A Nutanix User Group Gives a Leader the Confidence to Innovate

When you think of innovation, you're probably not picturing McCook, Nebraska. We're four hours' drive away from any major metropolitan area in every direction. Yet our town's hospital has been a significant driver of technology investment.

McCook Community Hospital is a critical care center that operates 24/7, 365 days a year, serving communities across southwestern Nebraska and northwestern Kansas. One day, we might have two patients in the hospital, and the next, we'll have 20. The solutions we use need to be available at all times and flexible enough to scale at a moment's notice.

We also have to consider an outsider's perspective. A remote hospital like ours relies on visiting specialists to provide care, and the technology we use impacts their experience. Focusing on innovation helps us attract top medical talent, which is critical for patients and the hospital's viability.

I've worked at Community Hospital for over 15 years, first as a technical analyst and later as a service manager and network analyst. As an engineer and technician, I was mostly concerned with the functionality of our network environment. When I became Director of Information Systems/Information Security Officer in 2017, I became responsible for how the vendors and technology affects our users and our bottom line. 

An unlikely partnership grew into a lasting relationship

In 2017, we were working on virtual desktop delivery. We had purchased PernixData to deploy virtual desktops, but then Nutanix acquired PernixData and planned to sunset the solution. As we approached end of support, we needed to find another option.

We were initially skeptical of Nutanix because of the acquisition, but when we compared solutions, Nutanix smoked the competition. Their platform was solid, and they were the only company whose team members came to Nebraska to meet with me in person.

We initially used Nutanix only for virtual desktop delivery, but over the last few years, we've cultivated a meaningful partnership and expanded our investment significantly. Nutanix helped us become one of the first hospitals in the state to use hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), and we now run seven clusters throughout the hospital. We've also established three major partnerships between Nutanix and our medical technology vendors who now run their software on the Nutanix platform. Nutanix has become the backbone of our facility.

Forming a local community through organic growth

After we adopted Nutanix, I started a Slack group with about six other users to ask questions and share experiences with the platform. Nutanix noticed this grassroots attempt to form a community and jumped in to support it. Our informal bunch eventually became an official Nutanix User Group (NUG).

Nutanix generously provided a budget for us to host in-person meetings in Nebraska, which we've done ever since. When the Nebraska NUG first started meeting, it was just a group of engineers hanging out and enjoying some beers. Over time, the Nutanix team has helped us formalize and structure our meetings and events. We're now part of a network of other NUGs around the world, led by professionals like me who are in the weeds with the technology every day.

The right balance of structure and informal discussion

Nutanix helps us bring in expert guest speakers and empower chapter heads—including myself and my two co-leaders—to present at our meetings. I'm a cybersecurity guy, so I've chosen to give many presentations on the topic. But we also discussed topics related to backup and recovery, desktop delivery, and desktop virtualization.

Of course, we discuss Nutanix-specific content. Nutanix engineers are always eager to share details about their work and talk to us about things like bug fixes or anything they've learned or noticed. The NUG is often the first to hear about software releases and new products coming up on the Nutanix roadmap. We get an insider look at what will be available, which helps me plan for upcoming purchases or feature implementations.

Even though our meetings are more structured than they once were, the group has kept its original casual community feel. We have a lot of fun, and it never feels stuffy or bureaucratic. It's easy to bring up problems and discuss solutions openly. Our conversations, regardless of whether or not they're relevant to IT, always brighten my day. It's great to be part of such an awesome community.

Community engagement improves troubleshooting and talent searches

Having the NUG community on-call allows me to troubleshoot more efficiently. I can ask whether anyone has experienced some of the weird things that I encounter and more often than not, someone else has seen the same thing. For example, during the process of rolling out a solution to the hospital's new surgery wing, we were having trouble trying to run Citrix on Nutanix. We kept getting errors and we couldn't find the problem.

I asked about the issue on the NUG Slack channel and immediately got a response. The fix was simple: we were using the wrong version of Windows 10 and needed to update the operating system. That brief conversation within the NUG saved us days of investigating and diagnosing the issue, helping us get that wing up and running much faster for doctors and patients. 

Access to this external expertise also helps me strengthen and build my team. As a director, I spend a decent amount of time shaking hands and kissing babies—in other words, socializing and networking is really important, especially when I'm hiring. McCook Community Hospital's rural location can make it challenging to find tech talent in the region, and the more personal connections I have, the easier it is to reach out when I'm looking for new team members. 

Having the NUG community in my corner is also valuable during team transitions. NUG members fill knowledge gaps when we're short on expertise. People often provide direct guidance when we don't have someone on staff who knows how to do something, which keeps our department rolling. 

An insider look into strategic planning

When you're a part of the NUG, you get front-row seats to other Nutanix instances, including those outside the healthcare industry. Rather than just relying on a salesperson with a PowerPoint, you learn creative ways others have implemented Nutanix. They highlight features you may not be using and provide insight into their step-by-step implementation process. This kind of peer guidance gives other users the confidence and vision to innovate and optimize the technology within their organization.

In addition to being a co-leader and Nutanix User Group Champion of our local NUG, I'm a Nutanix Technology Champion, working to mentor, support, and encourage others. I'm passionate about HCI, especially for organizations like hospitals that want the security and reliability of on-premises networks without compromising on the flexibility of the cloud. I think everyone needs to know about Nutanix because it enables organizations to deploy exactly that—essentially, a private cloud. I gladly make the 10-hour round-trip drive to attend NUG meetings, and I drive out of my way to bring non-Nutanix users into our NUG meetings to show them the technology's potential. 

Being a part of the group has helped me expand my skills and ingenuity as an engineer. It's made me a better leader and decision-maker, and our leadership can see the value of taking that extra time for education and networking. The NUG community gives me access to a pool of knowledge, talent, and product insights that make it far easier to use and innovate with Nutanix. This exponentially increases the value of our investment in the platform and enables us to deliver the best services in our rural hospital.