NetApp unveils AI-powered processes, ransomware protection advancements or M’sian biz

CLOUD-LED software company NetApp has introduced its latest solutions aimed at streamlining artificial intelligence (AI) processes and enhancing protection against ransomware threats.

This comes about as many business organisations in Malaysia are facing a complex technology landscape with the rise of emerging technologies, according to area vice-president (Greater China, ASEAN and South Korea) Fredy Cheung.

“To fully harness the transformative power of AI, we need to build a next-generation data pipeline that is robust, scalable and secure,” Cheung pointed out in a statement. “By tapping on our AI and data security enhancements, we can enable organisations to better facilitate seamless data movement and accelerate data workloads.”

Undoubtedly, many enterprises today have to deal with vast, often disparate data across on-premises and cloud platforms.

“NetApp’s solution simplifies this by offering high-performance storage solutions that integrate seamlessly with MLOps platforms, thus optimising the data science workflow,” explained Cheung.

A notable NetApp partnership with NVIDIA seeks to streamline AI tasks. The ONTAP AI infrastructure uses NVIDIA’s DGX supercomputing system. In the quest to further enhance its offering, NetApp has recently announced the integration of its AFF C-Series with ONTAP AI that promotes both affordability and sustainability.

NetApp’s collaborative endeavours with Google Cloud – highlighted by the August 2023 launch of Google Cloud NetApp Volumes – also promises robust storage capabilities. The recent support addition for Google Cloud’s Vertex AI emphasises NetApp’s focus on hybrid Generative AI applications’ efficient deployment.

With ransomware attacks in 2023 inflicting losses estimated between US$1 mil and US$2.25 mil, NetApp has focused on enhancing its users’ defences. Its ONTAP boasts multiple capabilities from blocking malicious activities to providing tamper-proof snapshots, hence can be expected to present a formidable line of defence.

Highlighting its commitment, NetApp has also expanded its Ransomware Recovery Guarantee to all on-premises ONTAP-based storage systems.

At its annual ‘Insight’ conference held this week in the US, NetApp also previewed its innovative disaster recovery solution for VMware which is integrated with NetApp BlueXP.

This solution pledges an efficient disaster recovery transition from on-premises to cloud, thus streamlining processes and reducing costs. – Oct 26, 2023