Nutanix CEO Rajiv Ramaswami explains his plans to win the ‘decade of platform wars,’ along with Nutanix’s AI strategy and partner investments slated for 2026 as part of CRN’s CEO Outlook 2026 project.
Nutanix CEO Rajiv Ramaswami plans on winning what he calls the age of “platform wars” via new Nutanix innovation in 2026, alongside bold AI ambitions and partner investments this year.
“We’re entering a decade of platform wars, where success won’t hinge on individual features but on the strength and flexibility of the entire platform,” said Ramaswami, president and CEO of Nutanix, as part of CRN’s CEO Outlook 2026 project.
“The fastest path to innovation will come from platforms that embrace openness: choice of containers, choice of LLMs and choice of GPUs,” Ramaswami said. “This will present an opportunity for Nutanix to solve more customer pain points with our complete platform solution.”
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Nutanix’s 2026 AI And Partner Strategy
The San Jose, Calif.-based cloud platform and software specialist plans to invest in driving ease and simplicity for its services partners this year.
“We’re investing in capabilities that make it easier for our service provider partners to offer scalable, managed versions of those services on behalf of customers [in 2026],” Ramaswami said.
On the artificial intelligence front, Nutanix’s CEO said AI adoption will rise this year as enterprises seek “the most productive ways to process AI-related data locally.”
“2026 will be the year that businesses move from AI-first to AI-smart,” Ramaswami said. “As a result, we’ll be having much more robust and mature conversations about where AI actually makes sense in enterprises’ tech stacks.”
Nutanix generated $670 million in revenue during its first fiscal year quarter 2026, up 13 percent year over year. Annual recurring revenue (ARR) reached $2.28 billion in the quarter, up 18 percent year over year.
In written responses as part of CRN’s 2026 CEO Outlook project, Ramaswami explains the biggest market opportunities for Nutanix and partners in 2026, his company’s AI strategy and Nutanix key investments this year.
What is the biggest market opportunity you and your channel partners will tackle together in 2026?
We’re entering a decade of platform wars, where success won’t hinge on individual features but on the strength and flexibility of the entire platform.
In 2026, I anticipate that enterprises will increasingly be looking to deploy an integrated software platform over separate proprietary hardware piece parts.
The fastest path to innovation will come from platforms that embrace openness: choice of containers, choice of LLMs and choice of GPUs. Vendors that can integrate these options seamlessly and rapidly will be the ones that win in this new era.
This will present an opportunity for Nutanix to solve more customer pain points with our complete platform solution.
What are the key technology investments you plan to make in 2026?
As AI adoption continues to rise in 2026, enterprises will look to find the most productive ways to process AI-related data locally.
As a result, businesses will look to global management solutions with integrated security and resilient edge architectures to help keep this in check.
We’re also investing in capabilities that make it easier for our service provider partners to offer scalable, managed versions of those services on behalf of customers.
What impact do you expect AI to have on the business you and your partners do together in 2026?
2026 will be the year that businesses move from AI-first to AI-smart.
As a result, we’ll be having much more robust and mature conversations about where AI actually makes sense in enterprises’ tech stacks.
We’re prepared to help guide our customers through these processes and stay ahead of the evolving AI landscape.
What is the key to success for your channel partners in 2026?
Our top priority is to stay closely aligned with our partners to solve real customer problems by building well-integrated solutions and taking them to market together.
We’re looking for partners who bring their expertise, understand where our platform is headed and engage customers alongside us.
When we have alignment, customers benefit, and the partnership naturally works better for everyone.
Fill in the blank: My top priority for 2026 is:
Continuing our efforts for Nutanix to be the trusted and flexible platform for running workloads anywhere.
Customers are operating virtual machines, containers,and AI workloads across on-premises, cloud, and edge environments, and they require consistency, control, security and predictable economics.
Our focus is on giving customers a consistent and simple way to run and manage their modern applications across distributed environments.
What do you see as the toughest challenges facing customers in 2026?
In 2025, many enterprises jumped on the AI bandwagon without thinking about the long-term impacts or properly anticipating the real business use cases.
Similar to the initial rush to cloud-first adoption several years ago, businesses are going to spend 2026 re-evaluating their technology stacks to truly see where AI makes sense.
For many organizations, it will be like starting back at the beginning, but we plan to be there for them every step of the way.