News

Gartner Distributed Hybrid Infrastructure Report Reflects a Market in Transition

• By David Ramel
• 09/10/2025

In its new Magic Quadrant for Distributed Hybrid Infrastructure (DHI), Gartner captures a market that's entering a redefinition phase -- not just expanding, but reshaping how enterprises think about cloud infrastructure delivery.

The report identifies a strategic shift among enterprise buyers: moving away from "cloud-first" toward "infrastructure-flexible." In place of traditional cloud migration timelines, organizations are now emphasizing cloud-native operational models across distributed locations, whether on-prem, in colocation, or at the edge. In Gartner's words, DHI lets enterprises "retain the ability to deploy resources whenever and wherever they are needed" -- and that operational flexibility is now non-negotiable.

From Cloud Migration to Cloud Modality
What's clear from this year's analysis is that DHI is not just a technology stack -- it's a shift in infrastructure strategy. It reflects a new kind of buyer: one who still wants the elasticity and automation of cloud, but increasingly needs that experience outside the traditional cloud footprint.

Gartner notes that today's I&O leaders are less concerned with public cloud commitment and more focused on deploying cloud-native services in noncloud locations. That includes on-prem data centers, sovereign regions, industrial edge sites, and colocation facilities. The DHI model allows organizations to "deploy standardized infrastructure platforms for any deployment scenario," while maintaining centralized management and policy enforcement.

Distributed Doesn't Mean Disconnected -- But It Can
A key takeaway from this year's MQ is the growing focus on resilience and disconnected operations. Several DHI offerings (AWS Outposts, Microsoft Azure Local, Google Distributed Cloud) now support limited operations when cut off from their cloud control planes -- a capability that's increasingly critical in industries like defense, telecom, and manufacturing.

That said, not all DHI stacks are equal here. Gartner points out that support for air-gapped or lightly tethered deployments is still limited or in preview mode for many vendors. For some, especially in highly regulated sectors, this remains a gating factor.

The Post-VMware Reality Is Already Taking Shape
While VMware is still a Leader in this year's MQ (as part of Broadcom), Gartner's strategic planning assumption is blunt: "By 2028, 55% of enterprises will initiate proofs of concept for alternative DHI products to replace their VMware-based deployments -- up from just 15% in 2025."

That prediction, paired with negative customer sentiment around VMware licensing and support, signals the opening of the field for Nutanix, Microsoft, Oracle, and others who offer full-stack alternatives. The DHI category, as Gartner frames it, is now where VMware exit strategies are being evaluated.

AI Infrastructure Is a Key Use Case -- Not an Add-On
Gartner also makes it clear that AI is not a bonus capability -- it's a core driver of DHI adoption. The ability to deploy AI/ML infrastructure (particularly inference workloads) near data sources is prompting many enterprises to explore edge deployments and sovereign environments.

Vendors that can bring dedicated AI infrastructure to DHI form factors -- including support for GPUs, RDMA-based networking, and AI lifecycle tooling -- are positioned well. Oracle, Google, and Nutanix are specifically called out here, while vendors lacking GPU support (Huawei) or delayed AI feature availability (Google) are noted for limitations.

Sovereign Cloud Drives Regional Strategy
Sovereignty isn't just a compliance checkbox -- it's a deployment architecture. Gartner highlights how DHI enables "cloud-like deployments within national borders" -- a critical consideration for governments and regulated industries. The flexibility to run public cloud services in partner-operated, air-gapped, or country-specific regions is now a mainstream requirement, not a niche need.

Oracle, AWS, Microsoft, and Google all show strong sovereign capabilities. Others, like Huawei and Alibaba Cloud, are gaining traction in Asia and emerging markets, but still face scale and regulatory constraints in Western regions.

Gartner's 2025 Leaders in Distributed Hybrid Infrastructure
Here's how Gartner characterizes the five "Leaders" mentioned above.

• Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  Broadest portfolio across edge, on-prem, and disconnected environments. Strong AI and container support. Lags in awareness outside its own customer base.
• Microsoft
  Azure Arc and Azure Local offer a solid multicloud management plane with edge AI capabilities. Integration complexity and limited disconnected support are noted concerns.
• Broadcom (VMware)
  VMware Cloud Foundation remains mature and feature-rich, but licensing changes and customer experience issues are prompting many clients to look elsewhere.
• Oracle
  Deep sovereign capabilities and full-stack deployment of OCI services on-prem and in partner clouds. Strong networking for AI. Still fighting brand perception hurdles in the DHI space.
• Nutanix
  Offers a unified, software-defined stack with consistent operations across environments. Perceived as expensive and less cloud-first than hyperscalers, but a strong option for VMware replacement.

Bottom Line
The DHI market is moving from emerging to essential -- not as a transitional step to public cloud, but as a permanent architectural model. As VMware customers weigh next steps and AI workloads demand new infrastructure patterns, DHI platforms are where these strategies are converging.

Gartner's 2025 analysis shows that enterprises aren't just choosing a DHI vendor -- they're redefining what "cloud" means in an increasingly distributed, regulated, and AI-driven world.

Nutanix took note of that AI emphasis while publicizing its placement as a leader, providing this statement:

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Distributed Hybrid Infrastructure market, highlighting key trends such as the shift toward hybrid cloud platforms, the rise of AI-ready infrastructure, and growing demand for sovereign cloud support. It helps IT leaders, infrastructure architects, and operations teams navigate complexity and modernize how they manage apps and data across diverse environments.

Nutanix is named a Leader -- a recognition we view as testament of our continued innovation in virtualization, containers, and enterprise storage across datacenter, cloud, and edge.

The company was also instrumental in last year's report (see "Research Cites Nutanix in Market Shift Away from VMware").

While Gartner usually charges paid clients for its research, the Magic Quadrant series is typically allowed to be distributed by covered vendors in licensed-for-distribution editions, easily found with a quick web search.