AWS Partner Network (APN) Blog
Accelerate US Federal cloud migrations with Nutanix GC2 on AWS GovCloud (US)
By: Mike Corey, WWPS Partner Solutions Architect – AWS
By: John Stockard, Public Sector Hybrid Multi-Cloud Systems Engineer – Nutanix
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Technologists in the US federal government and Department of War (DoW) face unique challenges in delivering secure, compliant, and cost-efficient cloud infrastructure and services for their programs. These organizations encounter several obstacles. They must balance stringent security requirements with IT modernization needs. They face increasing costs from VMware licensing changes. Additionally, they must manage hardware replacement and reduce data center footprints.
Many federal customers face constraints with the mission-critical applications they support. These applications run on outdated, unsupported, or legacy operating systems. Such systems are difficult to migrate to Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) or other AWS services. These organizations need a solution that bridges their current environment to the cloud while maintaining security and compliance requirements achieved on premises. At Amazon Web Services (AWS), we’re committed to helping our customers meet these challenges wherever they are in their cloud adoption journey.
Nutanix Government Cloud Clusters (GC2) on AWS GovCloud (US) provides a pathway, enabling Federal customers to accelerate their cloud adoption without compromising security or compliance. In this blog post, we’ll explore how GC2 helps Federal customers securely migrate their virtualized and containerized workloads to AWS GovCloud (US), with speed, simplicity, and efficiency.
Use cases for GC2 on AWS GovCloud (US)
Customers use GC2 to accelerate workload migrations to AWS GovCloud (US) and modernize applications faster and without compromise to compliance posture or regulation. GC2 enables the following common pathways to AWS GovCloud (US):
- Migrate and modernize applications with AWS GovCloud (US) – Accelerate migration to AWS by relocating workloads without refactoring or rewriting applications. Quickly get on-premises workloads to AWS virtualization and modernize applications with direct AWS service integrations.
- Hybrid cloud – Implement a single pane of glass to operate and manage your virtual machine workloads in your on-premises data center and GC2 on AWS GovCloud (US) environments.
- Disaster recovery (DR) to AWS GovCloud (US) – Configure GC2 on AWS GovCloud (US) for data replication to ensure rapid recovery of business-critical workloads during disaster recovery events. Take advantage of the global presence and elasticity of AWS for your DR configuration through a scalable and always-on pilot light recovery environment.
- On-demand capacity bursting – Traditional infrastructure requires weeks or months to purchase, install, and connect the necessary equipment and operationalize it on premises. With GC2, you can reduce hardware procurement lead time. It’s seamless to consume GC2 capacity when needed and return it when you don’t.
For more information, refer to Nutanix Use Cases.
GC2 on AWS GovCloud (US) architecture
GC2 deploys the complete Nutanix Cloud Platform directly on bare-metal EC2 instances, using EC2 instance store for primary Nutanix AOS Storage capacity. GC2 features built-in integration with Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). This integration allows direct consumption of cloud-based services from GC2 hosted workloads.
Federal customers can use familiar Nutanix tools across their hybrid environment, facilitating operational consistency between on-premises and AWS GovCloud (US) deployments. The inclusion of Nutanix Move facilitates smooth workload migration from existing infrastructure to GC2, minimizing operational disruption during transition periods.
The following diagram illustrates the Nutanix GC2 architecture, showing hybrid cloud integration with AWS services on AWS.
Figure 1: Nutanix GC2 architecture diagram
Benefits of GC2 on AWS GovCloud (US)
Nutanix GC2 on AWS GovCloud (US) offers enterprises a seamless hybrid cloud experience that bridges their on-premises Nutanix environment with the scalability and services of AWS.
The key benefits of the GC2 solution are:
Cluster management:
- A single console for private and AWS resources
- Burst into AWS to meet temporary increases in demand
- Use AWS for high availability and disaster recovery
- Simplified cluster deployment within customers’ VPC
Seamless application mobility:
- Direct lift and shift without application refactoring
- Consistent performance across environments
- Simplified virtual machine (VM) migration using Nutanix Move
- Maintain existing application configurations
Flexible cost control:
- Usage-based payment options for EC2 instances
- Multiple purchasing channels such as AWS Marketplace, Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC), or partners
- Use existing private pricing agreements and enterprise discounts
- Nutanix license portability and compatibility between on-premises infrastructure and GC2
Supported EC2 instances
Whether an organization is running a small department operation or managing massive defense programs, customers are provided the flexibility and choice for rightsizing GC2 clusters to balance cost and performance. These instance types provide varying combinations of compute, memory, and storage capabilities to match your workload requirements. Organizations can choose the appropriate instance type based on their specific performance needs and budget constraints.
