Simplifying Data With An Intelligent Data Infrastructure

While artificial intelligence seems to dominate nearly every conversation about enterprise digital and data transformation, what’s less discussed is the impact of AI on existing IT infrastructure. AI places new demands on enterprise storage. Likewise, hybrid multi-cloud challenges traditional enterprise storage, as does the rising demands of data protection and cyber-resiliency. Enterprise storage is suddenly complex.

Failing to address the growing challenges of managing enterprise data can directly impacts the competitiveness and efficiency of the organizations. Simplifying data management is fundamental to modern digital transformation. Where once an enterprise approached storage on a case-by-case basis, it now requires thinking holistically about enterprise data.

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NetApp recently hosted industry analysts to describe its vision for how enterprises should store and manage data. I talked with NetApp Chief Marketing Officer Gabie Boko and Vice President Jeff Baxter, who told a compelling story based on the foundational idea that it’s time to stop talking about storage and start talking about data. It’s a subtle yet critical distinction.

Building an Intelligent Data Infrastructure

NetApp believes it’s time to change the conversation about storage. Data fuels today’s AI-driven hybrid-cloud world; storage is just where we store that data. While NetApp has long talked about its “data fabric,” it sees that as just one element of a broader solution.

Ms. Boko explained that enterprises need an intelligent data infrastructure to compete in the next wave of digital transformation. With an infrastructure that manages data complexity, enhances security, and addresses evolving sustainability needs, an IT organization’s job becomes easier and less complex.

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An intelligent data infrastructure must do all this while providing the flexibility and scalability needed to manage enterprise data across diverse infrastructures, including hybrid clouds and AI-focused infrastructure.

NetApp sees IDI as more than a vision or marketing slogan; it’s a framework that unifies its products and services. Mr. Baxter emphasized that NetApp is taking a modular approach to building IDI with a unified control plane to manage cloud and on-premises data. NetApp delivers this today across its on-prem and cloud-hosted ONTAP solutions.

Beyond providing a unified management experience, NetApp strongly emphasizes security. An example is its recently announced real-time malware detection, where malware is detected in the data path, a capability not offered by any other storage provider except IBM.

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Additionally, NetApp IDI supports sustainability through power-efficient technologies and tools to monitor and optimize carbon footprints. It’s also optimized for AI workloads, providing advanced data services that enhance performance and enable effective AI integration.

Analyst’s Take

While NetApp intelligent data infrastructure is real, the company is just getting started. NetApp gave analysts a glimpse at where its filling in the blanks and adding new capabilities.

Ms. Boko said that we’ll have to wait for NetApp’s annual Insight customer event later this year for complete details, but one area to look for increased innovation is in how NetApp is evolving data management for AI. She said the company plans to expand its platform functionalities, focusing on pre-configured workloads for AI and sustainability.

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An intelligent data infrastructure promises to bring real value to enterprise IT. It’s also a different way of thinking that the industry will need to evolve into. NetApp sees IDI as the future of storage, driving everything the company does. It will still sell storage for whatever your application needs, whether public cloud or on-prem, but it really wants enterprises to put deliberate thought into enabling a data infrastructure.

Not every storage provider thinks about data infrastructure in the same way as NetApp. Dell Technologies, for example, supplemented its recent AI Factory announcements with updated point-product storage offerings. Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced its new Nvidia AI Computing by HPE solution without directly addressing the underlying storage and data complexities, instead pointing to a disparate set of existing offerings that can be combined to support new AI workloads. While each company offers capable storage solutions, these don’t address the broader needs of an enterprise-wide hybrid cloud infrastructure.

NetApp’s intelligent data infrastructure is a different approach to enterprise data and storage, one that’s not just about managing data; it’s about transforming how enterprises leverage their data to drive business success in an increasingly complex digital world.

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With robust security, seamless cloud integration, a commitment to sustainability, and a rapid evolution of the capabilities needed to power enterprise AI, NetApp wants to redefine data management for the rapidly evolving needs of the enterprise. That’s a compelling vision, one that clearly differentiates NetApp.