CTERA launches InsightAI for unstructured data analysis

CTERA has launched CTERA InsightAI, adding an AI layer to its data platform.

The software is aimed at organisations managing large volumes of unstructured data across distributed environments. It continuously analyses data activity to identify unusual behaviour, emerging risks, operational issues and shifts in storage use.

The launch reflects growing demand for tools that help IT and security teams monitor sprawling file estates without relying on a patchwork of dashboards, logs and reporting systems. Unstructured data, often spread across file systems, cloud stores and edge locations, has become harder to govern as volumes grow and regulatory demands tighten.

Rather than serving only as a conventional reporting interface, the product is designed to explain what is happening across an organisation's environment through natural language interaction. It links activity data, audit trails, metadata, permissions, capacity trends and security events so administrators can investigate issues and decide on corrective steps.

Five areas

CTERA outlined five main use cases: security investigations, compliance and governance, storage cost control, chargeback and consumption analysis, and general IT operations.

For security investigations, the system analyses audit logs and file system activity to flag suspicious actions and trace which files and users were affected. This can support incident reviews, targeted recovery work and forensic investigations, while also generating reports for executives.

For compliance, the software supports audit logging and immutable record preservation, with reporting designed to help organisations meet governance requirements linked to rules such as GDPR, HIPAA and SOX. It also targets storage planning by showing data growth, stale files, usage patterns and lifecycle inefficiencies that may contribute to unnecessary expansion.

Another focus is internal cost allocation. InsightAI can show how much storage different business units consume, supporting chargeback and showback models as companies seek better financial oversight of infrastructure use.

For day-to-day operations, the software includes automated reporting, recommendations and a natural language feature called Ask InsightAI. The feature is intended to help IT staff investigate issues more quickly and understand activity across the storage environment.

Deployment options

The product can be deployed in several ways, including as a hosted software service, in a managed customer virtual private cloud on Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services, or within private cloud environments controlled by the customer. It can also be deployed in AWS GovCloud and Azure Government environments.

CTERA positioned the launch against broader pressure on enterprise data teams as they try to keep up with sustained data growth and tighter oversight requirements. Research it cited from Futurum found that more than half of respondents are prioritising generative and agentic AI tools, while many remain dissatisfied with data quality, governance and the ability to extract useful insight from existing systems.

"Futurum's 2026 research shows keeping pace with data growth is the top challenge facing enterprise data teams. Over 50% are prioritizing generative and agentic AI to address it, yet most remain dissatisfied with data quality, governance, and insight extraction from existing stacks," said Brad Shimmin, Vice President & Practise Lead, Data Intelligence, Analytics & Infrastructure, The Futurum Group.

"By embedding AI-driven intelligence directly into the storage layer, CTERA InsightAI gives data and security leaders a clear path from reactive firefighting to proactive, automated data management," he said.

Chief Executive Officer Oded Nagel said the product responds to a level of complexity that human administrators can no longer review manually across large file environments.

"Enterprise unstructured data environments have become far too complex for humans to manually analyze, and AI is fundamentally changing how enterprises manage and interact with their data," said Nagel.

"CTERA InsightAI is ushering in a major evolution in enterprise data management by bringing intelligence, automation, and natural language interaction directly into the storage environment itself. Rather than forcing organizations to stitch together multiple analytics and monitoring tools, CTERA is delivering a unified data fabric that helps enterprises operate more securely and intelligently," he said.