The tragic deaths and injuries in Las Vegas on Sunday evening overshadowed the NetApp, Inc. gathering scheduled to start in the resort city the next day, but postponed until Tuesday.

“We can’t not address the massacre here that happened at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. This is a time in history when we’re seeing a societal shift, and we’ve got to make sense of it,” said John Furrier (@furrier, pictured, right), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio.

Furrier made his remarks during the NetApp Insight event in Las Vegas, where he and guest host Keith Townsend (@CTOAdvisor, pictured, left) discussed the tragedy that unfolded before the conference began, how the technology community can help in a changing world, and a focus on data and developers. (* Disclosure below.)

Role for technology in societal issues

NetApp Inc. Chief Executive Officer George Kurian used his keynote remarks on Tuesday to tell a personal story about how data helped save his 13-year-old son’s life. Employing technology for good in the face of potential tragedy may well be the overriding theme of the conference this week.

“We need to find ways to use artificial intelligence, use machine learning to impact our communities. We say this is the new normal, but we should never grow numb to it,” Townsend said.

The rising specter of wanton violence, coupled with growing fear about online theft of personal information by state-sponsored hackers, such as the recent Equifax breach, reinforces the notion that we may all have to adapt in a changed world.

“The new reality is that we are living in a completely different society, and it’s on us to lean in and be part of the solution,” Furrier said.

As the NetApp conference moves forward, announcements and dialogue are expected to focus heavily on the value of data in cloud architectures and the role of the developer community in contributing new technologies that will transform the enterprise.

“A new class of developers is coming in. They are all about DevOps and infrastructure as code,” Furrier concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of NetApp Insight. (* Disclosure: NetApp Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither NetApp nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE