Tech Insights: Interview with Steve Manley, NetApp

What do you see as the two or three biggest growth opportunities for your customers in 2016, and why?

Smart organisations today are extracting, analysing and transforming their data into valuable insight for a competitive edge. The biggest challenge to achieving this is figuring out how to bring together the silos of data — especially if it is across a combination of on-premise and off-premise cloud models. Next is to take action. It’s completely possible to correlate accelerating the pace of business with how data is managed across clouds. Then there’s creating new ways of thinking. By leveraging the disintermediation that cloud provides, you can innovate on-demand.

What emerging trends or developing technologies may influence or change the way the ICT industry will do business in 2016, and why?

Trends such as the Internet of Things and personalised customer experience will be interesting to monitor over the coming year. The emergence of smart cities will introduce a new dimension to society, which will be very exciting. With organisations expecting to double their digital revenues in 2016 (according to Gartner), it’s important to consider technology choices carefully, especially when there is so much innovation happening in the market. Also, knowing that cost is the top inhibitor for many to find the right approach, it will be important to find ways for technology to help innovate (or fail) fast.

What new and innovative technologies do you see emerging in your IT solution categories in 2016, and how will they help your customers?

Data fabric technology will provide a clear path to private, public and hybrid cloud models. Coupled with Flash technology, it means customers will have the ability to accelerate their business and gain efficiencies across their resources, all whilst protecting their storage investment. We will continue to partner strongly with Cisco to deliver converged infrastructure solutions to the market, most recently in the form of validated design architectures for SAP application performance and OpenStack cloud solutions.

What are your customers demanding of you more today than five years ago, and how will you meet these requirements in 2016?

The simplicity of consumption of storage. As customers look to move from CapEx to OpEx models (or a hybrid of both) and manage the transfer of risk, it is important to understand their commercial needs around this. It’s about providing the right, differentiated service model to suit their business requirements, and where it makes sense, embracing the expertise that partners have to deliver this.

Aside from your own, which ICT companies will be the ones to watch in 2016 and why?

Hyperscalar players such as AWS, Microsoft and Google will be ones to keep on the radar. With the rise of cloud and the exponential rate of innovation, the need to leverage platforms that can manage highly variable workloads with minimal upfront cost is becoming the norm. As organisations mature their data fabric strategy, the recipe to cost-effectively managing data-in-motion versus data-at-rest will enable them to embrace the right hybrid cloud model to suit.

Steve Manley is Vice President, NetApp, for Australia & New Zealand, responsible for defining the business strategy and direction of the company. He has more than 20 years of experience in the IT industry and is always passionate about finding a better way to drive success for customers through technology.