General Discovery (Q-GEN)
Q-GEN-01Current Infrastructure Baseline
Ask
"Walk me through your current infrastructure at a high level. How many sites, how many hosts, what's the hypervisor and storage stack, what's the rough VM count?"
Listen forScale, complexity, vendor mix, age of the deployment.
Branches
- If they have a clean inventory: Great; ask for specifics. Reasonable assumption: this is a mature ops team.
- If they don't: That itself is information. Discovery will take longer; offer to use RVTools or similar to help inventory.
Q-GEN-02Pain Points and Triggers
Ask
"What's prompting this conversation? What's not working today, or what's about to change?"
Listen forThe actual reason they're considering Nutanix. Refresh timing. Specific pain (cost, performance, complexity, vendor relationship). Sometimes a recent incident.
Branches
- "VMware renewal pricing": Licensing-driven. Use Q-ECON questions and frame around 5-year TCO comparison.
- "DR doesn't work": DR-driven. Lead with NC2 conversation and Recovery Plans demo.
- "Storage refresh": Storage-led. Lead with consolidation story (Files / Objects / Volumes).
- "Just exploring": No urgency yet. Discovery-only mode for now; build relationship for next refresh.
Q-GEN-03Budget Cycle and Decision-Makers
Ask
"Help me understand your decision process. Who needs to be involved, what's your fiscal year, when's the next budget cycle, and what's the approval threshold for a deal of this size?"
Listen forBuying committee structure, timeline pressure, approval bureaucracy.
Branches
- If decision is concentrated: Faster cycle; engage the decision-maker directly.
- If decision is distributed: Plan stakeholder map; expect 6-12 month sales cycle for enterprise deals.
Q-GEN-04Timeline and Refresh Windows
Ask
"What's coming due in the next 12-24 months? Hardware refresh, software renewals, contract end dates, datacenter lease, anything?"
Listen forConcrete timing anchors. The migration plan should align with these windows.
Branches
- Hardware refresh in 6-9 months: Natural conversation timing; aligns capex flow.
- VMware renewal in 12+ months: Pilot now; main migration aligned with renewal end.
- Nothing in 18+ months: Discovery-only; revisit closer to a refresh window.
Q-GEN-05Team Size and Skills
Ask
"Tell me about your infrastructure team. How many people, what skill mix, who owns what?"
Listen forCapacity for migration work, existing platform expertise, role concentration vs distribution.
Branches
- Team is large and specialized: Migration capacity is good; coordination is harder.
- Team is small and generalist: Migration capacity is constrained; BlueAlly augmentation likely needed.
- Has Nutanix experience already: Faster ramp. Acknowledge and adapt.
- No Nutanix experience: Plan training (NCA, NCP-MCI) into the engagement.
Q-GEN-06Compliance Frameworks
Ask
"What compliance or regulatory frameworks apply to your environment? PCI, HIPAA, SOX, FedRAMP, state regulations, industry-specific?"
Listen forSpecific frameworks, audit timing, scope of regulated data.
Branches
- Heavy compliance: Plan for compliance review early; identify Nutanix's relevant certifications; expect documentation requests.
- Specific data sovereignty: May affect cloud DR (NC2) decisions.
- Tight audit calendar: Migration timing must respect audit windows.
Workload Inventory (Q-WL)
Q-WL-01VM Count and Distribution
Ask
"What's the rough VM count, and how is it distributed: dev/test, general production, Tier-1, mission-critical?"
Listen forTotal scale, tier distribution, the criticality mix.
Branches
- Dev/test heavy (>40%): Easy migration starting point. Wave 1 candidates.
- Tier-0 / mission-critical heavy: Migration risk is higher; phasing more careful.
Q-WL-02Critical Applications
Ask
"What are your top 5 most-critical applications? What does each one do, what's the technology stack, what's the SLA?"
Listen forSpecific dependencies, technology constraints, application owner names.
