Delegate Roundtable – AI Workloads Meet Data Operations at NetApp Insight 2025

At NetApp Insight 2025, the Tech Field Day delegates gathered to provide their perspectives on the company’s major announcements, primarily focusing on the AI Data Engine (AI/DE) and the new AFX storage platform. Attendees were impressed by NetApp’s clear messaging about returning focus to its long-standing core strength: storage. The company’s positioning of AI as a natural evolution of data operations was well received, especially because it reframed storage as more than a backend necessity—it became central to the AI data pipeline. Delegates praised the strategy of anchoring tokenization and embedding within storage operations and appreciated NetApp’s ability to decouple compute and storage while maintaining ONTAP’s legacy features.

The panelists noted that NetApp appears to be embracing a more coherent and integrated direction after years of broad diversification and numerous acquisitions. While the company’s positioning is not about becoming a full AI solutions provider, its emphasis on data operations—particularly through automated metadata analysis, tagging, and governance—positions it uniquely among storage vendors. NetApp’s recognition that effective AI starts with robust, well-governed data excited the delegates, though there were calls for more practical demonstrations or customer journey stories to showcase how AI/DE is being adopted in the field. The discussion also highlighted NetApp’s exclusive capability of offering first-party storage across all three major hyperscalers as a clear differentiator.

Nonetheless, the delegates had constructive critiques, emphasizing the need for NetApp to elaborate on AI-specific concerns like security, ethics, and governance frameworks. While the company has laid down a strong foundation—from classification and compliance to data mobility across clouds—it was suggested that more clarity around partner integrations and extensibility of the platform would resonate with a broader enterprise audience. Delegates appreciated the modest roll-out scope of AI/DE, as it shows NetApp learned from past missteps when rolling out major platform changes too ambitiously. They expressed a shared hope that by NetApp Insight 2026, there will be concrete examples of AI workload deployments enabled by NetApp’s offerings, providing validation through customer success stories and real-world use cases.

Moderator: Stephen Foskett
Panelists: Becky Elliott, Denny Cherry, Gina Rosenthal, Glenn Dekhayser, Guy Currier, Jason Benedicic, Karen Lopez