Your data, agent ready. No copies. No rebuilding

• https://www.netapp.com/pdf.html?item=/media/141478-na-1220-ai-data-engine-tbg.pdf
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ywwS1ugQ9I

Three moves. One solution

• Know your data

  Finally see what you have and where it lives across your entire data estate. Map, catalog, and classify dark, unstructured data across NetApp and third-party storage, in place, without copying or moving a single file.

  Icon: https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt7efec3660d1ae646/blt82c651c30bec7e56/6ab401c5b29b5d5297c6bc8a/icons8-network-gateway_1_(2).svg

• Trust your data

  Your data stays under your control, even as agent access expands. Sensitive and over-shared data is surfaced before AI reaches it, and because nothing is copied, existing permissions stay intact.

  Icon: https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt7efec3660d1ae646/bltfe37576fe3a774bf/6ab402617a4851b029f97bec/icons8-network-gateway_1_(3).svg

• Activate data in place

  Put your data to work without copies or rebuilding. Governed data is served to your AI applications, analytics tools, and agents right where it already lives, always reflecting the source rather than a stale copy.

  Icon: https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt7efec3660d1ae646/blt52c236c292cc467d/6ab402c8a70e8f4bfdf29294/icons8-network-gateway_1_(4).svg

Start with discovery

• Whole-estate visibility

  Storage and infrastructure teams get one catalog across NetApp ONTAP^® and third-party NAS and object storage. Find redundant, obsolete, and trivial (ROT) data, so that you can plan migrations with confidence, and cut exposure before it becomes an incident.

  Image: https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt7efec3660d1ae646/blt8bd0da4852f2ddd1/6ab40afbace1f23372cdeacc/Status_Card.webp

• The foundation AI teams build on

  The catalog you build today is what data engineers and AI teams work from next: data understanding, governance at the data layer, transformation and vectorization, and semantic search. All on your data, in place, with nothing re-platformed.

  Image: https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt7efec3660d1ae646/blt0bf2aa88477c5729/6ab40d769a82677a2dc479ac/Status_Card_(2).webp

• Nothing to move. Nothing to disrupt

  Start with discovery. A read-only metadata catalog gives you visibility without changing a thing, so you can put agents to work across your heterogeneous estate today and expand into broader AI use cases on your terms.

  Image: https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt7efec3660d1ae646/blt963ac4697044a42f/6ab40d14f3b126d607650df3/Status_Card_(1).webp

Data discovery and metadata services from NetApp

Map your data estate FREE for every NetApp customer

Your data is already there. Find out what is in it. Sign up today and get FREE access when data discovery and metadata services become available on October 23, 2026.

https://www.netapp.com/aide/map-your-data/

• One billion files a day. Scanned in place

  AIDE scans directly in the cluster and agentless across third-party storage. No collectors to babysit. No copies to manage. Just fast, in-place understanding of unstructured data at a scale that keeps pace with how fast enterprise data actually grows.

  https://www.netapp.com/blog/ai-data-engine-transform-enterprise-ai-smart-data/

  Image: https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt7efec3660d1ae646/blt204005b5682ef9cb/6ab40f57b29b5d7608c6bce9/Container_(50).webp

Frequently asked questions

1. Step: 01

   What is NetApp AI Data Engine?

   NetApp AI Data Engine, part of the NetApp Platform, makes your data agent ready. It discovers and classifies data across NetApp and third-party storage, preserves permissions and governance, and activates current, trusted data in place for AI applications, analytics, and agents, with no copies to manage and no pipelines to rebuild.

2. Step: 02

   Does NetApp AI Data Engine work with third-party storage?

   Yes. NetApp AI Data Engine discovers and classifies data across NetApp ONTAP, NetApp StorageGRID^®, and third-party NAS and object storage. It reads your data in place using standard NFS, SMB, and S3 protocols, so a mixed estate becomes one catalog instead of a dozen blind spots.

3. Step: 03

   Does NetApp AI Data Engine help with governance?

   Yes. It helps identify sensitive and over-shared data, preserve your source permissions, and control what AI applications and agents are allowed to access. Because nothing is copied, the permissions you already set stay intact, with no second location to re-secure. It includes governance at the data layer, with classification, masking, redaction, and policy guardrails.

4. Step: 04

   What’s on the roadmap?

   Data discovery and metadata services are generally available today, covering estate-wide mapping, ROT cleanup, and access hygiene. Data understanding, including entity extraction and semantic search, and governed data services, including permission-aware retrieval and open analytics, are in preview. Context and coherence, the knowledge graph and Decision Fabric, and agentic activation are on the roadmap. The services deploy on-premises today and reach data across the hybrid cloud; fully disconnected sovereign and air-gapped operation is on the roadmap.

5. Step: 05

   Does NetApp AI Data Engine require me to move or copy my data?

   No. It reads your data in place, right where it already lives, across NetApp and third-party storage. Your content and its metadata stay in your environment, with nothing copied out to a NetApp service. Management runs through the NetApp Console.

Evaluate AIDE for your AI environment

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