AI MEA SECURITY Aug 31, 2026
NetApp is at LEAP 2026 in Riyadh (Aug 31 – Sep 3, RECC, Malham) with a booth pitched around the "Intelligent Data Infrastructure" narrative: keep enterprise data AI-ready and secure across hybrid multi-cloud. The timing is deliberate — Saudi Arabia has designated 2026 the Year of Artificial Intelligence, and NetApp's MEA leadership is framing the platform as the data plane underneath that national push.
Why it matters: LEAP is one of the largest enterprise-tech events in MENA, and NetApp's presence with a Saudi-specific AI + security pitch is a signal that the KSA market is now a tier-one focus for the AI Data Engine and ONTAP security roadmap. For ONTAP admins in the region this means more local pre-sales engineering, faster access to the latest ONTAP + AIPod reference architectures, and Saudi-cloud/sovereign-cloud partnerships that should land over the next two quarters.