Use the answers toIdentify the workloads that need the most careful migration handling, name application owners for later coordination, surface technology dependencies (Oracle RAC, SQL Always On, specific vendor certifications).
Q-WL-03Workload Tier Distribution
Ask
"How do you tier your workloads? What's the SLA, RPO, and RTO requirement for Tier-0 vs Tier-1 vs Tier-2 vs general-purpose?"
Listen forWhether tiering is formal, what the actual numbers are, whether SLAs are documented vs aspirational.
Branches
- They have formal tiering: Use the tiers to drive replication mode and Recovery Plan design.
- They don't: Help them define tiers as part of discovery; this becomes a migration planning artifact.
Q-WL-04Database Footprint
Ask
"Tell me about your database environment. SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, others? Scale of each, latency requirements, HA architecture?"
Listen forDatabase engine mix, performance requirements, application-level HA (Always On, RAC, replica sets).
Branches
- Application-level HA in place: RF2 may be sufficient for storage replication; the application provides additional layer.
- No application HA: RF3 may be appropriate for the database tier.
- Extreme latency requirements: Plan a POC with the actual workload; don't promise without measuring.
Q-WL-05VDI Footprint
Ask
"Are you running VDI? If so, how many sessions, what broker (Citrix / VMware Horizon / RDS), persistent or non-persistent profiles?"
Listen forScale, broker choice, profile pattern, boot-storm timing.
Branches
- VDI is significant: Strong Nutanix sweet spot; lead with VDI consolidation conversation. On-disk dedup makes sense for persistent profiles.
- VDI is light: Less specialized design needed.
Q-WL-06Specialty Workloads
Ask
"Are there any specialty workloads I should know about? AI/ML training, HPC, video processing, real-time analytics, anything unusual?"
Listen forWorkloads outside typical enterprise patterns.
Branches
- HPC at scale: Warning flag. Specialty parallel filesystems (Lustre, GPFS) may still be needed; not a Nutanix sweet spot.
- AI/ML training: GPU passthrough on AHV is supported; workload-specific design.
- Video processing or media: Possibly an Isilon / FlashBlade workload; evaluate carefully.
Management and Automation (Q-MGMT, Q-AUT)
Q-MGMT-01Current Management Stack
Ask
"Walk me through your management plane today. vCenter version, Aria components, vSphere Lifecycle Manager, anything else?"
Listen forDepth of Aria adoption, integration complexity, management-team size.
Branches
- Aria is light (vCenter + vROps only): Simpler migration to NCM Pro.
- Aria is deep (vCenter + Aria Ops + Aria Automation + custom blueprints): Complex migration; likely NCM Ultimate; coexistence pattern with Aria for cross-vendor analytics.
Q-MGMT-02Aria Footprint
Ask
"How heavily are you using Aria? Specifically: how many vROps reports do you actually use, how many Aria Automation blueprints are in active use, what custom integrations exist?"
Listen forDepth of actual usage vs license entitlement. Often customers have Aria licensed but use only a fraction.
Branches
- Actual usage is light: NCM tier replacement is straightforward.
- Actual usage is deep: Migration is real engineering work; plan parallel-running.
Q-MGMT-03Identity and SSO Requirements
Ask
"How do you handle identity for infrastructure admin access? AD, SAML to a specific IdP, MFA requirements, role separation?"
Listen forSpecific identity provider, role-separation requirements (often compliance-driven), MFA/JIT requirements.
Use the answers toPlan Prism Central identity integration, RBAC role design, audit logging configuration.
Q-AUT-01Automation Tooling Inventory
Ask
"What automation tooling does your team use? PowerCLI, Terraform, Ansible, custom Python scripts, ServiceNow integration, anything else?"
Listen forTooling preferences, depth of automation, maturity of the practice.
Branches
- PowerCLI-heavy: Nutanix PowerShell module is the natural transition; emphasize compatibility.
