Managing ripples and riding waves: Navigating the future of Intelligent Data Infrastructure

The IT environment is much like the ocean, where crests of innovation rise and fall—some as gentle ripples, others as towering waves that reshape the entire landscape. When it comes to making the most of data in the era of intelligence, businesses must learn to ride these waves or risk being swept away.  

Waves are opportunities for significant growth, both for companies and for individuals, but they require courage and a mindset of constant change and learning. These industry-shaping events are moments of disruption that can create dramatic advancements and opportunities.  

Ripples, on the other hand, don’t typically create huge change but generate incremental value. They tend to be more of the natural progression and advancement of technology, such as speedier processors, higher-density Solid State Drives, and faster networks.   

The art of navigating and capitalizing on these natural and inevitable pulses of change requires more than just keeping your finger on the pulse. And over the years, with one or two exceptions, NetApp has become very good at it: navigating ripples and anticipating waves, creating huge opportunities for our customers and leading to significant growth in each cycle. Waves can create multibillion-dollar, if not trillion-dollar, industries and have a profound effect on people and organizations like yours.  

The first three waves: A retrospective

Since the beginning of the internet, the pace of innovation has increased competition, and the race to win has caused more frequent waves. The first wave that NetApp was born into was the transition from the monolithic technologies of the past to the modular technologies that we see today. The meteoric rise of virtualization was the second wave, establishing VMware as a fundamental part of the global IT ecosystem.   

The third wave, cloud, has been the most challenging. Some organizations were afraid and frozen in the uncertainty, but NetApp embraced the cloud and created a strong foundation to succeed in the now fourth wave, AI. What other companies feared or even pushed back against became an opportunity for NetApp.  

Much like navigating turbulent waters in a boat, although it may seem counterintuitive, steering the boat's bow into the waves, as opposed to retreating, is one of the best ways to stay afloat.

The fourth wave: The dawn of intelligent data infrastructure

I have witnessed the first three waves as a NetApp employee, and I have seen the industry evolve with the relentless pace and progress of technology. As the fourth wave of IT evolution swells to new heights, the integration of AI and machine learning into data infrastructure marks a significant turning point. Traditional storage systems, once limited to merely holding data, are now transitioning to intelligent, automated systems that can analyze and act on data in real time.   

This shift is a profound transformation that is reshaping how businesses operate, enabling companies to extract actionable insights, enhance decision-making processes, and stay competitive. By embracing this intelligent wave, organizations can maximize the value of their data, driving innovation and growth.  

As we prepare for an eventual fifth wave, we can anticipate an explosion of the powerful combination of quantum computing and AI. Together, they have an incredible set of capabilities that will enable us to solve current and future problems in ways that we can’t yet foresee. Much like with AI, the speed at which this wave forms will depend on several macro factors, including the availability of skilled talent to fuel innovation. 

Riding the waves to move forward with change

In today's fast-paced world, change is a powerful force that can either propel companies forward or leave them lagging behind. To thrive, businesses like yours must embody a few key principles.  

Remain flexible and curious  

 A rising tide can raise all ships, except the ones that resist and sink. When it comes to ripples, take a step back and understand that you need a strategy to deal with them, but frequently ripples don’t change the way that we do business. When it comes to riding the waves, be constantly curious. And when you think a wave is forming, put effort into it, because by the time it really forms, you may have missed your opportunity to gain the biggest advantage.  

Embrace incremental change  

This current AI-driven wave is an example of how small wins can create huge advantages. AI has created an opportunity for your company to have a fundamental edge over your competitors, because no company can survive a competitor that is significantly more productive than they are.  

For most companies, it’s more effective to look at doing 100 smaller tasks more productively with AI than to focus only on big, transformative, high-investment projects. We shouldn’t be so consumed with the idea of changing the world that we neglect to focus on changing our companies from the inside to create a greater impact on the world. According to the AI maturity model survey that NetApp commissioned with IDC, companies that embrace AI could be 20% to 30% more productive than companies that don’t. 

Remember that embracing change requires letting go  

In a chapter of my latest book, The Fourth Wave: The Journey from Storage to Intelligent Data Infrastructure, I take a trip down memory lane and explore the paths of past IT decisions. An example of something that your company can leave behind is the feeling that you have to do everything yourself. Things that you have previously done in-house that are not a part of your core business don’t necessarily need to be part of your operations now. Lean on the specialists, outsource expert support, and allow others to help you so that you can focus your efforts on refining your core business offerings.  

A call to embrace the waves of change

The NetApp intelligent data infrastructure strategy is industry-leading because it enables the company to be adaptable and forward-thinking. Although embracing change in the ever-evolving IT landscape can determine winners and losers, we all benefit from doing things more efficiently and thoughtfully.

The need to turn disruption into opportunity is why the NetApp INSIGHT event, our annual premier technology festival, matters now more than ever. This year, innovators from across the globe will come together to showcase the latest in NetApp technologies, solutions, and ideas about the future.

I will be facilitating a Camp Cloud session, pulling from my experience as a longtime NetApp employee to unpack the impact of the first three waves on individuals, tech companies, and other organizations.

If you can’t meet me there, I encourage you to grab a copy of The Fourth Wave: The Journey from Storage to Intelligent Data Infrastructure. In it, I explore my take on the fascinating journey, changes, and challenges that have taken place in the IT ecosystem over the past 20 years.