Harvester vs Nutanix – Evolving Cloud Management Solutions
Dec 02nd, 2025 | 9 min read
Table Of Contents
- Harvester - A Flexible HCI Platform
- Nutanix - A Strong Private Cloud Platform
- Harvester vs Nutanix - Comparing Hybrid Cloud & Virtualization Solutions
- Running Postgres on Harvester vs Nutanix
- How Simplyblock Optimizes Storage for Harvester and Nutanix
- Get the Best Platform for Your Infrastructure - Harvester, Nutanix, or Both
- See Other Comparisons :
- Questions and answers
With cloud infrastructure rapidly evolving, businesses face the challenge of selecting the right solution. Harvester, an open-source hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) platform, simplifies the management of both VMs and cloud-native applications. In contrast, Nutanix offers an enterprise-grade private cloud solution, designed for robust virtualization, high availability, and scalable performance.
Understanding their unique features and capabilities will help you determine which platform best suits your needs—whether you’re managing a hybrid cloud or building a private cloud infrastructure.
Harvester – A Flexible HCI Platform
Harvester is an open-source hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) platform that integrates compute, storage, and networking into a single, unified solution. Designed for VM management and cloud-native application orchestration, it offers a streamlined approach to managing hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments.
With native integration for Kubernetes, Harvester makes it easy to manage VMs and containers in parallel, providing businesses with the flexibility to scale and optimize their infrastructure. Harvester is well-suited for companies seeking a lightweight, flexible solution for managing diverse workloads.
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Key Features of Harvester
Harvester offers a set of features that make it an excellent choice for businesses looking to simplify infrastructure management.
- Harvester integrates natively with Kubernetes, enabling easy management of cloud-native applications alongside traditional VMs.
- Combines compute, storage, and networking in one platform, reducing complexity and streamlining management.
- As an open-source solution, Harvester provides businesses with full control, customization, and no vendor lock-in.
- Scale infrastructure dynamically based on workload demand, ensuring resources are efficiently allocated.
Harvester for Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure
Harvester is optimized for managing hybrid cloud environments, where businesses need to orchestrate VMs and cloud-native workloads seamlessly.
- Easily deploy and manage workloads across public and private clouds, creating a unified infrastructure.
- Harvester offers distributed storage to simplify resource management and ensure high performance across hybrid environments.
- The platform provides a centralized interface for managing both VMs and containers, improving operational efficiency.
- Reduce infrastructure costs with Harvester’s efficient resource utilization and scaling capabilities.
Managing Virtualized and Cloud-Native Workloads with Harvester
Harvester is well-suited for businesses that need to manage both virtualized workloads and cloud-native applications in tandem, offering flexibility and integration.
- Manage VMs and cloud-native workloads from a single interface, making it easier to balance resource allocation.
- Easily deploy and manage VMs in hybrid environments without the complexity of separate systems.
- Harvester ensures high performance for Kubernetes-driven applications, providing a smooth experience for containerized environments.
- Harvester automates many infrastructure tasks, reducing operational overhead and simplifying scaling.
Nutanix – A Strong Private Cloud Platform
Nutanix is an enterprise-grade HCI solution designed for managing private cloud environments. It integrates compute, storage, and networking into a unified platform that simplifies infrastructure management. Nutanix allows businesses to manage both virtual machines (VMs) and cloud-native applications in a highly scalable and reliable environment.
It’s an ideal solution for organizations that require enterprise-level virtualization, high availability, and seamless integration with multi-cloud environments, making it a popular choice for businesses looking to modernize their IT infrastructure.
Core Capabilities of Nutanix
Nutanix brings several capabilities that make it an excellent choice for private cloud and virtualized workloads management.
- Nutanix converges compute, storage, and networking to simplify management and improve efficiency across private cloud environments.
- Supports VMware, Hyper-V, and Nutanix AHV for virtualization, providing businesses with flexibility in managing their infrastructure.
- Seamlessly integrates with public cloud services, allowing businesses to extend their private cloud to a hybrid or multi-cloud setup.
- Nutanix offers disaster recovery and data protection features, ensuring business continuity for mission-critical workloads.
Nutanix for Private Cloud Management
Nutanix is designed for businesses seeking to manage private cloud infrastructures with full control over their resources and deployment.
- Offers tools for businesses to build and manage a private cloud with complete control over their compute, storage, and networking resources.
- Nutanix simplifies the management of VMs, making it ideal for businesses with virtualized workloads.
- Nutanix supports integration with public cloud services like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, enabling hybrid and multi-cloud solutions.
- Built with high availability and fault tolerance to ensure that your workloads remain operational even during outages.
Nutanix’s Scalability and Performance
Nutanix is built for scalability, allowing businesses to easily scale their private cloud infrastructure based on workload demand.
- Scale both compute and storage resources dynamically, adapting to the growing needs of your infrastructure.
- Nutanix ensures efficient resource utilization, optimizing both hardware and storage for high-performance workloads.
- Supports demanding workloads with high throughput, low latency, and reliable performance for enterprise applications.
- Nutanix’s centralized management allows businesses to monitor and manage their infrastructure at scale across multiple sites.
