NetApp: Architecting Outcomes in the Era of Intelligence | NetApp Global Go-to-Market Leadership

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Dallas Olson, Jr.

Chief Commercial Officer

NetApp

Gabie Boko

CMO

NetApp

Ashish Dhawan

SVP & Chief Revenue Officer

NetApp

Srivatsan Vaiyakarnam

Chief Customer Success Officer

NetApp

Gabriel Indalecio

Senior Vice President, Worldwide GTM Operations

NetApp

play_circle_outline NetApp's culture evolution and innovation focus

play_circle_outline AI transformation in market strategy and growth opportunity

play_circle_outline Customer transformation with AI for competitive edge and personalized experiences

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NetApp Global Go-to-Market Leadership

Dallas Olson, Jr.

Chief Commercial Officer NetApp

Gabie Boko

CMO NetApp

Ashish Dhawan

SVP & Chief Revenue Officer NetApp

Srivatsan Vaiyakarnam

Chief Customer Success Officer NetApp

Gabriel Indalecio

Senior Vice President, Worldwide GTM Operations NetApp

In a panel discussion, Rob Strechay of theCUBE Research brings together NetApp’s top global go-to-market leaders to unpack how the company is reshaping its strategies amid a changing tech landscape. From marketing vision to operational execution, the conversation captures how NetApp aligns its teams worldwide for intelligent, data-first outcomes.

Gabie Boko joins Gabriel Indalecio, Ashish Dhawan, Srivatsan Vaiyakarnam, and Dallas Olson Jr. to share how NetApp’s go-to-market evolution reflects its three-decade journey. Together, they explore how custome... Read more

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What core principles does NetApp believe define its identity and guide its innovation strategies in the technology industry? add

What are the three key factors for the success of deploying an AI project, and what are the three main areas in the market that are being targeted by the company in relation to AI opportunities? add

What are the top three drivers that customers consider when utilizing AI in data and analytics? add

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Rob Strechay

>> Hello, and welcome back to Converge, NetApp's Converge 2025. We're in the final stretch here and we have a special thing going on. We're going to be having a panel with NetApp's Global Go-To Market leadership team, and we're going to talk about how things have evolved with NetApp and where NetApp is going in the future and how they're getting it done going that way. So really excited to invite back Gabie, thanks for coming back.

Gabie Boko

>> Absolutely.

Rob Strechay

>> CMO for NetApp. We got Dallas who's the Chief Commercial Officer for NetApp. Welcome to the show and welcome on theCUBE. We have Gabriel, who's the Senior Vice President Worldwide Go-To-Market Operations for NetApp as well. Welcome on. We have Ashish who's the Senior Vice President of Cloud Sales. Welcome on board as well. And Srivatsan, who's the Chief Customer Success Officer with NetApp. Welcome on.

Srivatsan Vaiyakarnam

>> Thank you.

Rob Strechay

>> Gabie, let's start with you. I think one of the things that we've been hearing, and we talked about it a little bit earlier when you were on, is really the culture and the evolution that NetApp has gone through in the last 30 years to really change but stay the same. There's a lot of startups that are out there and a lot of people vying for this space.

Gabie Boko

>> Yeah.

Rob Strechay

>> How do you see this change, but yet how the brand has evolved going forward?

Gabie Boko

>> Yeah, I think as a company in Silicon Valley and the technology industry, you have to be aware of who you are. We like to define ourselves as just because we've been around for 30 years, even if innovation is what we do, innovation is who we are at our very core, and we do that against the data backdrop saying where we're going to innovate for our customers, for our partners, for the industry as a whole is going to be about making data accessible, secure access anywhere. I think that that's really what's relevant here is that we believe for our culture that we're innovators. We definitely agree that we are here to find new ways to help our customers, but I think most importantly when you think about that, that all to me says that in this age of data that we've been living in, that especially NetApp has grown up in that cloud storage AI that we're ready for all of it. I think that those kinds of principles are what we're really passionate about.

Rob Strechay

>> I can't disagree with that. I would violently agree actually with that and I think data only gets more and more. Let's go to Dallas because you joined a little bit over a year ago, and in the past year, obviously AI has been the talk. How have you seen the transformation in how you've gone to market and how that's really helping from a growth perspective?

