Gregg Lowe, CIO of Boyd Gaming, a company operating 28 hotel and casino properties in the United States, has expressed his satisfaction with the decision to migrate from VMware to Nutanix. This strategic move, which began 18 months ago, has been successfully completed in all of the company’s facilities.
Lowe was in the midst of negotiating a new enterprise agreement with VMware when Broadcom announced its acquisition of the company. At the same time, Nutanix was already part of Boyd Gaming’s ecosystem with its free AHV hypervisor. This led the company to evaluate both options and ultimately opt for Nutanix for its future infrastructure needs.
Although the migration process presented challenges and some delays, Lowe is convinced that he would have faced larger issues if he had stayed with VMware. “When Broadcom acquired Computer Associates, they halted a lot of innovation,” Lowe recalled during the Nutanix NEXT conference in Barcelona, anticipating that the same could happen with VMware.
Broadcom has promised to invest an additional $1 billion in research and development in VMware, hoping to enhance user experience and product integration in future versions of its Cloud Foundation suite. However, Lowe remains skeptical and satisfied with his decision to switch to Nutanix.
Boyd Gaming is on the verge of completing its migration to Nutanix AHV, allowing them to focus on innovation. The hospitality company manages a wide portfolio of applications in its gaming, hotel, and convention businesses, as well as point of sale applications and a large fleet of devices.
Lowe and his team are developing an augmented reality (AR) application for their slot machines, which will allow players to use headphones or devices to obtain information about the machines, such as the time elapsed since the last jackpot. Additionally, this application will allow players to pause their session and resume with the same balance and status.
During the Nutanix conference, Lowe participated in a panel on the migration to AHV, a topic of interest given that VMware has implemented changes in its licensing that have generated criticism for price increases. Nutanix is presented as an attractive alternative for companies seeking a more flexible and cost-effective infrastructure.
Rajiv Ramaswami, CEO of Nutanix, highlighted that the change in ownership and VMware’s new licensing strategy represent a risk for their customers, suggesting that Nutanix is a safer and more efficient option. Michael Parks, Executive Vice President of Platforms at Wells Fargo, also endorsed Nutanix during his speech, mentioning that the company has improved database performance by 1,000%.
Paul Booth, Head of Hybrid Cloud Services at the UK Department for Work and Pensions, added that the flexible and adaptable nature of Nutanix solutions has been key in managing their variable workloads.
With these testimonials and results, Nutanix reinforces its position as a reliable technology partner and a preferred option for the migration of critical infrastructures, demonstrating that it can offer a significant competitive advantage in an ever-evolving market.