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Walid Issa, the Senior Manager for PreSales and Solutions Engineers – Middle East and Africa at NetApp, says, 2025 is shaping up to be a year of recalibration and opportunity
How did the industry and your company fare in 2024, and what were the key highlights?
Overall, I’d say that the industry experienced a mix of rapid innovation and mounting challenges. Cybersecurity dominated conversations with businesses facing increasingly sophisticated threats owing to the increase in AI usage by cybercriminals. Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) also became a top investment priority as organizations sought reliable ways to safeguard operations. Sustainability emerged as a pressing focus, with regulatory pressures driving transparency in cloud providers’ environmental efforts.
For NetApp, 2024 was a year of navigating these shifts while helping customers standardise and simplify their increasingly complex environments. Our ability to unify service layers across diverse clouds empowered organizations to cut through cost and complexity while mitigating risk. One key highlight was our work in enabling customers to manage data waste effectively, helping them turn what could have been an operational burden into strategic insights. Additionally, our emphasis on realistic, value-driven AI projects resonated with customers navigating the hype-versus-reality of AI adoption.
What opportunities do you foresee for 2025, and how do you plan to leverage them?
2025 is shaping up to be a year of recalibration and opportunity. The rise in Security as a Service, including DRaaS, opens opportunities to assist businesses in staying resilient amid growing cyber threats. We see significant potential in helping companies standardize service layers across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, reducing complexity and ensuring smoother operations.
AI is another critical area but with a nuanced approach. As companies adopt a more pragmatic view of AI’s capabilities, NetApp plans to focus on guiding organizations toward measurable outcomes through structured, value-driven AI projects. Additionally, with countries investing in infrastructure to meet their AI and data ambitions, NetApp’s expertise in managing data intelligently positions us as a key partner in these transformative efforts.
Lastly, sustainability remains a cornerstone of our strategy. As regulators push for cloud sustainability accountability, we are committed to aligning with providers that uphold transparency and helping our customers meet their environmental goals without compromising performance.
What major challenges did you encounter in 2024, and how did you address them?
2024 wasn’t without its hurdles. The sheer volume of data created a significant portion of it single-use posed challenges for organizations striving to manage and utilize their information efficiently. NetApp addressed this head-on by developing innovative strategies and solutions to help customers identify and reduce data waste, ensuring they could derive maximum value while minimizing inefficiencies.
AI’s over-saturation in the market also proved challenging, as inflated expectations sometimes led to disappointment. We tackled this by emphasizing clarity and achievable goals in AI adoption, helping customers build projects with realistic outcomes and timelines. Lastly, growing concerns over sustainability demanded actionable measures. By supporting transparency and accountability in cloud operations, we empowered customers to align their strategies with environmental best practices.
Which emerging technologies do you believe will be in high demand in 2025, and why?
Technologies that simplify and secure multi-cloud environments will see significant demand. Companies are increasingly seeking solutions to standardize service layers and reduce operational complexity as their environments grow more diverse. Security as a Service, particularly DRaaS, will gain momentum as businesses recognize the critical need for outsourced, SLA-backed protection against disruptions.
AI technologies will remain in focus, albeit with tempered enthusiasm. The emphasis will shift toward tools and platforms that offer clear value and measurable results rather than generalized solutions. Sustainability-driven innovations will also be front and centre, with organizations prioritizing green data storage and transparent cloud providers to meet regulatory and internal goals.
What will be your primary focus areas and strategic priorities for 2025?
NetApp’s focus for 2025 revolves around enabling simplicity, resilience, and sustainability for our customers. We aim to lead the charge in standardizing hybrid and multi-cloud environments and helping organizations navigate their increasingly complex infrastructures with ease. Security will remain a top priority. Sustainability is another critical pillar and our goal is to work closely with customers to align their operations with environmental regulations and goals, especially as public cloud providers enhance their accountability in this area. Additionally, as AI takes centre stage, our focus is to help organizations design and adopt pragmatic AI projects that deliver tangible results.
Are there plans to explore new markets or introduce new products/applications to your portfolio in 2025?
NetApp believes in continuing to evolve and innovate to meet customer demands. As businesses worldwide invest in AI-driven infrastructure and green technologies, we are exploring ways to enhance our offerings to meet these needs. Expanding our portfolio to include advanced solutions for data waste management and sustainability metrics is a key focus.
In terms of markets, we’re particularly interested in supporting the massive infrastructure projects underway globally, especially in the UAE and KSA, helping businesses address their data centre needs while meeting sustainability goals. This approach aligns with our commitment to creating solutions that aren’t just about technology they’re about enabling smarter, more sustainable futures.
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