The latest industry trends in data infrastructure emphasize the integration of artificial intelligence, data integration, and cybersecurity. As companies increasingly rely on data-driven strategies, the importance of a strong, intelligent data infrastructure has become paramount.
This infrastructure not only improves employee productivity and customer experience, but also provides a competitive advantage. NetApp Inc. Chief Executive Officer George Kuran (pictured) says innovative technology and strategic partnerships are essential to maintaining momentum and achieving business success.
“We believe data is the secret to unlocking employee productivity, engaging customer experiences, and accelerating the pace of customer success for businesses around the world,” he said. “And data already provides a competitive advantage for data-driven companies, as opposed to companies that cannot leverage it.”
Kurian spoke with theCUBE's Rebecca Knight and Rob Strechay at the NetApp Unveils Unified Data Storage Built for the AI Era event during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media's livestreaming studio. They discussed the importance of a unified, intelligent data infrastructure to improve business productivity, customer experience, and competitive advantage through AI integration, cybersecurity, and strategic partnerships. (*Disclosure below.)
Intelligent data infrastructure: strategic priorities and initiatives
NetApp has several strategic priorities and initiatives for fiscal year 2025 focused on modernizing our data center environment, enhancing security capabilities, and advancing AI integration. The company aims to modernize its customers' data centers with a powerful suite of high-performance flash storage solutions.
“Today, we are introducing a robust suite of the world's highest-performing flash storage that delivers a wide range of value to our clients across file, block, and object storage,” said Kurian.
This modernization effort aims to improve organizational performance and efficiency. This enables your data infrastructure to keep up with the demands of modern applications.
NetApp is also focused on integrating advanced security features across all platforms to provide comprehensive protection against emerging threats.
“We achieve this using the most secure storage environment in the industry, which allows us to detect malicious threats, protect against them, and recover very quickly,” Kurian explained. “We are confident in the industry's only Storage His Ransomware Protection Guarantee.”
This approach aims to provide comprehensive protection and ensure data safety across a variety of environments, including cloud and on-premises.
NetApp also works closely with hyperscalers such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google to power its storage and data management services. These collaborations are designed to provide a seamless hybrid and multicloud experience, allowing organizations to efficiently manage and protect data across diverse environments.
“Part of our DNA is working with our partners and approaching the market with them,” Kurian said.
By integrating NetApp technology with leading cloud platforms, customers can take advantage of advanced data services and increase operational flexibility.
“We are doing more with cloud providers. We are integrating our data management technology with their cloud AI platform,” Kurian added. “For example, we showed Vertex integration with Bedrock, but you can also see integrations with other integrations so that our clients can experience a hybrid experience. They can protect their data while using these cloud platforms. and ensure security.”
Driving innovation and AI integration
Innovation is at the heart of NetApp's strategy, with a focus on AI and its applications in data management. Maximizing efficiency and effectiveness rather than deploying AI to data is a key part of the company's strategy.
“NetApp has a strong product offering in generational AI for model training and inference,” said Kurian. “We bring AI to data and make it very easy and effective for our clients to use their data for AI.”
Kurian added that it is important to build an AI center of excellence within an organization. This center should bring together all relevant roles and teams, including data science, data engineering, IT infrastructure, and security architects, to work together.
“We talk about three or four things there. The first is understanding where in your organization you can get the most impact and value from AI,” Kurian said. “The second thing is to organize for success, which is building an AI center of excellence that brings together all the different roles and teams to collaborate.”
This collaborative approach ensures that all aspects of AI implementation, from data science to IT infrastructure, are coordinated and integrated.
NetApp's unified data platform supports a wide range of applications and environments and provides a consistent and efficient operational experience. The platform enables enterprises to deploy workloads and applications where they are needed, while ensuring a unified operational, security, and performance experience across all environments.
“We have been the driving force behind a single unified data platform that can support any data, any application, anywhere,” said Kurian. “I think most of the other players in the industry are starting to realize the wisdom of that approach.”
NetApp's platform not only improves operational efficiency, Kurian added, but also provides a solid foundation on which to build AI capabilities and data services.
Looking to the future, NetApp aims to build momentum by continuing to innovate and expand capabilities. Kurian said the company plans to strengthen its data services and operational capabilities to enable customers to effectively manage and protect their data in any environment.
Below is the full video interview. This is part of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE Research's coverage of the NetApp Unveils Unveils Unified Data Storage Built for the AI Era event.
(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the NetApp Unveils Unveils Unified Data Storage Built for the AI Era event. Neither NetApp Inc., the sponsor of theCUBE's coverage of the event, nor any other sponsor, will be responsible for editorial content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE. )
Photo: SiliconANGLE
Your upvote is important to us and helps us keep our content free.
Your one click below will support our mission of providing free, deep and relevant content.
Join our community on YouTube
A community of over 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies Founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many other celebrities and experts. Please join us.
thank you