NetApp unveils new AI‑ready storage innovations in OCI environment

NetApp, a provider of intelligent data infrastructure, today introduced a series of new products designed to strengthen its enterprise-grade data platform for AI use cases. As AI adoption evolves from pilot projects to mission‑critical, agentic applications, modern cloud infrastructures must support AI‑ready data in a secure, high‑performance environment.

The new NetApp AFX disaggregates performance and capacity by running ONTAP in a modular architecture on the AFX 1K storage system. Meanwhile, NetApp AI Data Engine (AIDE) extends ONTAP in a secure and unified fashion, integrating with the NVIDIA AI Data Platform reference design to simplify and protect the entire AI data pipeline, all managed under a single control plane.

Together, AFX and AIDE unify high‑performance storage and intelligent data services into a secure, scalable solution that accelerates retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG) and inference workloads across hybrid and multicloud settings. These offerings will be available via direct purchase or via subscription through NetApp’s Keystone STaaS model. With them, the NetApp data platform ensures that relevant data is always ready for AI processing.

Syam Nair, Chief Product Officer at NetApp, commented, “With the new NetApp AFX systems, customers gain a trusted on‑premises enterprise storage solution that sits atop a comprehensive data platform designed to drive AI innovation. NetApp AI Data Engine allows organisations to link their distributed data estates across hybrid and multicloud environments, collapsing multiple data preparation and management steps into one integrated system. Built on NVIDIA accelerated computing and AI Enterprise software, it supports semantic search, data vectorisation, and built‑in guardrails. The integration of AFX and AI Data Engine blends NetApp’s decades‑proven ONTAP resilience with a disaggregated architecture, all while maintaining rigorous security standards.”

Andrew Sotiropoulos, Senior Vice President and General Manager for NetApp Asia Pacific, added, “Our customers are shifting from passive data storage to active data management, extracting, processing, and curating data to unlock insights. This trend demands architectures that break down silos and balance data and infrastructure security with fast recovery. Our latest innovations deliver a secure, unified, future‑ready foundation across the hybrid cloud, empowering organisations to operationalise AI at scale and drive tangible business outcomes.”

Key innovations and capabilities

NetApp AFX:
AFX is an enterprise-grade, disaggregated all-flash storage system tailored for AI workloads. Certified for NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD deployments, it runs ONTAP and offers robust data management and cyber resilience, plus support for secure multi-tenancy and seamless integration across on‑premises and cloud environments. AFX scales linearly to 128 nodes with terabytes-per-second bandwidth, exabyte-level capacity, and independent scaling of performance and capacity. Optional DX50 data control nodes provide a global metadata engine, enabling real-time enterprise data cataloguing and leveraging NVIDIA-accelerated compute.

NetApp AI Data Engine (AIDE):
AIDE is a comprehensive AI data service built to simplify, secure, and streamline the entire AI workflow. From ingestion and preparation to model serving, AIDE offers a unified view of a customer’s NetApp data estate, enabling fast discovery and curation across on-premises and public cloud. It automates change detection and synchronisation, eliminating unnecessary duplication and keeping data fresh.

Built-in guardrails enforce security policies throughout the AI lifecycle. AIDE utilises the NVIDIA AI Data Platform (with accelerated compute and AI Enterprise software), enabling vectorisation, semantic search, and secure, policy-based workflows. Deployed natively within the AFX cluster (optionally on DX50 nodes), AIDE is planned to support future integration with NVIDIA RTX PRO servers featuring Blackwell-series GPUs. The system aims to improve AI adoption through enhanced efficiency, data governance, and clarity.

Object API for Azure Data & AI Services:
In public preview, this feature allows customers to access Azure NetApp Files data via an Object REST API, eliminating the need to copy file data into a separate object store. NFS and SMB datasets can now be directly connected with services such as Microsoft Fabric, Azure OpenAI, Azure Databricks, Azure Synapse, Azure AI Search, and Azure ML. Users can run analyses, train models, and build modern applications using existing datasets, while retaining the enterprise performance and reliability of Azure NetApp Files.

Enhanced Unified Global Namespace in Azure:
With new FlexCache capabilities in Azure NetApp Files, enterprises can present their global data estate, whether on-premises or across clouds,as a unified, writeable namespace in Azure. Data is transferred granularly only when requested, enabling real-time visibility without wholesale duplication. SnapMirror supports seamless data and snapshot migrations across environments, facilitating hybrid scenarios such as continuous backup, disaster recovery, and workload balancing.

Justin Boitano, Vice President of Enterprise AI Products at NVIDIA, remarked, “NetApp’s transformation into an AI-native storage platform, integrating NVIDIA accelerated computing and software, is enabling organisations to index and search vast quantities of unstructured data. This unlocks new opportunities for innovation and real business impact.”

Michael Leone, Practice Director and Principal Analyst at Omdia, added, “These new NetApp solutions demonstrate a bold and practical vision for managing data in the age of AI. The combination of disaggregated architectures, advanced data management in ONTAP, and independent scaling of performance and capacity addresses real enterprise challenges and enables confidence in AI investments.”