Insights from Insight
It’s been a BLUR of a week, coming off of NetApp Insight 2024. As a member of the NetApp A-Team, we got a lot of access and a lot of chances to ask questions about how customers link things together. So, keep your eyes on this space for more specific breakdowns on the workloads & use cases in follow-up posts!
I admit, I was VERY curious about the concept of “Bringing AI to your Data” - so let’s see how that plays out.
The vibes were high, even when checking in from the lobby.
There’s a lot of info to share, and a lot more to the cloud story than just Azure NetApp Files, FSXN in AWS and GCNV in GCP. Although, PS - there’s news there, too.
No Surprise - AI Stole The Show
AI jumped to the forefront immediately. The first thing that comes to mind, every time, is Jensen Huang’s keynote where he noted that half the world’s data lives on NetApp systems.
I'll remember this for a LONG time.
George Kurian kept the momentum going, speaking to use cases and the opportunities and contributions AI brings to all of us. More on that in a moment, but first - thanks to the A-Team for the front row seats!
Core to the Day 1 Keynote was the concept of productivity. Customers can make automate more (50% more) and decisions faster (with 60% better insights).
The REAL start of the story to me was the contributions to Global GDP. For context, the entire GDP of the planet is ~$100T, with the US contributing approximately $25T of that.
According to a 2024 Forrester story, AI will contribute $7T to global GDP per year - every year - for the next 10 years.
This is the #DataIntelligence NetApp surfaces, allowing connections and insights and automation that were unthought of until the recent past.
$7T per year. Every year. For 10 years... I'm still floored.
The catch - there is ALWAYS a catch - is that if you don’t have the right resources, it is HARD.
Spiderman rules - with great power comes great responsibility.
Customer environments are more complex and more distributed - on-prem, hybrid/multi cloud, the edge - than ever.
Believe it or not, this is a high-level view. Thanks again for the front-row seat!
And the things you have to take into consideration before acting keep expanding…
That's... a lot.
And when customers tell their side of the AI-readiness story… it confirms it.
Managing your data is the hardest part of the whole story. Without a handle on your data, GOOD LUCK.
NetApp’s brand new AIPod design is a very easy, out-of-the-box design to get you started OR upgrade & simplify your way along the AI journey.
Without getting into ALL of the details, NetApp simplifies this via ONTAP and the BlueXP UI.
ONTAP is ONTAP - you know it; you love it. If not, you probably (whether you know it or not) have some familiarity with it via ANF, FSXN or GCVN.
With BlueXP, you manage the rest - autonomous ransomoware protection, classification, observability, etc.
It takes a LOT to make it this simple.
Matt Hull from NVIDIA: “Data is heavy. It’s hard to move”.
Matt then noted that NetApp not only manages half the world’s data (see: pic at the top of the post) but leads the way in data portability.
If you want to move fast, or you want to be first - data mobility is a critical path, and this team-up solves for it.
Like Matt said - core to this entire strategy of “Bring AI to your Data” is the concept that data is portable.
What’s crazy is that now it doesn’t have to be. With the introduction of a NetApp connector, resources/services like Copilot & Fabric don’t require migrations in order to access/see NetApp-managed data.
Keep in mind - that’s half the data on the planet.
A new friend highlighting the gooddness of the new connnector, live on stage...
The Hybrid Cloud Storage Story
I’ve taken enough of your time - we’ll hold on the storage story until tomorrow!