Despite its vast potential for government, society and the economy, AI implementation challenges, especially the lack of a clear consensus on its definition and scope, continue to hinder progress.

Organizations are facing challenges in innovating and staying ahead of the curve, with a focus on the practical application of AI and leveraging technology for competitive advantage, according to Conor Waddell (pictured), senior vice president of integrated technology solutions at CDW LLC, which is a NetApp partner that offers professional and support services for NetApp’s products.

CDW’s Conor Waddell talks to theCUBE about AI implementation challenges.

“There’s a lot of AI embedded in what we do, sell or represent on a day-in, day-out basis,” he said. “So, we’re focused on producing real outcomes that leverage that technology. On the other hand, you have clients who are really thinking about their competitive advantage over their customers and their competitors. AI is a much broader topic that really can have almost unbound applications.”

Waddell spoke with theCUBE’s Rebecca Knight and Rob Strechay at the NetApp Unveils Unified Data Storage Built for the AI Era event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed how NetApp’s partnership with Lenovo and Nvidia is helping democratize data and help companies grow. (* Disclosure below.)

Overcoming AI implementation challenges through partnerships

NetApp’s partnership with Lenovo and Nvidia allows customers to have both performance and features without trade-offs, enabling data portability and a silo-less environment, Waddell explained.

“If you think about AI and really being with the Nvidia announcements, but thinking about what we heard today, creating a silo-less environment where likely the data already resides on NetApp systems,” Waddell said. “But as we move forward, a customer’s able to work with NetApp to put both traditional, run traditional workloads, but also run their AI infrastructure with NetApp as the backend.”

NetApp’s built-in capability simplifies and speeds up outcomes for clients, making it more reliable and predictable, according to Waddell. Similarly, NetApp’s new announcements provide an opportunity for partners to unlock new offerings and evaluate their relationship with the company.

“I think in this world of expounding and exponential complexity, the more that we can drive simplicity, predictability, repeatability and the ability to really stand behind what we’re doing, the better,” Waddell said. “We think about that a lot of, in our ecosystem, thinking about how do we codify the different elements of that. And when you have a partner or with NetApp that has that built-in capability … it makes producing an outcome for a client faster but also more reliable and predictable.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage of the NetApp Unveils Unified Data Storage Built for the AI Era event:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the NetApp Unveils Unified Data Storage Built for the AI Era event. Neither NetApp Inc., the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE