, unified billing experience for both your Google Cloud infrastructure and Nutanix NC2, in one simple process. A key benefit is the ability to use your existing Google Cloud spend commitments for Nutanix NC2 software. This helps you maximize your investment and streamline your financial operations, providing more value from your cloud budget.

Connect your data to Google Cloud AI and analytics

A significant modernization opportunity comes from connecting your stable, trusted Nutanix workloads with Google Cloud’s powerful data and AI tools. Your applications running on NC2 can tap directly into services like BigQuery and Vertex AI with low latency, enabling you to:

• Derive deeper business value: Easily send application log data, transactional records, and other operational data from your Nutanix VMs to BigQuery for real-time, scalable data warehousing and complex analysis.

• Build custom machine learning models: Use Vertex AI to create, deploy, and manage custom ML models that analyze data generated by your core applications (e.g., predictive maintenance or fraud detection).

• Use conversational AI: Quickly build and deploy conversational agents using technologies like Dialogflow that interact directly with the application data residing on your NC2 cluster.

Ready to simplify your cloud operations?

NC2 on Google Cloud is currently available  across 17 Google Cloud regions, with a planned expansion continuing through 2026. For precise details on regional and zonal availability, please check the official Google Compute Engine bare metal regional availability documentation, and reference the Compute Engine pricing page for infrastructure costs. To learn more about the solution, try taking a test drive or visit Nutanix partner page. Available later this month, you will be able to explore NC2 on Google Cloud licensing through the Google Cloud Marketplace.