- Terraform-mature: Nutanix Terraform provider; emphasize the IaC alignment.
- ServiceNow-integrated: Plan webhook / X-Play integration carefully; this is often the highest-risk integration.
Storage (Q-STOR)
Q-STOR-01Workload IOPS / Latency Profile
Ask
"What's the I/O profile of your workloads? Specifically: what's your peak IOPS, what's the read/write split, and what's the p99 latency requirement on your most demanding workload?"
Listen forSpecific numbers vs vague "high performance" claims. Customers who can answer with numbers have measured; those who can't have rough estimates.
Branches
- They have specific p99 numbers: Validate against DSF capabilities; if 5ms or higher, DSF is comfortable. If <2ms p99, plan POC carefully.
- They don't know: Offer to help measure during POC.
Q-STOR-02Capacity Targets and Growth
Ask
"What's your current storage footprint, what's the growth rate, and what's the 3-year capacity target?"
Listen forCurrent capacity, growth trajectory, refresh-cycle expectations.
Use the answers toSize cluster appropriately with growth headroom, plan multi-year subscription with growth provisions, validate consolidation case.
Q-STOR-03Existing Array Dependencies
Ask
"Walk me through your existing storage tiers. What's running where, why was it chosen, what specific features do you depend on?"
Listen forONTAP-specific features (FlexClone, FlexCache), Pure data services, Dell PowerStore features, Data Domain dedup, anything platform-specific that doesn't translate cleanly.
Branches
- They depend on specific incumbent features: Plan workflow mapping exercise; identify what migrates cleanly vs what stays.
Q-STOR-04Backup Integration
Ask
"What backup product are you using, where does the backup data land, and what's the cost of that backup infrastructure annually?"
Listen forBackup vendor (Veeam / Commvault / Rubrik / Cohesity / HYCU), repository type (Data Domain, NetApp StorageGRID, etc.), annual cost.
Branches
- Using S3-capable backup product with separate dedup appliance: Strong Objects consolidation conversation; one of the easier ROI wins.
Q-STOR-05Compliance and Data Placement
Ask
"Are there compliance or contractual requirements around where specific data must live? Encryption, geo-restrictions, audit retention?"
Listen forEncryption-at-rest requirements, key-management requirements (HSM integration), audit-log retention duration, geo-locality constraints.
Use the answers toValidate Nutanix's encryption capabilities against requirements, plan KMIP integration with HSM, configure audit-log forwarding.
Q-STOR-06File Workload Inventory
Ask
"What file workloads are you running? User home directories, application file shares, VDI profiles, backup repositories, anything else?"
Listen forDiversity of file workloads, total capacity, AD integration depth, current filer's role.
Use the answers toSize Files appropriately, identify SMB vs NFS mix, plan any specialty workloads (Isilon-class workloads stay on Isilon).
Q-STOR-07Object / S3 Use Cases
Ask
"Are you using object storage anywhere? Backup targets, application data, archive, cloud-native workloads?"
Listen forWhether they have any S3 footprint (AWS or on-prem), what it's used for, scale.
Branches
- On-prem object (Cloudian, Scality, MinIO, StorageGRID): Direct consolidation conversation.
- AWS S3 only: Discuss complementary on-prem Objects for steady-state workloads.
- No object storage: Less Objects conversation, focus on Files and Volumes.
Q-STOR-08iSCSI Consumer Inventory
Ask
"Do you have any iSCSI consumers that aren't running on the VMware cluster? Bare-metal servers, Oracle RAC, legacy applications, anything?"
Listen forSpecific consumer types, performance requirements, vendor dependencies.
Branches
- Significant iSCSI footprint: Volumes consolidation conversation. Map specific consumers; some translate cleanly, some have specific requirements.
Q-STOR-09Backup Target Architecture
Ask
"Specifically about your backup architecture: what's the primary backup target, secondary tier, cloud archive if any? Total capacity? Retention policy?"
