NetApp showcases AI-ready data infrastructure and autonomous security at LEAP 2026

At LEAP 2026 in Riyadh, NetApp has unveiled its Intelligent Data Infrastructure platform, aiming to make enterprise data AI-ready and secure across hybrid-multi-cloud environments. The announcement highlights NetApp's strategic focus on the Saudi Arabian market, aligning with the Kingdom's designation of 2026 as the Year of Artificial Intelligence. As enterprises move from AI experimentation to large-scale production, the need for robust, scalable, and secure data infrastructure becomes paramount. NetApp LEAP 2026 presence underscores this shift, bringing autonomous, AI-driven defense mechanisms designed for rapid threat detection and data recovery to the forefront of the region's technological evolution. The shift from AI experimentation to large-scale production requires a fundamental rethinking of data infrastructure. NetApp is addressing this by showcasing solutions designed to make enterprise data AI-ready. This involves not only the storage and management of vast datasets but also ensuring that this data is accessible, performant, and secure across complex hybrid-multi-cloud environments. By providing a unified platform, NetApp aims to simplify the complexities associated with deploying and managing AI workloads at scale. The platform's capabilities are designed to support the demanding requirements of modern AI applications, ensuring that organizations can derive actionable insights from their data efficiently and effectively. The focus on hybrid-multi-cloud environments is particularly relevant as enterprises increasingly adopt diverse cloud strategies to optimize performance, cost, and compliance. NetApp's Intelligent Data Infrastructure is engineered to provide seamless data mobility and management across these disparate environments, enabling organizations to leverage the best capabilities of different cloud providers without being locked into a single ecosystem. This flexibility is crucial for enterprises seeking to build resilient and agile AI infrastructures capable of adapting to evolving business needs and technological advancements. Furthermore, the platform's emphasis on unified storage addresses a critical challenge in AI deployments: data silos. By consolidating data across various storage tiers and locations into a single, manageable entity, NetApp facilitates easier access and analysis, accelerating the AI lifecycle from data preparation to model training and deployment. This unified approach not only enhances operational efficiency but also improves data governance and compliance, which are critical considerations for enterprises operating in highly regulated industries. As the value of data increases, so does the sophistication of cyber threats. Recognizing this, NetApp has integrated autonomous, AI-driven defense mechanisms into its Intelligent Data Infrastructure platform. Saeed Alzahrani, Country Manager for Saudi Arabia at NetApp, highlighted the necessity of embedding security directly into the data itself rather than relying solely on perimeter defenses. This data-centric approach to security ensures that protection travels with the data, regardless of where it resides or how it is accessed within the hybrid-multi-cloud environment. The autonomous defense mechanisms showcased at LEAP 2026 are designed for rapid threat detection and data recovery, critical capabilities in the face of increasingly prevalent ransomware attacks. By leveraging AI, these mechanisms can continuously monitor data access patterns and identify anomalous behavior indicative of a potential breach. This proactive approach enables organizations to detect and mitigate threats before they can cause significant damage, minimizing downtime and data loss. Moreover, the platform's focus on ransomware recovery provides organizations with the assurance that they can quickly restore operations in the event of a successful attack. NetApp's solutions are engineered to provide immutable, air-gapped backups that are impervious to tampering, ensuring that a clean copy of the data is always available for recovery. This robust data protection strategy is essential for maintaining business continuity and protecting sensitive information in an increasingly hostile cyber landscape. NetApp's participation in LEAP 2026, held at the Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Center, underscores the company's strategic focus on the Saudi Arabian market. Suhail Hasanain, Senior Director and General Manager, MEA at NetApp, emphasized Saudi Arabia's emergence as a key AI market. This aligns with the Kingdom's designation of 2026 as the Year of Artificial Intelligence, a national initiative aimed at accelerating the adoption and development of AI technologies across various sectors of the economy. The localization of NetApp's strategic push and technological focus for the Saudi market reflects a deep understanding of the region's unique requirements and aspirations. By addressing the specific AI infrastructure demands of Saudi enterprises, NetA