Citrix-Nutanix vs VMware-EMC, Oracle-Xsigo?

nutanix

The VAR Guy’s bet is “no.” Sure, rumors about a Citrix-Nutanix deal have been swirling off and on for about two weeks. A major VMware channel partner called The VAR Guy earlier today, stating that the rumor mill had started to spin again.

Nutanix claims to be “the first company to offer a radically simple compute and storage building block for virtualizing datacenters without the need for network storage.” Nutanix goes on to say that it helps customers build SAN-free data centers. Read between the lines and Nutanix apparently wants to disrupt traditional storage companies like EMC and NetApp.

Nutanix has a small but growing channel partner program. The company also partners with both VMware and Citrix Systems.

So far, Nutanix has raised more than $38.2 million, and early customers include the U.S. Army and Samsung.

Is Citrix Buying Nutanix?

But back to the rumor: Is Citrix Systems buying Nutanix? The VAR Guy insists the answer is no. The reason: Much of Nutanix’s business is based on the company’s hardware platform, the Nutanix Complete Block. In stark contrast, Citrix Systems is a software and cloud company.

It’s extremely rare for software companies to buy their way into hardware markets — though Oracle bucked that reality by acquiring Sun Microsystems a few years back.

The VAR Guy reached out to Citrix and Nutanix for comment this evening. Technology companies typically decline comment about M&A rumors. If our resident blogger hears anything new he’ll be back with an update…