Re: Nutanix => Supermicro reseller + ZFS + Flash PCI
The WSJ did not write the article in the link your link. It is Nutanix PR, released through WSJ wires and the news outlets.
Saw another startup do similar, through WSJ, and then send a message through Twitter to make it look like WSJ has coverage. Slimy.
The PR information is also not accurate. Nuova's UCS did development for 3 years(2006-9) and launched via Cisco sales force, which created a $1+b business in the same time period that Nutanix generated $80m. Key differences: Nuova created all the IP and engineered HW . The reason why liquid computing and Egenera and other HW startups died will be the problem with Nutanix--burn rate and inventory management--not lack of revenue (unless the VC can sell this pig). From what I gather, Nutanix and VC team learned from the fallen server start-ups and modeled their burn rate longer, by doing what looks like minimal HW engineering design. Instead of heavy HW engineering, screw a shiny bezel onto the whitebox of the week.
My press release would say :
Nutanix is tops in the Computer Reseller Network report, but can they ever be cash flow positive?
or
Whitebox reseller is paying channel resellers a premium to resell commodity HW bundled with ZFS (and Nutanix value-add). Is VC subsidizing a channel pyramid scheme, for a sale?
That $70m VC funding is burning 4 years in, especially when they can't sell commodity x86 for a premium (and nobody can). 100-200 employees(and growing) + a "HW" inventory burns quicker as more selling happens. Even if 1 customer stepped up and became half the install base. that customer certainly didn't help the profitability. Especially when the sales team/channel partner hit payday(=money out the door). The sales manager will probably be the only millionaire that comes out of this mess.
When the VC closes the door on Nutanix, they will have minimal IP to sell in the bankruptcy court. The VC's other bet is Pure Storage which is creating IP. This company is not a whitebox reseller and will be interesting to see where it goes. If it doesn't work out, they can at least get IP.