'Public cloud is not a panacea' - Nutanix CEO

Nutanix's CEO concedes constraints to public cloud linger, even as the vendor unveils several updates to drive hybrid cloud growth at its annual global conference

Nutanix CEO Rajiv Ramaswami has said that many customers are "still trying to figure out" their public cloud strategies, pointing to cost, data governance issues and data security as key concerns standing in the way of adoption.

Ramaswami (pictured) was speaking at the US giant's annual global .NEXT digital conference where his team also unveiled a raft of updates affecting its channel.

"Public cloud is not this panacea, right?" he told CRN's sister publication CPI.

"Customers are still trying to figure out how to get the best out of the public cloud.

"There are constraints around data governance, data security, and regulatory considerations."

He added: "For example, in Europe, if you're in a financial vertical, you have to have an exit strategy even as you start to go into a public cloud.

"And then, more recently, there's also been a lot of focus around the cost of cloud."

In his keynote, Ramaswami spoke to Martin Casado, a general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz about this exactly.

Casado made waves earlier this year with a blog post in which he called public cloud "a trillion-dollar paradox".

He and co-author Sarah Wang suggested that the 50 biggest software companies lose around $100bn in market value due to the cost of public cloud on margins, in comparison to running on-prem architectures.

"We were talking about how the cost of operating in a public cloud is two times the cost of building your own infrastructure and operating it.

"And these are considerations that customers have to take into account carefully."

Ramaswami says the perennial scourge of the tech sector - the lack of enough appropriately skilled talent - is also at play here.

"For example, sometimes what you'll see is that at the top level, there is a strong desire to go to a public cloud, or do a cloud-like operating model. But then as you move down into the organisation, and try to understand the bits and bytes level of how to do it, then it becomes more complex."

Nutanix's leadership grants that the pace of adoption of public cloud has slowed in comparison to the grand promises hyperscalers made in recent years.

However, Ramaswami remains adamant that demand will grow, particularly for flexible, scalable platform options, and to sustain the explosion in SaaS applications demand.

Last year, IDC analysts found that SaaS applications were "the largest and most mature segment of public cloud with 2020 revenues of $148bn".

"I do think public cloud has got tonnes of useful capabilities," Ramaswami said.

"It's a great platform for building modern applications. And there's a tonne of services available in the public cloud. I do expect that this public cloud journey will continue to happen. And people are going to be looking for solutions to make it easier for them to go there.

"This is really our path forward as a company; to help our customers make it simpler to go and use the public cloud."