Srivatsan Vaiyakarnam

>> Yeah, absolutely. We are incredibly excited about the AI opportunity because it matches what we do so well. One of the things that we've learned is that the number one reason that an AI project fails is because some misstep with data. And we know that to properly deploy an AI project, the success of an AI project really lands on three things. It's around data access, it's around data security, and then it's around your data access strategy. On top of that, that's what we wrap around that. And so with those three foundations, if you look at the opportunity in the market, there's three areas in the market that we're looking at. One is data lakes. The second is that we're looking at AI software development. And then the third is we're looking at our AI factory capability. So when I think about the three things that we're best at, and I think about the three opportunities in the market that represent so much opportunity, I don't think we've ever been positioned better to go after this and that's why we're really excited. When you talk about growth, the opportunity to grow is quantum, and we're going to go after it.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah, I like that. And I think again, those are the right things that the organizations, we see that 85% of organizations actually the data they want to use in their AI is actually on-premise and what they want to do is be able to be flexible with it as Gaby was talking about going to the cloud and bringing it back and deploying inference out towards the edge and stuff like that.

>> Absolutely.

Rob Strechay

>> Really good stuff.

>> Thank you.

Rob Strechay

>> So we'll go over to Gabriel here. How do you see the transformation happening with operations, and how is that really, how are you embracing that and really leading with that?

Gabriel Indalecio

>> Oh, that's a great question. Let me start with the definition. Operational excellence that I have embraced on the team, and operational excellence, do very few things with passion, high level of intensity, energy and consistency. In the past few years, we have been driving that operational excellence at multiple level and we have transformed the overall operational team to be sure that we've become an trust business partner with the sales organization, ensure that we provide the support that they need to really be in for the customer and deliver our value proposition. This fiscal year is going to be about simplification. When you're looking to the pros, they do one thing really, really well, and I want to be sure that we write that level of professional focus for the operational excellence by simplifying, unifying the technology stack and ensure that the seller have what they need at the right moment to be sure that they are present and they really position it up as the key player for the customer, bring that solution. That's what we have been doing. I will continue doing that.

Rob Strechay

>> A lot of it is about how you meet your sellers where they are and give them the right data at the right time and keep it frictionless.

Gabriel Indalecio

>> 100%. Focus at the right moment, at the right time, with the right tools to enable them to be success.

Rob Strechay

>> Excellent. Ashish, everybody was saying five years ago, we're going to go cloud first and that's going to be it. I think I was always that hybrid was going to win the day because there's no one cloud that can rule the world. What are you seeing from a cloud perspective that NetApp's approach has given agility to your customers? What have you been seeing as you've gone out and talked to those customers?

Ashish Dhawan

>> Yeah, what's most important to understand is that our customers are at different stages of cloud adoption. Cloud adoption is always dependent on what workloads work best on cloud or on-prem. We follow a very workload-led approach. If VMware is a workload that customers want to migrate to the cloud, we've got services with Azure, we've got services with AWS and Google Cloud that'll help them migrate to the cloud. If SAP is a workload they want to migrate to the cloud, we've got services to do so. If there are certain static workloads that can remain on-prem, we've got products to do that as well. The differentiation is that today the customer needs true hybridity, it needs a passage where on-prem can move to the cloud and cloud can move back on-prem whenever the customer requires. In addition, there are geopolitical issues that are now coming up. There are more complex compliances, there are more regulations that are coming up where the customers actually need this hybridity even more. And guess what? There's only one company in the whole world that has first-party services with each of the hyperscalers. We've got services which are in each of their hyperscaler marketplaces as well. And therefore whatever flexibility they need, whether it's for cloud migrations, whether it's for AI, whether it's for RAG or inferencing, they can get it from NetApp. There's nobody else that can do it for them.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah, and they can also bring some of those other services around it to bear on that data as well, which I think is key to getting your ROI out of AI and how they do that. I also liked, and we'll come back, I'll circle back around in a second on something, but first, Srivatsan, what are you seeing as customers look to transform their operations with AI? How are they going about using the data to do that?

