**Insight Extra Korea 2025: Strengthening AI and DX through Portfolio Innovation**
“NetApp isn’t just a storage company; it’s an intelligent data infrastructure company that connects AI and data. We will continue to innovate to maximize the value of data,” said Jeff Baxter, NetApp’s Vice President of Product Marketing, at the Insight Extra Korea 2025 conference held at the Conrad Hotel in Yeouido, Seoul on the 4th. During the event, he unveiled strategies for hybrid cloud and AI infrastructure innovation.
Jeff Baxter, along with Yoo Jae-sung, the Korean representative, and Kang Hyun-sik, executive director and solutions engineer head, shared the latest technology and major customer cases.
**Jeff Baxter’s Key Insights and Strategic Directions:**
– Baxter highlighted the transition from the Exabyte era to the Zettabyte era of data, with data doubling every three years. He emphasized the importance of leveraging AI and analytics to maximize data value, beyond mere storage.
– With the advancement of natural language processing and multimodal AI technologies, data analysis has become accessible to everyone. Companies must now harness AI to effectively utilize large-scale data.
– Baxter analyzed that AI adoption is accelerating in the Korean market, with companies likely to adopt hybrid AI models. According to an IDC survey, 80% of Korean companies are expected to adopt hybrid AI models, and 50% of new AI applications will likely use both traditional and generative AI.
– However, the primary barriers to AI adoption are data management and integration issues. Only 30% of Korean companies successfully utilize AI technologies, with a lack of IT infrastructure cited as the main reason for failed AI adoption.
– The core of AI success lies in optimizing data infrastructure. NetApp supports seamless integration of AI and data with its intelligent data infrastructure solutions.
**Highlighted Projects and Solutions:**
– Kang Hyun-sik presented a case with Shinhan Financial Group, which required a hybrid cloud disaster recovery environment utilizing on-premises and public clouds. Key challenges included cloud budget savings and rapid replication of 125TB of data.
– To address this, NetApp introduced Cloud Volumes ONTAP, significantly reducing costs by over 70% compared to existing AWS EFS solutions and achieving data replication 60% faster than AWS DataSync.
– A large Korean telecom company needed a flexible storage solution supporting standard protocols for its AI infrastructure based on large language models (LLM). NetApp delivered with all-flash AFF A-series and QLC-based storage solutions along with NetApp Trident storage plugins.
**Security and Cost Optimization:**
– Security is increasingly crucial for effectively and safely managing large-scale data in AI and cloud environments. NetApp offers ONTAP-based native ransomware protection solutions with 99% real-time detection accuracy without additional costs.
– NetApp also introduced cloud cost optimization strategies. By utilizing data deduplication, compression, and tiering features, cloud storage costs can be reduced by up to 70%.
**Strategic Vision for the Future:**
– Yoo Jae-sung emphasized that amidst uncertainties, focusing on cost optimization and operational efficiency is crucial. NetApp aims to strengthen business competitiveness for customers through hybrid cloud and AI infrastructure optimization.
– Considering the rapid increase of AI and data, companies should evaluate overall data center operations and infrastructure scalability over singular storage prices. NetApp provides a comprehensive OS platform enabling customers to flexibly respond to external environments with optimal solutions.
The event underscored NetApp’s commitment to driving AI and data infrastructure advancements, ensuring support for business agility and competitiveness in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.