The following table lists the EC2 bare-metal instance types supported by Nutanix in the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions.
Figure 2: Amazon EC2 support for Nutanix on AWS GovCloud (US)
GC2 also supports the following AWS tenancy options:
Default tenancy:
- Standard EC2 instance deployment
- Instances might migrate across hosts during power cycles
- Supports Windows Server License Included (LI) and Linux-only instances
Dedicated host:
- Fixed hardware allocation of EC2 instance
- Instances remain on assigned host through power cycles
- Enables use of existing software licenses (per-socket, per-core, or per-VM)
Migration paths
There are a few different paths enterprises can take to migrate to GC2 on AWS GovCloud (US):
- Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) to GC2 on AWS GovCloud (US) – Ideal for customers running the Nutanix AHV hypervisor on premises. Nutanix’s built-in replication capabilities enable VM replication from on-premises AHV to GC2. This maintains workload configurations and operational consistency on AWS GovCloud (US).
- On-premises ESXi to GC2 – Organizations running VMware on premises can also migrate to GC2 using the Nutanix Move application mobility tool. Nutanix Move converts VMs directly into AHV format and replicates the workloads for a streamlined migration from on premises to GC2 on AWS GovCloud (US).
- Microsoft technology to GC2 on AWS GovCloud (US) – Customers running Hyper-V or Microsoft Azure Cloud resources can migrate to GC2 by using Nutanix Move as well. The automated workload conversion maintains application consistency while consolidating workloads from multiple source locations.
Nutanix Move
For many enterprise customers, automated VM conversion and orchestrated migration are critical capabilities that make moving workloads to AWS far more straightforward.
Nutanix Move is a complimentary migration tool that streamlines workload transition to GC2 on AWS GovCloud (US). The tool automatically handles VM conversion from ESXi to AHV format while orchestrating the entire migration process from end to end. As a zero-cost solution, Move enables straightforward lift-and-shift operations, alleviating common migration barriers by automating conversion processes and coordinating data transfer. This enterprise-grade tool makes hybrid cloud adoption straightforward and efficient. Organizations can transition workloads seamlessly with minimal complexity and disruption.
Security and compliance
AWS GovCloud (US) provides the foundation and infrastructure controls that help organizations achieve and maintain critical compliance standards, including Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) High, Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS), International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), and Department of War Impact Levels 4/5—all essential for protecting sensitive government workloads.
Nutanix GC2 enhances these capabilities by deploying directly to the customer’s Amazon VPC, minimizing the complexity and scrutiny of a separate software-as-a-service (SaaS) control plane. This direct integration allows for seamless security consistency between on-premises and cloud environments. GC2 is deployed preconfigured with Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG) settings and aligns with NIST 800-53 standards. Combined with AWS GovCloud (US) support from US-based personnel, GC2 creates a comprehensive security framework that meets the demanding requirements of federal agencies. This means that organizations can embrace cloud scalability and innovation without compromising their security posture.
Most importantly, federal customers can use GC2 to confidently migrate their mission-critical workloads to AWS GovCloud (US) while maintaining the robust security controls and compliance standards established in their on-premises environments. This facilitates a more secure and compliance-aligned transition to the cloud without sacrificing operational security requirements.
Conclusion
Nutanix GC2 on AWS GovCloud (US) provides federal agencies with a path to accelerate their cloud adoption while meeting their mission requirements. The solution combines the familiarity of Nutanix operations with the innovation and scale of AWS GovCloud (US), so agencies can confidently migrate and modernize their mission-critical workloads.
Ready to get started?
To learn more about how GC2 can help your agency:
- Contact your AWS or Nutanix account teams
- Visit the Nutanix GC2 on AWS GovCloud (US) solution page
- Download the GC2 solution brief
Nutanix – AWS Partner Spotlight
Nutanix is an AWS Technology Partner. Nutanix Enterprise Cloud OS software melds private, public and distributed cloud operating environments and provides a single point of control to manage IT infrastructure and applications at any scale. Nutanix solutions are 100% software-based, and are built on the industry’s most popular hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) technology to power any application, at any scale.