NetApp INSIGHT 2026 | Gabie Boko, NetApp

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Gabie Boko

CMO

NetApp

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play_circle_outline NVIDIA partnership: AI Data Engine co‑engineered, expanding ecosystem and partner opportunities

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Gabie Boko, NetApp

Gabie Boko

CMO NetApp

In this interview from NetApp INSIGHT 2026, Gabie Boko, chief marketing officer of NetApp, joins theCUBE's Rebecca Knight and Christophe Bertrand to discuss how Intelligent Data Infrastructure is becoming the foundation for the AI era. Boko reflects on NetApp's three-year pivot from its storage legacy toward a unified platform that activates data wherever it lives, across on-premises, cloud and neocloud environments. She highlights a surge of net new buyers, including CDOs and data-focused titles extending beyond the traditional CIO, alongside 30% year-over-y... Read more

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What is the next chapter for NetApp as data and AI change how organizations think about storage, and how has the company positioned itself with its "Intelligent Data Infrastructure"? add

How does the NetApp platform turn this context into something customers can use to make decisions and take actions? add

How does NetApp's Novus architecture, the recent acquisition, and its Intelligent Data Infrastructure change how a marketer should approach the market and address different customer personas (legacy enterprise customers versus new AI/neocloud buyers)? add

What does NetApp’s AI Data Engine co‑engineered with NVIDIA — and that partnership announcement — demonstrate about NetApp’s growing role in the AI ecosystem? add

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Gabie Boko, NetApp

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(INTRO)

Rebecca Knight

>> Welcome back to theCUBE's live coverage of NetApp Insight 2026 here at the MGM. I'm your host, Rebecca Knight, and I'm alongside Christophe Bertrand, who is theCUBE's analyst in residence. So very excited to be doing this show with you.

Christophe Bertrand

>> Same here.

Rebecca Knight

>> Lots of questions indeed for our next guest. I would like to welcome Gabie Boko. She is, of course, the CMO of NetApp. Thank you so much for coming back to the show.

Gabie Boko

>> I am really glad to be here again.

Rebecca Knight

>> Yeah, no, we're delighted to be here. So NetApp obviously built its name, built its reputation in storage, but it's now being talked about in new and different conversations by people who really didn't have to think about storage before. Talk a little bit about this moment and what you're seeing in terms of the next chapter for NetApp.

Gabie Boko

>> Yeah, I would like to say that we saw this coming, so I'm really happy. Yes, I'm really glad that 3 years ago we really leaned heavily into taking our data legacy and our storage legacy and turning it into something we call Intelligent Data Infrastructure. We knew that the AI era would define and drive data in a different way. And we wanted to lean on the legacy, but we wanted to be open to where data was going to drive the next part of the conversation. I really think that that's what we're seeing now, is that when you're hearing NetApp, you're hearing it in the context of today, how vital data infrastructure is to the AI era, how important data is in general in terms of how you're thinking about it. Both personally, maybe as a human, but also as an enterprise. It makes me really proud that Intelligent Data Infrastructure has broken through and it's charting a course for NetApp and AI and data as the core of that.

Christophe Bertrand

>> And to what extent is it something that you use within NetApp as an organizing or forcing function?

Gabie Boko

>> Yeah, it is. It's absolutely, I'd like to say that brand is always something that's really important, but I think this goes far beyond product strategy, a single product, or even a brand strategy. What this is, is really a commitment to a vision for our customers on their data. And really maybe even as George said yesterday at the end, our commitment to data driving humankind and their ability to— we call it maybe unleashing genius. Right. But I think it's that commitment that we take. Intelligent data infrastructure is not just a thing. It is a mantra of how we want to make right decisions, how we think about innovation, how we drive strategic decisions forward for our customers, for our partners, and for ourselves. So more than a mantra, definitely an internal flag. We're going to plant the flag.

Rebecca Knight

>> So how does the NetApp platform turn this context into something that customers can make decisions on and take actions on?