Listen forMulti-tier backup architecture, total cost of the backup infrastructure, retention complexity.
Use the answers toPropose specific backup-target consolidation onto Objects with appropriate sizing for capacity and retention.
Networking and Security (Q-NET, Q-SEC)
Q-NET-01Physical Network Topology
Ask
"What's your physical network architecture? Top-of-rack switches, core, fabric vendor, link speeds, any specific topology choices?"
Listen forVendor (Cisco, Arista, Juniper), link speeds (10/25/40/100 GbE), redundancy patterns, any unusual topology.
Use the answers toValidate Nutanix networking requirements (25 GbE recommended for production, 100 GbE for high-density), plan cluster placement, identify any pre-migration network upgrades.
Q-NET-02NSX-T Footprint
Ask
"Tell me about your NSX-T deployment. What are you using it for: distributed firewall, routing, edge services, L2VPN, federation?"
Listen forDepth of NSX-T usage. Light usage (basic distributed firewall on a subset of VMs) translates cleanly to Flow. Deep usage (BGP integration, edge services, L2VPN) often requires NSX-T retention.
Branches
- NSX-T is light: Flow Network Security replacement is feasible.
- NSX-T is deep: Hybrid is the likely answer; map workloads to "translate to Flow" vs "keep NSX-T."
Q-NET-03Microsegmentation Requirements
Ask
"What's your microsegmentation strategy? Are you doing application-tier segmentation today, planning to, or treating it as future?"
Listen forCurrent state, drivers (compliance, zero-trust, recent incident), maturity of the practice.
Branches
- Mature microsegmentation: Address NSX-T retention or Flow translation per Q-NET-02.
- Planning microsegmentation: Strong Flow Network Security positioning.
- Future: Lower priority for current discussion; mention as a future capability.
Q-NET-04Multi-Tenancy and VPC Needs
Ask
"Do you have multi-tenant requirements? Different business units needing isolation, service-provider tenants, projects with separate quotas?"
Listen forTenant isolation requirements, scale (a few business units vs many tenants), strictness of isolation (compliance-driven vs convention).
Branches
- Significant multi-tenancy: Flow Virtual Networking conversation; Projects in Prism Central; consider service-insertion patterns for security.
- Single-tenant or simple BU separation: FVN may be overkill; Categories + Projects in Prism Central often sufficient.
Q-SEC-01Compliance Frameworks (Detail)
Ask
"For each compliance framework you mentioned: what's the current scope, when's the next audit, and what specifically gets audited?"
Listen forSpecific scope (which workloads, which data), audit timing (don't migrate during audit windows), audit depth.
Use the answers toPlan migration timing around audit cycles, identify documentation requirements, ensure Nutanix's certifications cover the customer's scope.
Data Protection / DR (Q-DR)
Q-DR-01RPO / RTO Targets per Tier
Ask
"What's your RPO and RTO target by application tier? What do you currently achieve, and is there a gap between target and reality?"
Listen forWhether targets are formal or aspirational, current vs target gap, whether they've ever tested.
Use the answers toMap tiers to replication mode (Async / NearSync / Metro), design Recovery Plans, identify tiers where current DR is inadequate.
Q-DR-02Existing DR Infrastructure
Ask
"What's your DR architecture today? Second site, replication mechanism, runbook, how often have you tested?"
Listen forWhether DR is real (tested, validated) or paper-only.
Branches
- DR is paper-only: Strong NC2 / Recovery Plans pitch; the test-failover capability is genuine value.
- DR is mature with regular testing: Migration is delicate; respect the working system; coexistence may be right.
Q-DR-03SRM Footprint
Ask
"If you're using SRM: how many VMs are orchestrated, how customized are the runbooks, when did you last run a real failover?"
Listen forSRM scale and depth of customization. The deeper the customization, the harder Recovery Plans migration.
Branches
- SRM is simple (basic runbooks, default IP remapping): Recovery Plans translation is feasible.
