NetApp CEO Tom Georgens Says 'Nobody's Got Time' to Manage Data Manually

Given the long list of things IT professionals have on their to-do lists, few have time to manually move around terabytes of data every day. Channeling his inner Sweet Brown, NetApp CEO Tom Georgens made this point crystal clear at a recent IT leadership event.

"The key thing about data management — the data management problem is so vast and so diverse — is that anything that needs to be done manually will never get done. If you can't automate it, forget about it. 'Cause nobody's got time to do this manually," he said.

Georgens was one of several IT leaders who gathered to discuss the most important and needle-moving technology challenges facing businesses today, as part of CDW’s Bring IT On technology leadership series. He spoke at length about the importance of automation in improving storage management and, ultimately, in enabling mobility.

"Once I store a byte of data, I have to back it up. I have to secure it. I have to protect it. And as data accumulates, it's hard to move. So even a 10-gigabit link moves one disk drive per hour. So, the idea that I could dynamically move around all of these different environments, it's not nearly as simple as you think about it. And that is why, at the end of the day, it is the data that has mass, and it's the data that is ultimately going to limit the mobility, and therefore the data management is really important," said Georgens.

Watch more of Georgens's Bring IT On talk below.