The evolving global technology landscape is driving a profound transformation in how companies manage and leverage data. During the event NetApp Insight Xtrahosted before Christmas at the futuristic Aruba data center in Ponte San Pietro, George KurianCEO of NetApp presented a clear and incisive vision: to succeed in the age of artificial intelligence and the cloud, data must be treated as a real product. One concept, that of “data as a product”, which aims to overcome the fragmentation of silos and transform business processes, making them more agile, innovative and capable of adapting to the challenges of an increasingly data-driven world.
On the sidelines of the event, Edge9 interviewed George Kurianto delve deeper into the topics covered during the keynote ee Lorenzo GiuntiniCTO of Aruba, on the value that the close collaboration with NetApp has for Aruba.
Data at the center of company strategy
Since the opening of the keynote, the NetApp CEO underlined a fundamental point: Data is the beating heart of every modern organization. Not only do they represent a critical resource for business functioning, but they are also the key to creating value and differentiation in an increasingly complex competitive context. However, many companies struggle with managing fragmented data spread across on-premise environments, public and private clouds, and legacy systems. This hinders the ability to fully exploit the potential of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence.
The solution proposed by NetApp is a paradigm shift: treat data as a productwith centralized and integrated management that allows you to break down silos and create a modern data architecture. This approach not only allows companies to quickly adapt to new needs, but also mitigate risks by maintaining consistency and security across the entire infrastructure.
Artificial intelligence: three steps to transform data into value
Artificial intelligence was the major transversal theme of the event, an element that is redefining priorities and strategies for companies in every sector. However, as the CEO of NetApp explained, many organizations they struggle to implement large-scale AI projectsmainly due to inadequate or too fragmented data infrastructures.
To address these challenges, NetApp has outlined a three-phase strategy for making the most of AI. The first step is to discover and understand existing data. Companies need to know where their data is locatedclassify them and select those relevant for AI projects. NetApp offers advanced tools to search, organize and catalog data, making it easier for business and technical teams to collaborate. This step is essential to ensure that AI models are powered by quality data, eliminating information silos.
Traditionally, AI projects required migrating data to dedicated infrastructure, an expensive and slow process. For the second step, NetApp proposes an opposite approach: bring AI directly to the data, eliminating the need to duplicate or move large amounts of information. With native integration with advanced technologies like Kubernetes and AI tools from hyperscalers, companies can build optimized data pipelines, which accelerate the development and deployment cycle of AI models.
The last step consists of make AI an integral part of business processes. This involves not only implementing AI models into daily operations, but also creating a continuous cycle of improvement. With monitoring and versioning tools, NetApp allows companies to update models with new data, ensuring transparency, traceability and consistent performance. Furthermore, staff training and organizational change management become crucial elements to fully exploit the potential of AI.
Security and resilience: defending data in the age of AI-driven threats
Data security was another central point of the debate. With the rise of cyber threats, often powered by AI tools, NetApp urges companies to shift the focus from prevention to resilience. George Kurian emphasized that the attacks do not target servers or networks so much as the data itself, considered the true treasure of an organization.
NetApp’s cybersecurity strategy is based on three main points: immediate detectioni.e. the ability of systems to identify malicious activity in real time, reducing the attack surface. Immutable datatherefore secure copies of the data, which cannot be modified even if the network is compromised. Quick recoverywith tools that allow you to quickly return to a stable operational state, minimizing the impact of attacks. These capabilities are built directly into NetApp solutions, offering customers advanced protection at no additional cost.
The role of the data center: innovation at the service of sustainability
The event also offered the opportunity to explore the evolution of data centers, with the intervention of Lorenzo Giuntini, CTO of Aruba. The Ponte San Pietro campus represents a model of efficiency and sustainability, with Tier4 certifications and cutting-edge solutions to manage the new needs of AIsuch as high-power-density servers. Aruba’s CTO highlighted how more and more Italian companies, from large enterprises to SMEs, are migrating to external infrastructures to optimize costs and performance. Through its partnership with NetApp, Aruba offers resilient and secure technologies designed to support the most demanding applications, such as training AI models at scale.
NetApp Insight Xtra highlighted a clear and ambitious vision: in the age of artificial intelligencedata is not just an asset, but the beating heart of corporate innovation. Through an approach based on the concept of “data as a product” and a strategy that integrates AI, cloud and security, NetApp presents itself as the ideal partner for companies that want to transform their data into value.
In an increasingly competitive and technologically complex landscape, the ability to unify, protect and enhance data will be the true distinguishing factor. As the CEO of NetApp pointed out, “Whoever can integrate data strategically will have the greatest advantage in this new era”.
Source: edge9.hwupgrade.it
