NetApp CEO On Biggest AI Challenges, Investments And Partner Plans For 2026

CEO George Kurian explains NetApp’s biggest investments in 2026 around innovation, data analytics and solving AI challenges, as well as NetApp’s partner strategy this year.

NetApp’s longtime CEO George Kurian sees customers facing four main challenges in 2026 with investment plans in AI and channel partners to tackle customers’ biggest pain points.

“We see our customers facing four main challenges with their infrastructure: modernizing their data infrastructure, maintaining resilient and secure operations, optimizing their cloud strategies and ensuring success with AI,” said Kurian in written responses as part of CRN’s 2026 CEO Outlook project.

“We have focused our product innovation and strategy on solving for these issues, and are excited to bring more innovative solutions to market in 2026,” he said.

[Related: NetApp Introduces Disaggregated Storage, New Software In Major Enterprise AI Push]

Businesses of all shapes and sizes need to prepare their data for AI, Kurian said, with transforming raw data generated by enterprise applications to AI-ready data consuming roughly 80 percent of the time in AI projects.

“In 2026, together with our channel partners, we’ll help our clients streamline the data preparation process to enable large-scale AI implementation and drive productivity gains,” NetApp’s CEO said.

NetApp’s $6.8 Billion ARR And Q2 Earnings Results

NetApp generated $1.7 billion for its second fiscal quarter 2026, which ended in October, representing a 3 percent sales growth year over year.

This means the San Jose, Calif.-based company currently has an annual run rate of approximately $6.8 billion.

NetApp reported a gross profit of $1.23 billion for its Q2 2026, with a total net income of $305 million for the quarter.

As part of CRN’s 2026 CEO Outlook project, Kurian breaks down NetApp’s biggest investments slated for this year, the company’s 2026 biggest market opportunities and NetApp’s channel partner strategy.

Fill in the blank: My top priority for 2026 is...

Building and delivering innovative products and solutions to turn our customers’ data into knowledge.

What are the key technology investments you plan to make in 2026?

We plan to continue investing in and building the NetApp data platform, which allows businesses to unify, organize, and properly govern their data and significantly improve their data management and infrastructure operations.

We believe we have built our strongest portfolio yet: disaggregated storage architecture, unmatched data services, and strong partnerships with the hyperscalers and other industry leaders.

We will continue to focus on delivering innovative products and solutions that improve how our clients can leverage and secure their data.

What is the biggest market opportunity you and your channel partners will tackle together in 2026?

The market opportunity is also a human opportunity: we are now equipped with more powerful analysis and AI tools than ever before to unlock the true potential of our data.

However, the most significant challenge organizations face is to prepare their data for AI; transforming raw data generated by enterprise applications to AI-ready data consumes roughly 80 percent of the time in AI projects.

In 2026, together with our channel partners, we’ll help our clients streamline the data preparation process to enable large-scale AI implementation and drive productivity gains.

What is the key to success for your channel partners in 2026?

The key to success for ourselves and our channel partners in 2026 lies in delivering on our customers’ needs and doing so through collaboration and innovation.

We prioritize opportunities to listen and learn from our customers, understand their challenges, and discuss how we can best solve them.

Our partners bring immense value by combining their knowledge and expertise with ours, allowing us to deliver solutions to market that exceed our individual capabilities.

By fostering strong partnerships and focusing on solving our customers’ most pressing challenges, we will continue to achieve strong outcomes together in 2026.

What impact do you expect AI to have on the business you and your partners do together in 2026?

While enterprise AI is currently a major priority for businesses, the core challenge of AI is one we have been working on for our three decades in business: analyzing large datasets and turning them into actionable insights.

We remain committed to working alongside our partners to tackle these challenges head-on and expect to see a positive impact on our partner business by focusing on what matters most to our joint customers.

By providing enterprise-grade solutions that streamline data analysis and enhance operational efficiency, we ensure our clients can turn their data into knowledge. This approach not only supports AI initiatives but empowers any customer to use their data to become more agile and competitive in their respective markets.

What do you see as the toughest challenges facing customers in 2026?

We see our customers facing four main challenges with their infrastructure: modernizing their data infrastructure, maintaining resilient and secure operations, optimizing their cloud strategies and ensuring success with AI.

We have focused our product innovation and strategy on solving for these issues, and are excited to bring more innovative solutions to market in 2026.

Through our unified approach to data management and intelligent infrastructure, we have been able to help our clients manage any type of data, no matter where it lives, and ensure it is optimized, secured and set up for this era of data-enabled intelligence.