Nutanix Data Lens Demo

In the Nutanix presentation at AI Field Day 7, Mike McGhee showcased the capabilities of Nutanix Data Lens, a data analytics and cybersecurity tool designed to provide visibility across storage environments, including Nutanix file servers and third-party object stores like AWS S3. The tool collects and analyzes metadata—for example, file names, sizes, and data age—as well as real-time audit trails that track operations like reads, writes, and permission changes. Data Lens is tightly integrated with Nutanix storage solutions and will soon be bundled with their offerings for on-premises deployments, ensuring seamless operational data ingestion and monitoring without reliance on external scanning requests.

A major feature of Data Lens is its ransomware protection, which includes both signature-based detection using known file extensions from open source communities and behavioral analysis that identifies anomalous events like in-place or out-of-place encryption. This allows Data Lens to detect threats from unknown malware using intelligent algorithms trained on customer activity patterns. When threats are detected, Data Lens can log full user activity, block affected users or clients, and provide options for recovery that include restoring individual affected files or entire shares using recommended snapshots taken before the time of compromise. This detailed approach helps reduce false positives and accelerates recovery in the event of an attack.

In addition to its security functions, Nutanix emphasized the need for better tooling and data accessibility for platform engineering and end-users, particularly when supporting AI and DevOps workflows. Speakers stressed the importance of giving end-users API-level access to infrastructure components like databases, Kubernetes platforms, and AI services so they can manage and troubleshoot their workloads autonomously, without bottlenecks from IT. Nutanix’s broader ecosystem—including Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP), Nutanix Database Services (NDB), and Nutanix AI (NAI)—was presented as a robust infrastructure solution with integrated observability and automation features designed to empower users and admins alike with actionable insights and streamlined management.