What if the biggest shift in data security is happening where most teams aren’t even looking? I was at the RSA Conference at the NetApp booth, and had a great conversation with Gagan Gulati, SVP/GM of Data Services at NetApp, that really got me thinking.

For years, we’ve focused on visibility like dashboards, alerts, and detection. But the real shift is moving from detecting risk to actually blocking it at the data I/O layer, right where data is accessed. In a world where AI systems are interacting with data at massive scale, this becomes critical. We spoke about how concepts like a Security Knowledge Graph can help govern not just human users but nonhuman identities by understanding relationships between data, systems, and access in real time without slowing things down.

Another important point was around AI training. It is no longer just about protecting data, but about knowing if your data is even ready by scoring it early and preventing risks before they show up in model outputs. And with most enterprise data being unstructured, the storage layer itself is evolving into a place where context and control come together.

This conversation made me realize that security is no longer just another layer in the stack, it is moving closer to the data itself.

Are we ready to rethink where security should actually live?

Explore NetApp's CyRes capabilities -- https://www.netapp.com/cyber-resilience/?utm_campaign=cross-cyre-multi-all-ww-digi-ravit_show_influencer_video_interview_at_rsac_2026-1775578050296&utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_content=video&utm_segment=1j_cyre

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