Gabie Boko

>> Yeah, I love that announcement. And what I'd love to say is that it's not even an announcement. It's who we've been all along. When we talked about and launched Intelligent Data Infrastructure, we were leaning into the fact that we already knew that most of our customers considered our portfolio as a platform, and that's— we wanted that. What we love about how from last year to this year, really leaning into the platform, is that the platform starts to take us away from disparate portfolio pieces into a context that says, this is how you deliver Intelligent Data Infrastructure. The NetApp platform is how we get to wherever your data is, how we are going to activate that data. It is a different platform play than everybody else. We are not suggesting that you want to be inside a walled garden. We are suggesting we are already there. Help us activate your data. The NetApp platform is the way you do that. And that's what brings IDI, Intelligent Data Infrastructure, to life, makes it real.

Christophe Bertrand

>> So let's talk about the market in this context. Obviously, you've made a couple of big announcements. It was an acquisition announcement on Friday. The Novus architecture, it is changing the game for NetApp from an architectural perspective for the AI factories and neocloud segment. Of course, you've just mentioned that you have had this presence in the enterprise space for many, many years. And with Intelligent Data Infrastructure, you're sort of bringing it all together at scale.

Rebecca Knight

>> Yep.

Christophe Bertrand

>> So does that change how you approach as a marketer, how you approach the market, 'cause you have some different personas here to deal with and maybe they're merging at some point in time. So how do you approach it?

Gabie Boko

>> Yeah, there's so many trends. AI is, I think, accelerating so many data trends. I think we've got the data sovereignty trend, it's jurisdictional. We continue to have the security and cyber resilience, right? We continue to have the hyperscalers continue to kind of dominate whether it's in terms of compliance, governance, application workloads. I think what AI does to all three of those is it says, where and how is a company going to manage their data and how do they want to think about speed? How do they want to think about compliance? How do they want to think about growth? As a marketer, what that does for me is it says, I want to land my customers. I want to make them feel like they know where we are and where we're going with a roadmap. But I also want that roadmap to reflect my net new customers. I want it to reflect how people are going to use this in the future, how maybe a CDO is going to use it, a CPO is going to use it. I think that that's really the beauty of what the AI era does for intelligent data infrastructure and for the NetApp platform. It says we know that we have great legacy storage people, customers, partners. We also know that they are grappling with the same things that other net new are grappling with. And we want to bring those together into conversations that say, I'm a new buyer, go look at this guy. They've already done that.

Christophe Bertrand

>> So we were just talking to George and he was saying, well, at Insight 2026, we have new distributors, we have a lot of net new—

Gabie Boko

>> we do—

Christophe Bertrand

>> attendees, people who never came before. I find that absolutely fascinating because storage has been around for a long time. Not that exciting. Turns out with the advent of AI at scale, it has become—

Gabie Boko

>> Data infrastructure is sexy again.

Christophe Bertrand

>> Very fundamental. You would say on-prem and

Gabie Boko

>> people—I'm going to say sexy because I'm a marketer. You can call it fundamental.

Christophe Bertrand

>> Fundamental. I'm an

Gabie Boko

>> analyst.

Christophe Bertrand

>> Done.Fundamentally sexy. How's that? But I would say that it is placing data, you're right, at the heart of everything. But more importantly, you're talking about new markets, new customers. As a marketer, that's very critical. You've had a significant amount of year-on-year growth in your first quarter, if I'm not mistaken, 30%. Is that correct? Okay, that was never going to happen a few years ago. Storage was not in that sort of mode. Now it has become really the heart of a lot of AI initiatives. So again, from a marketing standpoint, looking at these new customers, who are they? What are you hearing from these new attendees that maybe didn't know NetApp before as much?

Gabie Boko

>> I'll give you one example. Just even yesterday, after all of our announcements on stage, website hits went through the roof. And they are all net new names for us.

Christophe Bertrand

>> Wow.

Rebecca Knight

>> Net new names.

