Data infrastructure is no longer a backend utility, but an engine driving AI innovation.

NetApp, a global data infrastructure company, held a press conference at the Western Seoul Parnas on the 3rd and unveiled its data platform strategy to prepare for the AI era, marking the 25th anniversary of its entry into Korea.

Henry Kho, Vice President of NetApp GCASK (China, ASEAN, and Korea), and Kang Yeon-sik, Executive Director, who gave the presentation on this day, emphasized the importance of intelligent data platforms, stating, “The success or failure of AI depends not on algorithms, but on how data is managed and utilized.”

Since entering the Korean market in 2001, NetApp has built a customer and partner ecosystem across various industries, including finance, manufacturing, telecommunications, and the public sector, for 25 years.

Currently, there are over 290 partners active in Korea, and major companies such as SK AX, Samsung Electronics SMRC, and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries are utilizing NetApp's data infrastructure.

Vice President Henry Koh stated, “Korea is a strategically very important market for NetApp and the entire GCASK region,” adding, “We are achieving growth and innovation together with our customers and partners.”"I am proud of the past 25 years," he said.

At the meeting that day, NetApp highlighted the opportunities that the spread of AI will bring, as well as the realistic challenges facing companies.

Vice President Henry Koh stated, “AI is built on data, and data is a company’s core asset,” and diagnosed that “the complexity of multi- and hybrid cloud environments, explosive data growth, expanding security threats, and a shortage of AI experts are hindering the success of AI projects.”

The explanation is that, in particular, while Korea has the world's highest speed of AI adoption, data management and infrastructure complexity remain major challenges.


Executive Director Kang Yeon-sik identified the 'complex AI data pipeline' as the root cause of these problems.

He explained, “AI is the process of transforming data into intelligence, and this process involves very complex steps ranging from data collection, governance, metadata management, and vector embedding to training and retraining,” adding, “In typical AI environments, the use of numerous open-source tools and repetitive data replication leads to increased costs and operational burdens.”

The solution proposed by NetApp is to simplify the AI stack into a 'data platform'.

NetApp Data Platform is designed to convert data into a form usable by AI immediately at its location, without moving or replicating the data.

The explanation is that this enables the management of data distributed across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments from a single view, and allows for the consistent application of security policies and governance.

As a core technology of this strategy, NetApp introduced the third-generation decoupled architecture 'AFX'.

AFX can independently scale performance and capacity, enabling flexible support for large-scale workloads such as AI, and provides enterprise-grade features such as availability, ransomware protection, and multi-tenancy as standard.

In addition, it supports native integration with major hyperscalers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, enabling the immediate utilization of AI services in hybrid cloud environments without data migration.

Actual customer cases were also shared.

Global retail companies increased cost efficiency by running multiple AI models in parallel with a single dataset through NetApp Data Platform, and domestic financial companies significantly shortened the time required to build cloud-based disaster recovery (DR) and reduced costs.

Cases were introduced in the manufacturing and telecommunications sectors where AI infrastructure construction and operational efficiency were simultaneously secured.

"NetApp will support customers in focusing on AI innovation without the burden of complex infrastructure through its intelligent data platform," said Vice President Henry Koh.

Executive Vice President Kang Yeon-sik also emphasized, “Competitiveness in the AI era begins with data platforms,” adding, “NetApp will continue to be a key partner accelerating the AI transformation in the Korean market.”