Future-ready storage: IBM’s innovations in storage technology

Staying ahead of the curve is paramount in the world of data management. For its part, IBM Corp. continues to push the boundaries with its future-ready solutions in storage technology.

At the “IBM: Future-Ready Storage” event this week, the future of data storage took center stage. From addressing the pressing challenges of infrastructure teams to harnessing the power of AI in data management, IBM’s innovative approach has the potential to change the industry.

“We have unique capabilities in our portfolio that allow you to leave your data where it is and bring it to the compute as it’s needed and give you acceleration,” said Sam Werner (pictured), vice president of product management, IBM Storage, at IBM. “As you do things, like tuning AI models or inferencing on those AI models, you can get infer things that matter to your company, get insights that matter to your company based on your data.”

Werner spoke with theCUBE Research’s John Furrier, executive analyst, and Dave Vellante, chief analyst, at IBM’s “Future-Ready Storage Redefining Data Center Boundaries” event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the innovative strides IBM is taking in the storage industry, from addressing the pressing challenges of infrastructure teams to harnessing the power of AI in data management. (* Disclosure below.)

Sam Werner, VP of product management, IBM Storage, at IBM, talks with theCUBE analysts about storage technology.

Responding to market needs in storage technology

There are three key pain points that IBM is addressing, including the struggle of infrastructure teams to keep pace with the speed and agility demanded by application teams, the imperative to enable enterprise AI and the critical importance of data resilience in the face of evolving cyber threats, according to Werner.

“We’ve been realigning our portfolio and our investments to the challenges our customers are facing,” he said about IBM’s response. “All the infrastructure teams are trying to figure out how to enable this enterprise AI. We’ve developed quite a few new products, built products from scratch like Defender and IBM Storage Fusion.”

Moreover, IBM’s focus extends beyond simply meeting market needs to anticipating and shaping future trends in storage technology. It is necessary to simplify data management, ensure data availability and improve operational efficiency to support investments in emerging initiatives, Werner explained. This forward-thinking approach underscores IBM’s commitment to not only meeting current demands, but also preparing for future challenges in the rapidly evolving data storage landscape.

“You’re being asked to be much more efficient. You need to reduce the cost per terabyte,” he said. “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.”

Innovating for AI workloads

As AI continues to gain prominence, IBM is at the forefront of developing innovations tailored to AI-powered workloads. The company has unique capabilities, including the ability to accelerate AI models by leaving data where it is and bringing compute to the data as needed. This approach ensures optimal performance and agility in handling AI workloads, crucial for organizations seeking to derive meaningful insights from data, Werner explained.

“A lot of the focus we have is on how to make management of data simpler,” he said. “We’ve seen how enterprises get brought to their knees when an event happens and how they’re completely unable to function. It’s more than just simplifying and getting value out of AI; it’s the ability for a company to operate.”

Looking ahead, IBM remains focused on delivering solutions in storage technology that meet the evolving needs of its customers. The IBM announcement could be heralding a new era of storage — one where IBM’s solutions provide unmatched performance, efficiency and ease of use.

“We’re going to give you storage that’ll meet all your requirements,” Werner said. “As your applications grow, as you need more capacity, we’ll take care of that for you. As applications need to move around, we make it easy. We will continue to enhance the AI to make it simple to choose where to put it, where you have the capacity and how you’re going to manage it.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage of IBM’s “Future-Ready Storage Redefining Data Center Boundaries” event:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for IBM’s “Future-Ready Storage Redefining Data Center Boundaries” event. Neither IBM Corp., the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE