NetApp INSIGHT 2025: The Enterprise Data Platform—Intelligent, Resilient, Disaggregated | Andrew Sotiropoulos, NetApp

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Andrew Sotiropoulos

SVP & GM, APAC

NetApp

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Andrew Sotiropoulos, NetApp

Andrew Sotiropoulos

SVP & GM, APAC NetApp

In this NetApp INSIGHT 2025 interview from Las Vegas, Andrew Sotiropoulos of NetApp joins theCUBE Research’s Christophe Bertrand to unpack what it really takes to scale AI and modern data infrastructure across the vast and diverse APAC region. Sotiropoulos explains the common threads he sees across countries – from governments, enterprises and consumers all grappling with technology adoption – to the intensifying focus on data sovereignty and the rise of local “neoclouds.” He outlines how organizations tailor AI to their immediate goals, whether optimizing op... Read more

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Christophe Bertrand

>> Welcome back to Vegas, NetApp Insight 2025. I'm Christophe Bertrand, principal analyst at theCUBE Research, and we're going to talk about the business of NetApp in a small region called APAC with Andrew Sotiropoulos. How are you?

Andrew Sotiropoulos

>> Very good. Thank you.

Christophe Bertrand

>> Thank you for joining us. Yeah. We were joking earlier, wow, what a small region.

Andrew Sotiropoulos

>> Yes, it's geographically very, very big, diverse culturally, but there are constant factors within that in terms of governments grappling with how to leverage technology, consumers grappling with how to deploy technology, and in between enterprises trying to work out how to optimize and how to engage their customers with not only technology, but also now the discussion the draw of artificial intelligence.

Christophe Bertrand

>> Oh, absolutely. When you think about the region, just to again recalibrate the conversation for our viewers, your region spans, unless I'm mistaken, countries like Australia, New Zealand, which of course are typically combined, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore-

Andrew Sotiropoulos

>> India....

Christophe Bertrand

>> and others, India, small, small, small, small country. All of these economies are very different in nature, but yet you're saying they have some constants and some I would say key trends that you're observing. Can you break those down for us and maybe compare and contrast the trends you've observed in your vast region?

Andrew Sotiropoulos

>> Oh, that's a great question. There are constants within the geography in terms of what I introduced, which was how governments, customers, as well as consumers are grappling with the deployment and absorption of technology. What changes and what is different are cultural nuances and where each economy is, and how governments and the profile of the government are seeking to adapt and be able to serve their citizens as best as possible.

Christophe Bertrand

>> Do you think that compliance, for example... Because we're talking about AI too, right?

Andrew Sotiropoulos

>> Right. Sure.

Christophe Bertrand

>> So this compliance just doing business, GDPR has influenced your region. For example, Japan literally adopted GDPR and said, "Yeah. Oh, we like it. Got it." If you want to do business with Europe, which a lot of NetApp customers are doing business or global companies, whether from APAC or having a strong presence in APAC likely will apply GDPR and equivalent type of compliance regulations. Well, AI is coming up now, and I think a lot of organizations are struggling to find ROI maybe because they have too many data silos, too much complexity in their workflows. How do you see your ability to help them with the recent AI innovations we talked about here at NetApp?

Andrew Sotiropoulos

>> That's a great question. It's a very broad question. Well, data sovereignty is an important discussion in every customer that we engage with, and you can escalate it up at a country level, but data sovereignty and where the data sits and how it's consumed and by whom, all governments today are dealing with that. AI accelerates that, and you see a lot of local players and local support from governments in neoclouds being coming up within those countries. The challenge everyone has is AI is a very broad term, and consequently you have to decide, are you going to adopt AI to optimize and make your business more efficient, or are you going to adopt AI to be able to engage your customers more efficiently so their experience is much more effective and also high? Also, there's that third paradigm is can AI be more productive as an organization? So, every customer takes a different path. Every industry takes a different path. Every country takes a different path. So when you're having an AI conversation, it really is a personal conversation to the individual customer that you're dealing and engaging with in the moment.

Christophe Bertrand

>> Do you see differences between, say, ANZ and India or Japan in how they're approaching AI to your point?

Andrew Sotiropoulos

>> No, not different in the context that they're grappling with what I just said that every industry has its different nuance. So manufacturing is looking for optimization. EDA looking for how can I get a greater yield. Financial services, how can I engage my customer more efficiently? It's very constant, very consistent around the world when you're talking to a big financial institution in Japan or Australia or India, how they're engaging with their customers and looking to leverage AI to make them more efficient via the customer experience more paramount. It's very constant and it's across the board.

Christophe Bertrand

>> Yeah, which is actually a great advantage to have because you can really advise customers. You've seen it all in the sense that you're seeing it as it's happening. Which workflows today have you seen as being the most promising and successful in this early stages?

Andrew Sotiropoulos

>> It really is really important to keep an open mind because every industry adopts it differently. So what we are trying to do is to become a trusted advisor. We have a wonderful credibility with our product historically in terms of our customer experience and their utilization. So we have a ticket to the dance, as we call it, to be able to engage the conversation with how the technologies to be deployed to help the customer achieve their business goals. So, as you approach each customer, knowing what their agenda is, what their business drivers are, what they're trying to deal with, and personalize that conversation through the various offerings that we have is what really the experience is about.

Christophe Bertrand

>> So, let's talk about some of the innovations that we heard about that were announced today in the keynote are a couple of big ones and we'll talk about them here on theCUBE. Which ones do you see as critical for your region, and how do you think it's going to change the game for you?

Andrew Sotiropoulos

>> I think all of them are incredibly relevant. So that you see the AI data platform that we announced with the AFX architecture, being able to consume that in a CapEx or an as-a-service model, that's consistent across the geography. The announcements that we made with Google about block capability being offered through them, the capabilities of being able to move volumes and data on hyperscaler, on-prem, they are all incredibly relevant across all of our countries and because the customer experience is the same in terms of what they're trying to achieve, the enterprises with their customers. So, incredibly powerful, incredibly relevant for what we are looking to achieve as NetApp in Asia Pacific.

Christophe Bertrand

>> We haven't talked about this, but I'm curious, tell me about your ecosystem. Obviously, APAC very diverse region, but what do you do with systems integrators, with channel partners, with industry technology partners? We certainly heard about NVIDIA, but there are others obviously, and we are right here in the middle of floor full of trusted partners here at NetApp Insight 2025. How does that play out for you in your region? Is there a recipe that you apply to be successful?

Andrew Sotiropoulos

>> I think an open mind to local and global is important. The global brand names that you see here and everyone is familiar with, AWS, Google, Microsoft, incredibly powerful, the global systems integrators like Kyndryl, IBM, HCL, incredibly powerful to have relationships with them. But you also have to be local. You have to partner with the local entities because they have strong engagement and reputations within. So we have Fujitsu in Japan, we have NTT in Japan and so on. You can go right throughout the geography where you have to be local as well as global, and that epidexterity and being able to do that is one of the recipes for success.

Christophe Bertrand

>> Going back to the verticals, I know that's one area we touched upon briefly. Do you see certain verticals as being more of maybe not a priority because I'm sure they're all important? But there is a sort of a pecking order now that I think we're starting to see emerging for AI in general terms and really for the innovations you can bring to the table with what George called the data platform, which is a big name right there. From your perspective, where would you place those verticals? Is there, again, that pecking order? Is there something that you believe is going to play out a bit differently in your region?

Andrew Sotiropoulos

>> I think it's similar around the world from listening to Giovanna and Ricardo talk and our global leaders, of course, that there is no industry that's ahead or behind. Every customer within that personalizes it. It's no different to cloud. Maybe 10, 15 years ago when it first became a conversation piece, everyone had it on their agenda. Everyone needed to focus on it, but how they focused on it was personalized. What we are seeing in some of the countries is government playing a stronger role in trying to create an ecosystem and environment where the AI adoption can be accelerated. So you see that in Korea, Taiwan, Japan. The non-English speaking countries, really the governments there are trying to facilitate and enable local ecosystems to grow, but that's not to say anything about the other countries like Singapore and Australia and India who are doing their own activities. So government has an important role to play, especially around that data sovereignty and supporting neocloud growth adoption in each of the countries. But all industries, I would say, are at the same stage, but customers within those industries are at different stages.

Christophe Bertrand

>> Which brings up, I think, a question I asked Giovanna, to what extent are governments helping or not helping with the initiative, with investment, with research, et cetera, and funding, or maybe not helping when they want to get into regulations and for good reasons very often? What's your take on this? Are you feeling that it's more positive or more negative in your region?

Andrew Sotiropoulos

>> I think it's incredibly positive. I think governments to different degrees have accelerated their investment frameworks, for lack of a better word, because you do also have to enable local language suppliers, local systems integrators, local data centers, power consumption, power environments to be able to consume and create the data centers that AI requires. So, governments have a very, very important role to play.

Christophe Bertrand

>> Great. Well, Andrew, thank you so much for taking the time to join us today. I've really learned quite a bit about the region.

Andrew Sotiropoulos

>> Thank you.

Christophe Bertrand

>> I think you onto some very interesting things with these new announcements. Lots of great business, lots of great customers. So, thank you very much and-

Andrew Sotiropoulos

>> Certain times for us. Thank you for having me....

Christophe Bertrand

>> have a great 2026.

Andrew Sotiropoulos

>> Thank you so much.

Christophe Bertrand

>> Thank you, Andrew.

Andrew Sotiropoulos

>> You're welcome.

Christophe Bertrand

>> To our viewers, NetApp Insight 2025. I'm Christophe Bertrand, principal analyst at theCUBE. We'll be right back. Stay tuned.