NetApp Keystone STaaS for Enterprise AI is designed to let you operationalize AI at your own pace without a big capital outlay.

Instead of purchasing storage hardware, you use a single, consumption-based subscription. This turns what would normally be a large capital expense into a more predictable operating expense.

Key points for budgeting and risk management:

• Start small: Begin with a low-TiB, 1-year commitment instead of long, rigid hardware contracts.
• Pay as you go: You only pay for the storage you actually use, which is helpful when AI storage needs are uncertain, seasonal, or fluctuating.
• No overprovisioning guesswork: You can scale capacity and performance on demand, so you don’t have to overbuy infrastructure “just in case.”

This model lets you test, scale, or pause AI initiatives with less financial risk, while still getting the speed, control, and unified management of on-premises storage combined with the virtually limitless scalability of public cloud.

Keystone STaaS is built to support both AI development and production deployment, so you can reimagine how you manage AI data end to end.

Core AI-focused capabilities include:

• AI-ready architecture: It leverages the NetApp AFX architecture and AI Data Engine to address performance, efficiency, and scalability challenges common in AI pipelines.
• Seamless integration: It integrates with popular AI frameworks and accelerators, so your data scientists and engineers can plug into existing tools and workflows.
• Unified management and insights: The NetApp Console and Data Infrastructure Insights provide automated management and observability, helping you monitor and optimize AI data flows.
• Flexible architecture: Supports diverse AI frameworks, tools, and libraries, making it easier to adapt as your AI stack evolves.

Together, these capabilities help you simplify AI operations, reduce friction between teams, and move from experimentation to production with fewer infrastructure bottlenecks.

Keystone STaaS is designed to help you reshape your AI data strategy with security, reliability, and long-term flexibility in mind.

Security and resilience:

• Built-in security and data protection: Robust features help defend against threats such as ransomware while simplifying backup, recovery, and compliance.
• Enterprise-grade storage in major clouds: NetApp is the only enterprise-grade storage service natively embedded in the world’s biggest clouds, supporting consistent protection and governance across environments.

Future readiness:

• Efficient, scalable, intelligent platform: The AI data management platform is built to adapt to emerging technologies and new AI use cases over time.
• Silo-free infrastructure: NetApp focuses on unified data storage and integrated data services so you can avoid fragmented data silos as AI expands.
• CloudOps and observability: NetApp CloudOps solutions use observability and AI to continuously optimize performance and efficiency across workloads.

By offloading much of the infrastructure management, your IT and data teams can focus on higher-value innovation instead of day-to-day storage operations, while keeping your AI environment secure and adaptable for the long term.