FY27 programme expansion introduces new incentives, partner-led service opportunities and support for enterprise AI, cloud-native applications and database solutions.
Nutanix has announced a major expansion of its FY27 Elevate Partner Program, marking its largest investment in the programme to date. The changes bring systems integrators into the programme, introduce incentives for referrals, renewals and customer expansion, and increase support for partner-led services.
The expanded programme aims to help partners generate revenue beyond initial technology sales while supporting growing customer requirements in enterprise AI, cloud-native applications and databases. Additional incentives will encourage opportunities involving Nutanix Enterprise AI, Nutanix Database Service (NDB) and Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP), along with services built around these technologies.
By including systems integrators (SIs), Nutanix is recognising their expanding role in IT strategy, solution design and integration, migrations and service delivery. Eligible SIs and consulting partners can also earn referral rewards for identifying and developing Nutanix opportunities, even when another partner completes the final sale.
Seven Revenue Opportunities for Nutanix Partners
The expanded Elevate Partner Program provides eligible partners with opportunities across seven areas:
- Land: Earn rebates on qualifying transactions involving new Nutanix customers.
- Expand: Receive applicable rebates by introducing additional Nutanix solutions into existing customer environments, including enterprise AI, cloud-native technologies and databases.
- Grow: Access benefits that recognise qualifying year-over-year business growth.
- Reward: Provide incentives to eligible partner sales and technical employees who help identify or secure qualifying new and expansion opportunities.
- Retain: Earn incentives for qualifying on-time customer renewals.
- Refer: Receive referral rewards for qualifying opportunities introduced by eligible systems integrators and consulting partners.
- Differentiate: Develop verified service capabilities through Powered by Nutanix: Verified Services, with eligible partners able to access Earned Business Development Funds for qualifying go-to-market activities.
All incentives, rebates, referral rewards and business development funding remain subject to applicable programme requirements, eligibility criteria and regional availability.
Greater Support for Partner-Led Services
Nutanix is also expanding its support for partner-led services through Powered by Nutanix: Verified Services. The initiative helps eligible partners establish recognised capabilities in areas such as migrations, deployment and ongoing customer support.
Partners will also gain access to standardised Service Delivery Kits and opportunities to shadow Nutanix experts. These resources are intended to strengthen technical expertise and service delivery capabilities, helping partners expand their professional services businesses.
“A partner can spend months helping a customer work out what technology they need, plan a migration or prepare for AI, but they don’t always get paid for the work that goes into making a sale happen,” said Sven Schoenaerts, Vice President EMEA, Channel and Technology Alliances, Nutanix. “We want to change that. Partners should be able to earn money for bringing us new business, helping existing customers do more with Nutanix and providing the services those customers need. That’s especially important for systems integrators and consultants, who often do much of the work before a customer is ready to buy.”
Hybrid Cloud Flexibility Creates Additional Partner Opportunities
The flexibility of the Nutanix Cloud Platform is expected to support additional partner opportunities as customers navigate hardware availability challenges, infrastructure costs and major technology upgrades.
Support for selected external-storage configurations, including applicable Dell, Everpure and NetApp technologies, provides partners with more options to modernise customer environments while preserving existing infrastructure investments.
Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) also enables partners to help customers run and move supported workloads between on-premises environments and supported public clouds. This offers an alternative when hardware availability or infrastructure capacity becomes a constraint.
AI-Powered Tools to Improve Partner Engagement
Nutanix is investing in AI-powered tools designed to simplify partner engagement and help identify new business opportunities.
One of these capabilities, Deal Coach, is planned for introduction through Nutanix Partner Central later in the current fiscal year. The tool is designed to support activities throughout the sales cycle.
Further planned capabilities include approved visibility into selected customer-environment health, adoption and lifecycle signals. Subject to customer authorisation, these insights will help partners provide better customer support and plan renewals.
“Across the Middle East and Africa, partners are playing an increasingly strategic role in helping organisations modernise their IT environments, embrace hybrid cloud and prepare for enterprise AI. With this expansion of the Elevate Partner Program, we are creating more ways for our partners to turn their expertise into business growth – whether by identifying new opportunities, expanding existing customer relationships or delivering the services that help customers realise greater value from their technology investments. By extending the program to systems integrators and strengthening incentives for services and customer expansion, we aim to build a more collaborative ecosystem that rewards partners for the value they bring throughout the customer journey and positions them to capture emerging opportunities across the region,” concluded Shaista Ahmed, Director, Channel & Ecosystem – Middle East & Africa at Nutanix.