Investment Rating - The industry view for Telecom & Networking Equipment is rated as In-Line [5]. Core Insights - The Q2 2025 CIO Survey indicates a largely stable spending environment, with Communications growth expectations at +2.9%, a slight deceleration from previous quarters but still above 2024 expectations [4][8]. - Networking equipment has seen a decline in prioritization among CIOs, now ranking 8th, but remains a relatively defensible sector [9][25]. - AI continues to be the top priority for CIOs, with a significant portion of AI investments coming from new budget allocations rather than reallocations [11]. Summary by Sections Spending Expectations - Overall IT budgets are expected to grow by +3.6% in 2025, reflecting a deceleration from earlier expectations [4][14]. - Networking equipment is anticipated to see a spending increase from 3.7% of CIOs, down from 4.0% in Q1 2025 [9]. Communications Sector - Communications growth expectations remain stable at +2.9%, with no significant step back from earlier expectations [8]. - The sector has shown resilience despite broader IT spending challenges, maintaining growth expectations above those of 2024 [4][8]. Networking Equipment - Networking equipment ranks 8th in priority for CIOs, indicating a slight decline from the previous quarter but an improvement year-over-year [9]. - The sector is viewed as relatively defensible, with 3.7% of CIOs expecting the largest spending increase in 2025 [9][25]. AI and Cloud Trends - 60% of CIOs expect to launch AI projects in production by 2025, with 56% of AI investments funded by new budget dollars [11]. - Public cloud usage is projected to rise significantly, with CIOs expecting 68% of workloads to be in the public cloud by the end of 2027, up from 44% today [11][30].

Core Viewpoint - NetApp, Inc. is expected to report its fourth-quarter fiscal 2025 earnings on May 29, with anticipated non-GAAP earnings per share between $1.84 and $1.94, and net revenues between $1.65 billion and $1.8 billion, reflecting a year-over-year increase [1][2] Financial Performance - The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings per share is $1.89, indicating a 5% rise from the previous year, while net revenues are estimated at $1.73 billion, implying a 3.4% increase from the prior year [1] - NetApp has beaten estimates in two of the last four quarters, with an average earnings surprise of 2.8% [2] Product and Market Dynamics - Strong demand for NetApp's modern all-flash arrays, particularly the C-series and ASA block-optimized flash, is expected to positively impact revenue [2] - The launch of new entry-level and midrange ASA systems is anticipated to enhance market penetration in the all-flash segment [3] - Keystone's storage-as-a-service offering has seen nearly 60% year-over-year revenue growth in the last reported quarter [3] Segment Performance - Hybrid Cloud revenues are estimated at $1.5 billion, reflecting a 2.2% increase from the previous year [4] - Public Cloud revenues are projected at $175.6 million, up 15.6% year-over-year, driven by a 40% increase in first-party and marketplace cloud storage services [5] Challenges and Outlook - The fiscal fourth-quarter outlook has been revised due to the Spot divestiture, a strong U.S. dollar, and global public sector weakness [6] - Uncertain macroeconomic conditions and cautious IT spending are expected to pose challenges [6]

Welcome everyone to today's LinkedIn live. I'm Joti Swarup, chief marketing officer at DDN and I'm thrilled to have you here on what is my first LinkedIn live ever. So this is exciting for me personally. But what's more exciting and apt is that I have a special guest with me uh Moith Kohari who is the VP of AI and financial services at DDN and he spent years helping firms navigate the chaos of markets regulations and now uh transformative technology and AI. So Moyes I'll I'll let you uh introduce yourself t ...