Gabie Boko

>> And we're talking 10, 20, 15— sorry, 50% growth on what we've had in terms of year over year. So these are net new names, net new titles. And we're seeing that even in terms of the attendance here. These are net new titles. It's extensions off of the CIO, more data-friendly people who are managing data, CDOs. So we are seeing the extension there. I think that that's really fantastic. We're also seeing that same sort of growth inside the LLMs where we are exposing data infrastructure to net new audiences in vehicles that they want to be connected to. They want to ask the questions. So we're literally seeing ourselves at the juncture with data infrastructure, with storage. And I know I keep saying data infrastructure and not storage. I see them synonymous. To me, wherever your data lives, NetApp is there. If it is your on-premises storage, it is. If it is in a cloud, a multi-cloud, if it is in a NeoCloud. I don't care where your data is. NetApp is poised with its infrastructure capabilities to manage your data and to help you activate it. That is what is attracting net new audiences. It's not that storage or data infrastructure is cool again. It is that they are asking the questions to say, I need to activate my data. Who is going to be the best to do that? And that's what's bringing them in the door. That's why it's so cool. It's almost like You're getting a chance to tell your story again to somebody who isn't colored by the past but is enticed by the past.

Christophe Bertrand

>> Interesting.

Rebecca Knight

>> That is interesting. And I like the way you're talking about that. NetApp's AI Data Engine co-engineered with NVIDIA, the big gun of the AI economy. What does that partnership, that announcement demonstrate about NetApp's growing role in this ecosystem?

Gabie Boko

>> I think it's a super positive inclination or indication that we are partners with people that have been driving and engineering this space for a really long time. But in addition to that, we're also partners with net new entries as well. So what we love about our partnership with NVIDIA is that it's opened doors to other net new partners, smaller partners who are redefining the Neo Cloud space. Same with even our legacy partners. They are also opening doors to net new partners as well. So I don't view this really as a single partner or a single product play. I view this as, again, back to a data play and us being at the center or creating a center of gravity for an ecosystem that we can have strong voices. And that's what I'm really excited about. That's what the NVIDIA AI era has done for us, and that's what we're trying to take advantage of and lean into.

Christophe Bertrand

>> It's really enabling the intelligent data infrastructure to sort of come to life and come to Thank you so much for using the words. Yes, I love it. It's a great concept. Definitely not just a concept because it's reality.

Gabie Boko

>> It is reality now.

Christophe Bertrand

>> Yeah. AI will not be able to happen without data that's actually compliant and governed.

Gabie Boko

>> Correct.

Christophe Bertrand

>> And sovereign. Yet sometimes they're discussed, those concepts are discussed separately. And to me, I don't think they are. I think there is no AI without a number of characteristics associated with data. So as an enterprise, I'm just going to take that segment of the market. Sure. Your traditional segment. As an enterprise, I have seen the light. I want to use all of my data. Well, easier said than done because it's siloed. You're solving for that. I want to use— I want my agents to use all of my data and not go do crazy stuff, which means the data has to be governed. It has to be managed. And then of course, I have to manage the agents. Maybe you won't do that, but at least for identity, you have a role to play. So how do you envision, let's say, in a year, in 2 years, in 3 years, as we enter this next phase of AI adoption, how do you see NetApp playing out or the infrastructure playing out literally? Yeah, because you have all of the components now, especially with the recent announcements.

Gabie Boko

>> Yeah, well, and that's the beauty of how the net new buyers or the net new partners are coming in as well. I think what you're looking at is us playing in not just the data infrastructure, but where you're having the data conversations. And as you heard yesterday with the Novus conversation and the AIDE conversation, the metadata conversation, I think that's really where you're going to see intelligent data infrastructure. That's where you're going to see us continue to push that story forward and expand it. Is it— does it become a focus on the intelligent data part because of that? Does it become a data infrastructure part to deal with our legacy? That's what I love about the namespace of intelligent data infrastructure and the opportunity that a single namespace in a metadata and a data environment does for us. Again, it comes back to where you want to activate your data and if you're doing it in a sovereign way, if you want to do it in a secure way. P.S., I have to say, we're the only one built in, not bolted on, right? We are the most secure storage on the planet. We are now the fastest data infrastructure on the planet. When you continue to build those concepts into how you come to life, then you are continuing to take the data layer as your guide and not the box as your guide.

