IBM AI-powered storage: Redefining data management – Business

With the integration of artificial intelligence into data management systems, IBM Corp.’s conversation around storage has shifted into a whole new gear.

The company made a series of storage announcements during theCUBE and IBM’s “Future-Ready Storage Redefining Data Center Boundaries” event. A key element of the latest releases involved the inclusion of AI-powered predictive analytics and data placement for the IBM FlashSystem 5300, yet another example of how AI is reshaping the IT ecosystem. (* Disclosure below.)

“Generative AI has hit us as an industry,” said Denis Kennelly, general manager of IBM Storage at IBM, during an interview on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. “How can I rapidly evolve to take advantage of these wonderful innovations? That is the crux of the problem facing many clients today … what we’re doing here in IBM storage is helping address what I call a dilemma within the storage industry.”

Here’s the complete video interview with Denis Kennelly:

Here are three key insights you might have missed during the event:

1. IBM focus on storage infrastructure is guided by a need to bring AI to the data.

In the IT world today, it’s all about the data. And data need infrastructure to run. This makes what is under the hood in storage and servers of critical importance, and IBM has validated this with the integration of AI into its hardware offerings to facilitate data management.

“The big trend in storage is … we’ve got to bring AI to the data,” said Dave Vellante, chief analyst of theCUBE Research, during the introductory launch session of the IBM event.

Here’s the complete video kickoff session with Dave Vellante, who was joined by John Furrier, theCUBE Research executive analyst:

The IBM FlashSystem 5300 is a one rack unit designed to provide enterprise-class data services and high availability for storage customers. The company noted the presence of AI-powered predictive analytics with IBM Storage Insights as part of the April release.

“We took this idea of injecting AI and machine learning down to the hardware layer,” said Scott Baker (pictured), chief marketing officer and vice president of IBM Infrastructure Portfolio product marketing at IBM, during an interview on theCUBE. “Every one of the computational storage devices that are in [the 5300], what we call the FlashCore modules themselves, has the ability to look at the heuristics of data as it comes into the box. This is the future of data storage.”

Here’s the complete video interview with Scott Baker, who was joined by Ivo Koerner, chief revenue officer of IBM Storage:

The future of data storage will also be in automation and an ability to incorporate AI in different use cases for performance and cost-effectiveness. As part of the 5300 release, IBM also announced its Storage Assurance program for delivering computational storage with AI-powered data services.

“You can look at the automation stack that they’re going to have along with the AIOps pieces that they’re announcing and bring the intelligence closer to the storage,” said Rob Strechay, theCUBE Research principal analyst, during a roundtable discission in the IBM event.

Here’s the complete video roundtable discussion with Rob Stretchay, who was joined by theCUBE analysts Dave Vellante and John Furrier:

2. Data monitoring and additional protections are being leveraged at the hardware level for enhanced security.

In a threat landscape filled with ransomware attacks and stealth intrusions, IT organizations are looking for data protection and resilience. With the FlashSystem 5300, IBM has added security features that include an ability to monitor data as it streams in.

“[It has] high sequential throughput performance; you combine that with our data resilience capability with FCM-4 Ransomware Threat Detection and our ability to detect and recover from threats fast, which is important,” according to Jim Comstock, product manager of IBM FlashSystem, during a conversation with theCUBE. “I hear a lot of people talk about cyber resiliency and protecting data, but IBM is leading the way in looking at IOs as they come in and detecting changes.”

Here’s the complete video interview with Jim Comstock:

IBM has also bolstered an organization’s ability to deal with attacks by leveraging AI-driven predictive analytics and automation through IBM Storage Insights to receive near-instant notification when an attack occurs.

“Our research team has trained a model, an inference engine that’s running real time, and it has been trained for many different use cases,” said Andy Walls, chief technology officer and chief architect, IBM FlashSystem, at IBM, during a webinar as part of the event. “This will be running on every FlashSystem that has the new release on 5300. If we detect that a ransomware attack has occurred, we then raise an alert to Storage Insights. Storage Insights will then alert the customer.”

The release of IBM’s latest storage device occurs at a time when regulatory bodies across the world are ramping up controls over the use of AI and data. The company’s security enhancements are designed to help users meet data protection obligations, which have become more significant in some areas of the world.

“It’s very top of mind, obviously, particularly in Europe right now,” said Ian Shave, vice president of IBM Storage Data Resilience Solutions at IBM, during a joint appearance with Walls. “[Organizations] have to know they’ve got a copy of data they can come back from. They have to be able to prove that they can actually recover.”

Here’s the complete webinar with Andy Walls and Ian Shave:

3. Tighter IT budgets and a quest for efficiency are impacting storage procurement decisions.

One of the key topics of conversation during the IBM event centered around the need for finding effective storage solutions that are affordable in a tighter budgetary climate.

“You need to reduce the cost per terabyte,” said Sam Werner, vice president of product management, IBM Storage, at IBM, during an interview with theCUBE. “You need to reduce power consumption, smaller footprint. You need to be able to become much more efficient and effective in how you do things so that you can manage this within your budget and keep up with the requirements of your organization. Those are the challenges we’re trying to help our customers with today.”

Here’s the complete video interview with Sam Werner:

IBM’s message is that spending efficiencies in storage can allow customers to shift their focus toward other innovative solutions that will help drive business results.

“The money they have for innovation is getting tinier and tinier,” added IBM’s Koerner, in his joint appearance during the event. “With the Storage Assurance model, we are freeing up innovation budget, budget that you can then invest in modernizing your application landscape, budget that you can use in implementing innovation like AI. The beauty of the program we started is you get up-to-date in the newest technology and newest innovation.”

IBM offers an advanced maintenance agreement for its FlashSystem technology, structured to include hardware updates and various assurances to minimize lifecycle risks for customers. The goal is flexible storage maintenance with a lower cost of ownership at a time when compute budgets are focused on modernization with AI.

“Ultimately, clients need to stay modern,” said Audrey O’Donnell, product manager of IBM FlashSystem at IBM, in conversation with theCUBE. “They need the latest infrastructure to keep up with their business needs and regulations, and yet they can’t afford to refresh their equipment every couple of years. From day one, you don’t have to over-purchase. You can slowly add capacity as your capacity grows, which really is largely the key to optimizing your storage TCO.”

Here’s the complete video interview with Audrey O’Donnell:

To watch more of the coverage of IBM’s “Future-Ready Storage Redefining Data Center Boundaries” event, here’s our complete event video playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for IBM’s “Future-Ready Storage Redefining Data Center Boundaries” event. Neither IBM Corp., .)