How NetApp Is Simplifying Its Way To An AI-Powered Enterprise

Sign for software company Netapp at the company's office in San Jose, California.

Gado via Getty Images

When Gus Shahin joined NetApp in 2024, he stepped into a role that did not previously exist. As Executive Vice President of Business Technology and Operations, he oversees four major pillars of the company: information technology, operations, global security and enterprise process excellence. The consolidation of those functions under a single leader was deliberate, and the diagnosis behind it says something important about how Shahin thinks about the work.

"Most companies don't really have a technology problem," he said. "They have a complexity problem. Too many systems, too many processes, too many handoffs, too many exceptions."

Why the Role Was Created

Before Shahin's arrival, the functions he now leads reported to different executives across the organization. The logic for consolidation comes down to interdependence. Technology enables process, process drives operations, data informs decisions, security protects the enterprise and AI accelerates all of the outcomes. Running those functions in silos, he argued, makes each of them harder to do well.

One of the more distinctive elements of his organization is a dedicated enterprise business process re-engineering team whose mandate extends well beyond his own functions. The team examines end-to-end processes across the company, from go-to-market to product to finance, asking where deals are taking longer than they should and where approvals exist for no clear reason.

"You don't want to offer customers a large menu of different options and confuse them," Shahin noted. "We look at all these different things and analyze them and work together with the different teams."

The Change Management Reality

If complexity is the diagnosis, simplification is the treatment. But Shahin is clear-eyed about what makes simplification hard. It is not technology. It is people.

"The issue is generally not technology. It's really the change management," he said. Complex processes usually exist for a reason, accumulating over time with each addition solving a real problem in the moment. Getting people to let go of them requires more than a business case. "It's people psychology, really. You've got to get the mind shift, get people energized about wanting to change, not feeling bad for changing."

This perspective, developed over 24 years at Flex, shapes how Shahin approaches transformation. Technology, in his view, is not the starting point. Getting alignment on the need to change is.

AI as a Way of Working

Shahin is the executive sponsor of artificial intelligence at NetApp, and he is pointed in his critique of how most organizations approach the discipline. "Most companies are still treating AI like a collection of projects," he observed. "They go out, buy great tools, and start doing POCs. You get stuck in the POC stage." NetApp's aspiration is to become what he calls an AI-powered enterprise, where employees ask before any task whether AI can help them do it better, faster or differently. That cultural shift, he underscored, matters more than any individual use case.

The governance structure behind the effort reflects that ambition. A cross-functional transformation office reports monthly to the CEO's staff, tracking progress and surfacing ideas that require broader support. For large-scale initiatives, senior visibility is built in from the start. For individual productivity applications, employees are encouraged to move within established guidelines without seeking approval. That commitment to experimentation extends to a willingness to shut down ideas that are not working. At the start of a recent fiscal year, NetApp launched 29 AI projects globally. By the midpoint, 11 or 12 had been discontinued. "That really helped people feel more confident," Shahin said. "It's okay if I experiment, as long as I'm transparent and willing to take that risk."

Supply Chain and the Data Foundation

Shahin's long tenure at Flex, a company whose core business is supply chain execution for global technology brands, gave him a vantage point on operations that few technology executives share. He arrived at NetApp with a conviction about real-time visibility that has become central to how the operations team now functions. "One of the biggest things we've transformed in the ops team is operating off real-time data and collaborating together with finance," he noted. "It all comes down to data."

That foundation is being tested. The AI infrastructure boom is driving inflation across the bill of materials, with memory and other components rising in price as hyperscalers compete aggressively for supply. Shahin's procurement team is focused on making strategic purchases at the right price so NetApp can continue serving customers without passing costs through.

Looking Ahead

Shahin sees AI as different in kind from the technology waves that came before it, because of its potential to affect every employee, every process and every business function simultaneously. "The organizations that learn fast, adapt fast and create that culture of continuous change will really be the ones that have a competitive advantage," he said. "It's not just the technology but enabling people and organizations to achieve that."

For Shahin, that enabling work is less visible than the technology itself but ultimately more durable. The problem, he has consistently argued, was never really the technology.

Peter High is President of Metis Strategy, a business and IT advisory firm. He has written three bestselling books, including his latest Getting to Nimble. He also moderates the Technovation podcast series and speaks at conferences around the world. Follow him on X @PeterAHigh.