Nutanix

Satisfying Engineers’ Need for Deeper Technical Training at Nutanix

Nutanix is a leader in private cloud, hybrid and multi cloud computing. Gartner recognizes Nutanix as a leader positioned highest in execution in the hyperconverged infrastructure software market.

A robust engineering team with around 3,000 members powers this transformational company. On a team this cutting edge, learning and development is a top priority. Kevin Freitas, Engineering Enablement Director, and Emily Black, Engineering Enablement Program Manager, are responsible for technical upskilling. And for a team of this size, it’s a massive undertaking.

Challenge: Close the technical skills gap for engineers

“Our business model depends on the relevancy and proficiency of our software developers,” says Kevin. “And so we sought to find a learning solution that supported everyone’s technical development and empowered them to keep pace in a rapidly changing, highly competitive industry.”

Plus, with a large, globally distributed team, not all engineers had access to the technical training they needed. “When I came onboard at Nutanix, deep technical training was only offered in person. Basically, if you were not at headquarters or at one of our larger distributed R&D locations, engineers were on their own to try and find the training they needed, explains Kevin.

This drove the engineering team to seek a solution that offered the best, most relevant technical content that was available whenever employees needed it.

Solution: Increase technical capabilities with data and insight

While Nutanix offers LinkedIn Learning to all employees, the engineering team found the content wasn’t deeply technical nor provided hands-on experiences that drive higher rates of knowledge transfers our engineers expect. This compelled them to seek a new learning partner.

The engineering team in India took the lead on this project, exploring online technical learning solutions. They considered several options, including Pluralsight, Coursera, and Udemy. “Based on their feedback and what our engineers like in their training — which is lots of labs, lots of hands-on activities — Udemy was the winner,” says Emily.

“In comparison to LinkedIn Learning, we wanted something that was going to be a lot more technical and go deeper into things like Python and Kubernetes and all of those hot topics right now.” Emily adds that the balance between lectures and interactive activities was a huge differentiator for Udemy.

Once they’d launched Udemy, Kevin soon discovered that it wasn’t the technical course selection alone that made Udemy an ideal partner.