NetApp is putting the data layer at the centre of its appearance at AI Everything Abu Dhabi 2026, where CEO George Kurian will join discussions around one of enterprise AI’s increasingly difficult questions: what does it actually take to trust AI once it starts taking action?
The data infrastructure company is exhibiting at the event on October 6 and 7 at ADNEC Centre in Abu Dhabi, alongside companies working across AI, cloud infrastructure, enterprise software and computing.
NetApp’s argument is fairly simple. Building powerful AI models is only one part of the equation. Enterprises also need to know where their data sits, who can access it, how quickly AI systems can reach it and whether that information remains protected as workloads move between data centres and cloud environments.
That problem becomes more urgent as AI shifts from basic assistants into systems that can perform actions across business applications.
George Kurian Takes on the Question of Trusted AI
NetApp CEO George Kurian is scheduled to participate in a fireside chat titled “Can AI Be Trusted? The New Architecture of Sovereign, Secure and Safe AI.” The discussion is expected to look beyond model performance and focus on the infrastructure, data and governance layers that determine whether enterprises can deploy AI safely at scale.
The trust question has grown more complicated with the arrival of agentic AI. These systems can retrieve company information, interact with applications and carry out multi-step tasks with limited human intervention. That creates an obvious productivity opportunity, but it also raises the cost of weak access controls, poor data governance and fragmented infrastructure.
For enterprise customers, trust is therefore becoming less about whether an AI model gives a convincing answer and more about whether the entire environment around that model can be controlled.
NetApp Puts the Data Layer Behind Enterprise AI
At AI Everything Abu Dhabi 2026, NetApp will showcase the NetApp Platform, which the company positions as a connected and governed foundation for enterprise data. The platform is designed to help organisations access and manage information across different environments while keeping that data protected and available to AI workloads.
One area NetApp is highlighting is zero-copy data access. The idea is to let organisations use existing datasets without constantly duplicating and moving large volumes of information between systems. That can matter when companies are training models, running retrieval systems or feeding enterprise AI applications with data spread across several environments.
The challenge is rarely the AI demo itself. Many companies can build a proof of concept. The difficulty appears when that project has to move into production and suddenly touches confidential information, cloud platforms, regulatory requirements and legacy infrastructure.
NetApp wants its platform to sit beneath that complexity rather than add another isolated layer.
Hybrid Cloud Is Becoming Part of the AI Infrastructure Story
NetApp’s Abu Dhabi appearance comes as the company expands its hybrid multi-cloud capabilities for workloads spread across private infrastructure, public cloud services, sovereign environments and emerging AI factory architectures.
The company has recently introduced additional capabilities around autonomous operations, fleet management and AI-assisted infrastructure management. Its broader strategy reflects a shift already visible across enterprise technology: AI is not only becoming another workload for infrastructure providers to support, but is increasingly being used to manage parts of that infrastructure as well.
For businesses, that could mean more automated provisioning, monitoring and remediation. It also puts more pressure on vendors to build clear policy controls around what automated systems are allowed to change.
That is where infrastructure and AI governance begin to overlap.
Data Sovereignty Moves Closer to the AI Debate
Data sovereignty is another major part of NetApp’s message in Abu Dhabi. Governments and regulated industries increasingly have to think about more than where an AI model runs. They also need to know where the underlying data is stored, where it is processed and which jurisdictions or service providers can access it.
That makes sovereign AI partly an infrastructure problem.
The issue is especially relevant in the Middle East, where governments and large enterprises are pushing AI programmes beyond experimentation and into public services, national infrastructure and regulated sectors.
NetApp sees an opportunity in that shift because large-scale AI deployment requires organisations to maintain control over data while still making it available to the systems that need it.
The more AI becomes embedded into operations, the harder it becomes to separate the model from the data architecture supporting it.
Abu Dhabi Draws the Enterprise AI Infrastructure Crowd
AI Everything Abu Dhabi 2026 is bringing together companies from across the AI technology stack, including cloud computing, cybersecurity, data management, chips, enterprise software and model development.
That mix matters because the AI market is no longer being shaped only by companies building models. A parallel competition is emerging around the infrastructure required to run those models reliably inside enterprises.
Storage, networking, compute, governance and security are all becoming part of the same conversation.
For NetApp, appearing alongside cloud providers, hardware vendors and enterprise AI companies gives it a chance to argue that data infrastructure deserves a larger share of attention as businesses try to move AI projects into real production environments.
The models may attract the headlines, but infrastructure is where many projects either scale or stall.
AI Everything Abu Dhabi Becomes a Test Ground for Production AI
AI Everything Abu Dhabi 2026 is taking place at a time when the UAE is accelerating investment in artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure and government-led technology programmes.
The event, held at the ADNEC Centre in Abu Dhabi on October 6 and 7, covers areas including sovereign AI, responsible AI, intelligent infrastructure, enterprise transformation and physical AI.
For NetApp, the timing works.
As more organisations deploy generative and agentic AI, the challenge is moving away from simply gaining access to a model. Companies are now asking whether they have the data architecture, security controls and operational systems needed to keep those deployments working at scale.
NetApp’s message is that the answer starts with the data underneath the AI.
That may sound less dramatic than the latest frontier model release, but for enterprises spending serious money on AI, it is becoming much harder to ignore.
Sources
Zawya: “NetApp to Showcase AI-Ready Data Infrastructure as CEO George Kurian Takes the Stage at AI Everything Abu Dhabi 2026”
https://www.zawya.com/en/press-release/companies-news/netapp-to-showcase-ai-ready-data-infrastructure-as-ceo-george-kurian-takes-the-stage-at-ai-everything-abu-dhabi-2026-1510127
AI Everything Abu Dhabi: World’s Largest AI-First Expo and Summit in Abu Dhabi
https://www.aieverythingabudhabi.com/media-hub/worlds-largest-aifirst-expo-and-summit-in-abu-dhabi-solidifies-the-capitals-rise-as-a-global-intelligence-powerhouse
NetApp Newsroom: NetApp Empowers Enterprises to Build Anything, Anywhere
https://www.netapp.com/newsroom/press-releases/news-rel-20260929-622998/
