AHV
Also known as: Acropolis Hypervisor, Nutanix AHV
Nutanix's own hypervisor, native to the Nutanix Cloud Platform, positioned as a genuine VMware replacement rather than a supported add-on.
AHV (Acropolis Hypervisor) is Nutanix's own hypervisor, built into the Nutanix Cloud Platform rather than a third-party hypervisor Nutanix merely supports. That distinction is the entire basis of the HPE-versus-Nutanix decision: HPE's Private Cloud supports third-party hypervisors alongside its own infrastructure, while AHV is a full hypervisor replacement. A buyer only benefits from Nutanix's core pitch if they're genuinely willing to migrate off VMware or another incumbent hypervisor onto AHV, not just using Nutanix as leverage in a renewal negotiation.