- SRM is heavily customized: Coexistence pattern likely right; SRM stays for the workloads it orchestrates well.
Q-DR-04DR Test Cadence and History
Ask
"How often do you test DR, and what was the result of the last test?"
Listen forHonest answer (often "we should test more"), specific issues found, whether tests are real or theatrical.
Use the answers toPosition Recovery Plans test failover capability, identify where current DR has known gaps.
Q-DR-05Compliance and Regulatory DR Drivers
Ask
"Are any of your DR requirements compliance-driven? RPO mandates, audit requirements for DR testing, specific recovery validation?"
Listen forCompliance-mandated specific RPO/RTO numbers, audit attestation requirements for DR testing.
Use the answers toEnsure replication mode meets compliance RPO, plan DR test cadence to satisfy audit requirements, configure WORM-protected archives where required.
Migration (Q-MIG)
Q-MIG-01Workload Tier Inventory
Ask
"For migration planning: how would you tier your workloads from a migration-risk perspective? Easy / moderate / complex / mission-critical?"
Listen forThe customer's own risk assessment of their environment. They often know which workloads are problem children.
Use the answers toPlan wave sequencing (easy first, complex last), identify the hand-holding workloads.
Q-MIG-02Application Dependency Awareness
Ask
"Do you have current application dependency maps? Which VMs talk to which other VMs, what external services they depend on?"
Listen forWhether dependency mapping is current, partial, or non-existent. Most customers have partial.
Branches
- Dependency maps are current: Faster Phase 0; migrations sequenced well.
- They're not: Phase 0 includes dependency mapping work (active discovery, application owner workshops, network flow analysis).
Q-MIG-03NSX-T and SRM Footprint
Ask
"For migration planning: what's the inventory of workloads using NSX-T microsegmentation and workloads orchestrated by SRM?"
Listen forSpecific counts; deep usage means hybrid steady-state likely.
Use the answers toScope which workloads are migration candidates vs likely-permanent-VMware.
Q-MIG-04Team Capacity for Migration Work
Ask
"Realistically, how much of your team's time can go to migration work per week? What other major projects are running in parallel?"
Listen forHonest capacity assessment, competing priorities.
Use the answers toSize BlueAlly augmentation, set realistic timeline expectations, identify where parallel projects might cause conflicts.
Q-MIG-05Compliance and Audit Timing
Ask
"What's your audit calendar over the next 18-24 months? When are SOX, PCI, internal audits scheduled?"
Listen forSpecific dates that constrain migration timing.
Use the answers toSchedule compliance-relevant migrations between audits, not during.
Q-MIG-06Hardware Refresh Windows
Ask
"What hardware is coming due for refresh in the next 12-24 months? Compute, storage, network gear?"
Listen forRefresh dates per asset category.
Use the answers toAlign Nutanix migration with refresh windows; capex flow becomes natural.
Economics (Q-ECON)
Q-ECON-01Current Annual Run-Rate
Ask
"What's your current annual run-rate across infrastructure? Software subscriptions, hardware support, services, power, cooling, datacenter space?"
Listen forWhether they have a clean number or have to assemble it. Most customers have to assemble.
Use the answers toBuild the apples-to-apples 5-year TCO comparison; have a real baseline.
Q-ECON-02Refresh Timing
Ask
"What's the refresh schedule for your current infrastructure? When does each component come due?"
Listen forSame as Q-MIG-06 but with the financial framing.
Use the answers toAlign proposal capex / opex flow with the customer's existing refresh financial plan.
Q-ECON-03Capex vs Opex Preference
Ask
"How does your finance team prefer to account for infrastructure investments? Capex-heavy on hardware, opex on software, or a different model?"
Listen forCFO preference, accounting policy specifics, multi-year subscription comfort level.
Use the answers toStructure the proposal appropriately; subscription terms aligned to accounting cycles.