Srivatsan Vaiyakarnam

>> That's an excellent question. I think AI has fundamentally changed the way customers look at data and analytics. When you think about the three top use cases that any customer, and I can tell you from my experience using data is number one, are we competitively know different from our competition, is the first question. Number two, are we making sure that we are driving the best experience for our customers? And number three, are we able to scale, which is where productivity and cost savings come in? I think those are probably the three top drivers that we see with our customers and more. I can give you one example, right? I mean with data, and to Ashish's point, truly becoming hybrid, customers are becoming hybrid, data is residing everywhere. You're also becoming very connected with your customers. So as our customers are trying to be very differentiated, they are using AI to understand their customer's information so that they can be more personalized. I think that's why it's a very fascinating world how AI is literally transforming the way we look at data.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I mean, I think again, it's definitely transforming every part of every business. We'll go back down the line here. We'll start with you and this time, Srivatsan, why don't you give us something you're hoping to be able to say next year at Converge for FY27 that you can't say today?

Srivatsan Vaiyakarnam

>> It's a great question. I think when you think about AI and generative AI, the way we are looking at generative AI and how we can use and put those use cases both internally, externally is going to be pretty fascinating. It's a great challenge that we are looking at. So when I think about our business and how we support our customers, I feel that's an area where we are going to be extremely transformative. That's what I would say at this point.

Rob Strechay

>> I would agree, I think that's a great place. Ashish, what do you think? What do you hope that you can say next year this time going into FY27?

Ashish Dhawan

>> We're constantly obsessing over our customers, and we want to solve our customer's biggest problems. Today, the biggest problems are that they need a very hybrid solution for their data. Next year at Converge, we want a complete integration of our first-party and third-party services with each of the three hyperscalers AI platforms. We want a complete integration to Google's Vertex AI. We are a complete integration to Amazon's bedrock for a complete integration to Microsoft Fabric, helping customers with Rag and inferencing. We want an integration with NVIDIA's AI for enterprise, helping customers get access to libraries that are already there, helping them with medical imaging on AI, fraud detection on AI, computer-aided engineering, and many other problems that they want to solve very quickly. That's what I want to see next year.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah, I could agree more. I think, again, those use cases are key to where people are going to get that ROI out of AI as well. Gabriel, what do you want to be able to say next year at Converge?

Gabriel Indalecio

>> I would love you to ask me again, say, "Hey Gabriel, have you delivered on the promises that you made one year ago to your sales organization to enable them to combine AI and data to ensure that they understand what are the customer pain points, where they have opportunity to solve problems for the customer and ensure that they have been able to be success?" I will love our entire sales organization be able to deliver on that promise by combining AI data as part of the operational excellent commitment that I'm making to all of them.

Rob Strechay

>> Okay. Dallas, what do you hope to be able to say?

Ashish Dhawan

>> I completely agree with the team. I think everyone's desires are fantastic. I'll build on what Ashish said, and that is that my biggest desire and hope is that our sales force becomes known in the industry as delivering the best solutions for our customers, that they can rely on us above all else. And along the way, we sold more AI and had more AI success for our customers than anyone in the industry.

Rob Strechay

>> I think that's admirable, I think that's great.

>> Thank you.

Rob Strechay

>> Gabie, bring us home. What do you hope to be able to say next year at this time?

Gabie Boko

>> Oh, there's no such thing as hope. I believe. Honestly, NetApp is going to continue to be the intelligent data infrastructure company, but I truly believe we're going to be the brand of choice for enterprise storage, cloud storage, and AI data infrastructure. That is a guarantee, and the best part about that is that all of our customers will be able to say no matter who they are, that their data lives on NetApp. That is more than hope, that is going to be a true statement.

Rob Strechay

>> I love it. I love the drilling it home there. Thank you all for coming on board today. I think this has been great I think, and thank you for having us here. It's been some fantastic stories, great customers that we got to meet with today. It's been fantastic. I got to say, the buzz around and the people I know because they kept me up too late last night and they were all excited about all the keynotes and everything else that's been going on, so great job and continued success.

Gabriel Indalecio

>> Thank you.

Gabie Boko

>> Thank you so much.

Rob Strechay

>> And thank you for watching this last episode of NetApp's Converge 2025 live from Las Vegas. Stay tuned, and if you've missed something, go back and watch one of the replays. They're all out there, some really great stuff from customers and from some of the experts in the industry. Go check it out. For Rob Strechay and Rebecca Knight, I'm signing off now, take care.