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.NEXT on Tour Johannesburg highlights a broader technology agenda spanning applications, cloud, data and enterprise AI
South African organisations are entering a new phase of infrastructure modernisation, with technology leaders looking beyond traditional virtualisation to address the growing demands of cloud, modern applications, data management and enterprise artificial intelligence (AI).
This changing landscape was at the heart of Nutanix .NEXT on Tour Johannesburg, hosted at The Galleria in Sandton, where customers, partners and technology leaders gathered to examine how businesses can modernise their infrastructure while managing cost, complexity, security and evolving technology requirements.
While virtualisation remains an important component of enterprise infrastructure, the conversation is increasingly expanding beyond the hypervisor. Organisations are assessing how existing investments can operate alongside cloud-native applications, modern databases and AI, while considering where workloads and data should reside and how new capabilities can be introduced without creating additional technology silos.
At the Johannesburg event, Nutanix showcased an incremental approach to modernisation, allowing organisations to continue supporting existing virtualised environments while introducing cloud-native applications, modern database services and AI without having to establish a separate operating model for each.
The company’s approach is built around a consistent platform spanning datacentres, cloud and edge, allowing workloads to move as business, technology and regulatory requirements change.
“Modernisation can no longer be reduced to a conversation about replacing one virtualisation platform with another,” said Marco Vieira, Regional Sales Manager, SADC at Nutanix. “That may be where the conversation starts, but customers are also thinking about how they modernise applications, how they manage Kubernetes, what happens to their databases, where AI will run and how all of this works across their cloud environments. Our opportunity is to help them look at that as one infrastructure strategy rather than a series of separate technology projects.”
Building momentum through customers and partners
The event also highlighted Nutanix’s growing engagement with customers and partners across the South African market, including organisations developing services and capabilities around its platform.
“South Africa is an important market for Nutanix because there is a very practical conversation taking place here about what modernisation needs to deliver for the business,” said Raif Abou Diab, Regional Director, South Gulf, Oman & Sub-Saharan Africa at Nutanix.
“Customers want choice, but they also need consistency. They want to take advantage of cloud, containers and AI without creating another layer of operational complexity. Our continued investment in the market, together with the capabilities our partners are building around Nutanix, is about giving customers a credible path between where their infrastructure is today and where they want to take it next.”
Among the partners participating at the event was Strategix, which supported .NEXT on Tour Johannesburg as a sponsor and has aligned its infrastructure strategy more closely with Nutanix.
Strategix Managing Director Steve Dalgarno said organisations are facing simultaneous pressures from rising technology costs, increasing security threats and growing investment in AI.
“Internationally we have seen technology costs rise sharply, putting both private and public cloud budgets under increasing pressure. At the same time, security threats are growing rapidly and organisations are being asked to invest in AI. Simply replacing one virtualisation platform with another doesn’t solve these challenges,” said Dalgarno.
He added that organisations require hybrid cloud strategies that provide greater control over cost, security and data while retaining flexibility over where workloads are deployed.
“That was central to our decision to add Nutanix to the Strategix portfolio. It enables us to help customers simplify their cloud environments, strengthen resilience and prepare for AI, while reducing complexity and giving the business greater freedom to innovate on their own Nutanix Private Cloud, or in the Strategix Secure First Cloud,” he said.
From infrastructure to AI
The broader .NEXT programme reflected the changing priorities of enterprise technology, with sessions covering modern infrastructure across the datacentre, edge and hybrid cloud, Kubernetes and cloud-native applications, database modernisation and enterprise AI.
Jason Langone, Global AI Director at Nutanix, explored the economics and trust considerations surrounding agentic AI, including enterprise approaches to model choice, inference and resilience, as well as the growing need to govern how AI agents interact with corporate tools and data.
The keynote programme also examined Nutanix’s approach to providing a consistent foundation for applications, data and AI across virtualised and containerised environments.
“The answer to every new technology requirement cannot be another layer of infrastructure,” said Sammy Zoghlami, SVP EMEA at Nutanix. “CIOs have to create the conditions for innovation while still managing the complexity already inside the enterprise. That means building a foundation that can support traditional applications, modern applications and AI in the environments that make sense for the business, rather than creating another silo every time the technology changes.”
As South African organisations continue to reassess their infrastructure strategies, the Johannesburg edition of .NEXT on Tour underscored a broader shift: modernisation is increasingly being considered not as a single technology replacement, but as an ongoing strategy for bringing infrastructure, applications, data, cloud and AI together.
About .NEXT on Tour
.NEXT on Tour is the regional extension of Nutanix’s flagship global .NEXT conference, bringing customers, partners, industry leaders and technology experts together in major cities around the world.
The event shares technology developments and perspectives from the global .NEXT stage while providing a forum for discussions around the priorities and technology requirements of each local market.