Nutanix appoints AWS veteran Balakrishnan Anantharaman to India leader role

Nutanix has confirmed the appointment of veteran IT leader Balakrishnan Anantharaman as its new vice president and managing director of Sales for India. The announcement is a clear signal of intent from the enterprise cloud OS leader and reaffirms its continued commitment to the country and increasing focus on India’s top tier enterprises.

With more than 25 years of IT industry management experience, Balakrishnan is suitably placed to help drive the enterprise cloud OS leader’s growth and ambitions in India and his appointment reaffirms Nutanix’s leadership credentials in the county.

His knowledge and insight of the market, enterprise landscape and personalities, as well as a track record for rapidly growing business make him ideally placed to redefine Nutanix’s business in India and drive the enterprise cloud leader’s efforts as it expands its focus to India’s larger enterprises.

Before joining Nutanix, Anantharaman was Head of Amazon Web Services’ Financial Services and Manufacturing Verticals for the Large Enterprise Business in India where he built the India Go to Market segment and helped grow the business significantly during his tenure. Prior to that, he spent 8 years at Dell EMC in a variety of senior sales and leadership roles before finally becoming Senior Director, Global Services Lead.

“We are all delighted to have Bala add his focus, structure and direction to our cutting-edge solutions here in India.” said Neville Vincent, VP, South Asia Pacific at Nutanix. “We took the decision early on to wait for the right calibre of candidate, but the wait has been worth it. The team, our customers and our partners are all relishing the opportunities ahead and have already communicated their immense satisfaction with our choice of leader.”

Speaking on his appointment, Balakrishnan said: “I am delighted to be joining Nutanix at such an exciting time for the company and the industry. When you have built a career on generating growth and then get asked to take a rapidly growing industry leader to an even higher level – you don’t need to stop to think. You jump on board. The battle lines are being drawn as public and private clouds converge. True success will lie with the companies that can drive innovation and value for their customers. On that scale – Nutanix is unmatched.”

Balakrishnan’s appointment comes at a pivotal time for India’s cloud sector. As Digital India continues apace, hyperconverged infrastructure and hybrid cloud are seen as key to keeping the country’s enterprises relevant and competitive in a digital era. So much so that even incumbent public cloud providers are embracing hybrid as a key component of their offering. This knowledge of public and hybrid environments should also provide a unique perspective and advantage as Balakrishnan sets about expanding the Nutanix India Business.