Q-ECON-04Hardware Sourcing Preference
Ask
"Do you have an existing server-vendor relationship you'd like to preserve, or are you open to NX appliances or commodity hardware?"
Listen forExisting Dell / HPE / Lenovo / Cisco contracts, preference for single-throat-to-choke vs multi-vendor flexibility.
Use the answers toChoose the right sourcing path (NX vs OEM vs HCIR).
Q-ECON-05Growth Projection
Ask
"What's your growth projection for compute and storage over the next 3-5 years? Linear, accelerating, declining, M&A-driven volatility?"
Listen forRealistic growth assumptions, planned acquisitions, business growth that drives infrastructure.
Use the answers toSize cluster with appropriate headroom, recommend subscription term length (multi-year for stable; shorter with growth provisions for volatile).
How to Sequence Discovery
First customer meeting (Kickoff, 60-90 min)
Cover the foundation. Pick from:
- Q-GEN-01 current infrastructure
- Q-GEN-02 pain points and triggers
- Q-GEN-04 timeline and refresh
- Q-WL-01 VM count and distribution
- Q-ECON-01 annual run-rate (light touch)
- Q-MGMT-01 current management stack
This establishes the situation. Don't dive deep yet.
Second meeting (Technical deep-dive, 2-3 hours)
Tailor to what surfaced in kickoff. If storage was the trigger, pick from Q-STOR. If DR is the trigger, pick from Q-DR. If networking, Q-NET. If economics, Q-ECON.
Third meeting (Architecture review, 4-6 hours or full day)
Comprehensive cross-domain. Pick 15-20 questions across all categories. By this meeting, you have rapport; the customer expects depth; the answers inform the proposal.
Fourth meeting (Commercial / decision)
Q-ECON depth. Q-GEN-03 (decision-makers). Refine the financial story. Surface any remaining objections.
What to Do With the Answers
After every discovery session:
- Update the customer notes. Specific quotes are valuable; capture them.
- Update the risk register. What did this session surface?
- Update the proposal scope. What changed about what we're recommending?
- Identify follow-up questions. What new questions does this answer raise?
- Identify follow-up actions. Documents to send, references to share, technical validations to schedule.
Discovery is a continuous process, not a one-time intake. The discovery you do in week 1 informs the proposal in month 3, the design in month 6, and the operational handoff in month 18.
References
This appendix is engagement methodology (questions to ask, what to listen for, what to do with the answers); it intentionally avoids restating technical specifications. The technical content underlying the questions (RPO/RTO definitions, NSX-T footprint, SRM customization, NCI/NCM tiers, Files/Objects use cases) is sourced and verified in the per-module References sections:
- Module 4 · Aria footprint, identity, automation. Backs the Q-MGMT and Q-AUT question domains.
- Module 5 · IOPS/latency profile, capacity, RF/EC. Backs Q-STOR-01 through Q-STOR-05.
- Module 6 · NSX-T, microsegmentation, VPC. Backs Q-NET-02 through Q-NET-04.
- Module 7 · RPO/RTO, SRM, DR test cadence. Backs Q-DR-01 through Q-DR-05.
- Module 8 · Files / Objects / Volumes inventories. Backs Q-STOR-06 through Q-STOR-09.
- Module 9 · Run-rate, decision-makers, refresh timing. Backs Q-ECON and Q-GEN-03 / Q-GEN-04.
- Module 10 · Migration discovery, dependency mapping. Backs Q-MIG-01 through Q-MIG-06.
Cross-References
- Modules: Each question links to the module where the topic is taught in depth.
- Glossary: Appendix A defines the terms used in the questions.
- Comparison Matrix: Appendix B supports the answers customers give.
- Scenarios: Appendix C shows how discovery answers feed into design exercises.
- Objections: Appendix D has the responses to objections that emerge from discovery answers.
- POC Playbook: Appendix J has the demo flows that often resolve technical questions faster than discussion.