Harvester vs Nutanix – Comparing Hybrid Cloud & Virtualization Solutions
Harvester and Nutanix cater to different infrastructure needs. This comparison helps identify which platform is best suited for your organization’s workload management needs, whether you’re looking to optimize hybrid cloud or focus on private cloud virtualization.
| Category | Harvester | Nutanix |
| Platform Focus | Open-source HCI, managing both VMs and cloud-native workloads | Private cloud infrastructure with integrated HCI for enterprise virtualization |
| Ideal Use Cases | Hybrid cloud, multi-cloud environments, and cloud-native apps | Private cloud management, enterprise-grade IaaS, VMs, and high-availability applications |
| Core Technology | Built on KVM and integrates with Kubernetes | Built on VMware, Hyper-V, and Nutanix AHV for virtualization |
| Scalability | Easily scales VMs and cloud-native workloads | Scales private cloud, VMs, and enterprise applications |
| Deployment | Hybrid and multi-cloud environments | Private cloud and hybrid cloud |
| Storage Management | Integrated storage for VMs and containers | Block and object storage for VMs and cloud environments |
| Best For | Organizations with a focus on cloud-native workloads and VM management | Businesses needing enterprise-grade private cloud infrastructure and VMs |
Running Postgres on Harvester vs Nutanix
Running Postgres on Harvester offers easy integration with Kubernetes, optimizing cloud-native environments. In contrast, Nutanix provides strong support for VM-based Postgres deployments, ensuring high availability and scalability in private cloud infrastructures.
If Postgres is the main workload you care about, it’s often easier to treat it as a platform rather than something you hand-roll on top of your virtualization choice. Vela is a Postgres platform by Simplyblock that runs on Kubernetes, providing high-performance PostgreSQL with built-in automation, backups, and scaling.
How Simplyblock Optimizes Storage for Harvester and Nutanix
Simplyblock integrates seamlessly with both Harvester and Nutanix, offering scalable, high-performance storage solutions. It advances VM and cloud-native workload management in hybrid cloud environments, ensuring reliable and optimized storage performance across Kubernetes, VMs, and enterprise applications.
Designed for Harvester
- Simplyblock provides high-performance storage for VMs running in Harvester environments.
- Native integration with Kubernetes ensures optimized storage for cloud-native applications and containers.
- Effortlessly scale storage as Harvester infrastructure grows to meet expanding workload demands.
- Centralized storage management for both VMs and containerized workloads, simplifying infrastructure.
Optimized for Nutanix
- Simplyblock delivers high-throughput block storage for VMs in Nutanix environments.
- Seamlessly integrates with hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments, offering flexibility.
- Ensures continuous high availability and minimizes downtime for critical business applications.
- Offers compatibility across private and public cloud infrastructures, optimizing resource utilization.
A Unified Storage Platform for Both
- Manage storage resources seamlessly across Harvester and Nutanix in hybrid cloud setups.
- Maintain consistent performance for VMs and cloud-native workloads across both platforms.
- Simplify resource management across hybrid cloud environments, reducing operational complexity.
- Scale storage resources efficiently, meeting the growing demands of your multi-cloud infrastructure.
Get the Best Platform for Your Infrastructure – Harvester, Nutanix, or Both
Deciding between Harvester, Nutanix, or using both depends on your organization’s needs.
- Harvester is perfect for managing cloud-native workloads and VMs across hybrid cloud environments, providing flexibility and open-source control.
- Nutanix excels in private cloud management, delivering enterprise-grade capabilities for VMs, disaster recovery, and high availability.
Using both allows businesses to run both VM-based and cloud-native applications efficiently, with Simplyblock providing unified, scalable storage solutions for both platforms, ensuring performance and seamless management.
See Other Comparisons :
Take a look at how these platforms measure up:
Questions and answers
Harvester is better suited for managing hybrid and multi-cloud environments, offering flexibility to manage both VMs and cloud-native workloads in a unified platform. Nutanix can handle hybrid cloud scenarios as well, but it excels in managing private cloud infrastructures and virtualized environments with high availability and scalability.
Yes, you can use both platforms in tandem, especially for businesses that require both hybrid cloud management and private cloud virtualization. Harvester can manage cloud-native applications and VMs in a hybrid setup, while Nutanix can provide robust support for private cloud infrastructure, enterprise applications, and high availability. Simplyblock can integrate seamlessly with both platforms to provide unified storage.
Harvester is specifically optimized for managing cloud-native workloads alongside virtual machines. It integrates directly with Kubernetes, making it ideal for managing containerized applications. Nutanix, while capable of handling both VMs and cloud-native applications, is more focused on virtualized environments and does not have the same level of native integration with Kubernetes as Harvester.
Nutanix is built with enterprise scalability and high availability in mind, supporting both compute and storage resources dynamically to meet growing demands. It also offers disaster recovery and fault tolerance for mission-critical workloads. Harvester also supports scalability, but Nutanix provides more robust features for enterprise-grade performance and continuous uptime across private cloud environments.
Simplyblock optimizes storage for both Harvester and Nutanix by offering scalable, high-performance storage solutions. For Harvester, Simplyblock integrates with Kubernetes, ensuring optimized storage for cloud-native applications. For Nutanix, Simplyblock provides high-throughput block storage that ensures continuous high availability and scalability across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.