Christophe Bertrand

>> What have you seen from a customer standpoint as sort of the, going beyond pilots, really going into now, okay, I'm investing in you, I'm investing in this infrastructure. Are there some verticals that are doing it better than others? Are there some use cases or processes that you see as being sort of the first step for anybody in the enterprise to get into and then the next one?

Gabie Boko

>> And yeah, I do like the vertical lens and you are going to see us come out with more of that as we move forward. And you can kind of see that already represented in a lot of our sponsorships, sports and media and entertainment. You can even as you're walking around, you see all the kind of quotes where we're in pharmaceutical, we're in government. So when you look at those, in terms of indicators of where we're going, that verticalization definitely will start to happen because that accelerates and defines workloads in a very specific way for data that allows you to add or decrease the complexity that a customer would want to see. So you're going to see us do that. I think you're also going to see us do the same thing with partnerships where we get more defined in terms of maybe verticals that they're in or single opportunity workloads where that allows us to maybe define a specific target audience. But I think that that's how customers are looking at it as well. What do I need to solve first? What can I try? How can I expand that? That's how we want to be able to partner. And again, we don't want to have complexity on the back end by saying you have to consume our entire platform. You don't have to consume it. We just want to be where your data is and we already know that it's going to work together.

Christophe Bertrand

>> Right. And it could be anybody, anybody's data, right?

Rebecca Knight

>> That's the—

Gabie Boko

>> Exactly. That was the big net new announcement yesterday as well. And you know what, I think that that is where data is going. Again, we want to be there for however you want to control it and govern it. That's the sovereignty play. We want you to purchase it any way you want to, is that CapEx, OpEx, Keystone, whatever we want to do that. And we also want you to be able to use any data, any, any, any, that's IDI, that's Intelligent Data Infrastructure.

Rebecca Knight

>> So AI marketing can sometimes move faster. It moves at a breakneck pace and it can sometimes move faster than what a product can actually deliver. How do you strike that balance and think about NetApp's approach without maybe overpromising? Or because I think it would— it could be a real problem.

Gabie Boko

>> Well, I've always taken a little bit of I need to be ahead in order for things to catch up. So I've been really focused in on partnering with the product team, partnering with a lot of parts of the company to say, let's get the portfolio strong and viable. That's how we feed the LLMs, right? And I really do believe that marketers, especially CMOs, need to be not risk-averse to using AI across their demand gen, across their branding, and use the vehicles. I want to be asking the questions. I don't want to be the answer all the time. And I think that that's a— the why for me is really important for being the marketer and where and how I ingest AI, where I have my team ingest AI. So for me, it's about the why, and that helps me embrace the right vectors in terms of how I use AI. That helps me engage the whole NetApp team in being part of the answer, not just asking the question, right? So that's how I approach it. Not every CMO approaches it the same way. But as you guys have seen me for 3 years, I like a little bit of risk in my diet. So this is how I ingest the risk.

Rebecca Knight

>> Well, speaking of that, if this is indeed the first chapter of NetApp telling its story to a wider audience and reaching new potential customers and partners, what do you want the people in this room to take away from NetApp Insight this year?

Gabie Boko

>> You know, I believe that NetApp is for some people, a sleeping giant. But we are here and we are driving the AI era. Intelligent data infrastructure is absolutely critical to any data need. Even if AI changes tomorrow, you can absolutely guarantee that how we think about data, how we're giving you access to it, and how we are helping you activate it is going to define your future going forward. So we're your partner for the future. We're your partner for the AI era. And we have a strong legacy to say that we've already been there and done that, and that's what we're going to continue to do.

Rebecca Knight

>> Been there, done that. I love it. Gabie, thank you so much. Always a pleasure having you on the show.

Gabie Boko

>> Thanks, guys.

Christophe Bertrand

>> Appreciate it. Thank you.

Rebecca Knight

>> I'm Rebecca Knight for Christophe Bertrand. Stay tuned for more of theCUBE's live coverage of NetApp Insight 2026. You're watching theCUBE, the leader in enterprise tech news and analysis.