Xi IoT, local computing and machine inference and
Data services provided at the edge
On the 3rd, Nutanix announced a new edge computing service, ‘Xi IoT’.

Xi IoT, one of Nutanix's Xi cloud services, simplifies and integrates key Nutanix solutions, enabling developers to focus on building business-critical IoT applications and services.

In 2017, enterprise IoT edge devices generated 256 ZB of data, more than 30 times the total data generated by the 30 million+ nodes in public and private cloud data centers.

However, the current IoT model, which transfers massive amounts of data generated by edge devices to a central cloud for processing, limits businesses' ability to make real-time, actionable decisions based on insights gained from the edge.

Today, enterprises face latency issues, lack of scalability and autonomy, and compliance and privacy concerns when extracting value from vast amounts of data.

Unlike traditional IoT models, Xi IoT leverages local computing and machine inference. It provides data services at the edge and implements real-time processing.

The Xi IoT Data Pipeline securely moves analyzed data to the appropriate platform, either public (Azure, AWS, or GCP) or private cloud, based on long-term analysis needs. Because both edge and core cloud environments operate on the same data and management layer, you gain flexible and simple insights into your enterprise environment.

Xi IoT provides zero-touch installation and management of edge devices, eliminating the risk of IoT security breaches caused by human error, improving overall efficiency, and reducing edge device operating costs.

“It is critical for enterprise organizations to have an edge strategy that integrates connectivity between the edge and the cloud to build IoT applications and run real-time analytics where the data originates,” said Ashish Nadkarni, vice president, Infrastructure Systems, Platforms and Technologies Group, IDC. “Solutions like Nutanix Xi IoT can help enterprises stay ahead of the market and identify new business growth opportunities.”

Xi IoT enables customers to manage all edge locations without platform constraints with sophisticated infrastructure and application lifecycle management tools.

Developers can build next-generation data science applications in the form of containerized applications or short-code Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) within a rich environment of frequently used open APIs. This can be integrated into your existing CI/CD pipeline, allowing you to quickly deploy changes from a single location.

By leveraging Xi IoT's familiar framework, IT organizations can reduce training, development, and testing costs while avoiding lock-in to specific public cloud providers. Furthermore, data is processed in real time at the edge, eliminating the need to move data to a central data center for processing, enabling real-time, data-driven decision-making.

Xi Cloud Services, comprised of five key services including Leap, address the challenges of the multi-cloud era. They standardize workflows, harmonize operations across all environments, and break down cloud boundaries, enabling flexible application and data utilization across multiple clouds with different data protection, application delivery, and edge location requirements.

With Nutanix Enterprise, customers can benefit from:

Xi Leap is a cloud-based disaster recovery (DR) service that protects critical business applications and data. It is available directly from Nutanix Prism and provides integration between public and private clouds.

Xi Frame is a unique Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) platform designed for cloud environments and integrates role-based access control.

Xi Beam is a multi-cloud cost optimization and governance tool that helps customers reduce costs and improve cloud security across multiple platforms, public, and private environments.

Xi Epoch is a surveillance and monitoring solution for multi-cloud applications that provides Google Maps-like views into applications, enabling them to detect performance bottlenecks and availability issues across all cloud environments.

Nutanix Xi IoT is now available as part of the Nutanix Xi cloud service, initially targeting manufacturing, retail, oil and gas, healthcare, and smart city markets.

Nutanix Leap is currently available in the US East and West Coast regions. Support will expand to the UK in Q1 2019.