UPDATED 16:34 EDT / FEBRUARY 20 2019

CLOUD

Storage and AI work together in IBM’s multicloud strategy

A major focus of the announcements from IBM Corp.’s Think conference last week involved artificial intelligence and making it available across all cloud platforms. This “AI everywhere” approach applies to IBM’s storage strategy as well.

In December, IBM announced a storage system co-designed with Nvidia Corp. for AI workloads and various data tools, such as TensorFlow. AI reference architecture is also integrated in IBM’s Power line of servers.

There is apparently another major AI integration in the works, as IBM continues to focus on the hybrid cloud. “We’re working on a third one right now with another major server vendor because we want our storage to be anywhere there’s AI and anywhere there’s a cloud — big, medium or small,” said Eric Herzog (pictured), chief marketing officer and vice president of worldwide storage channels at IBM.

Herzog spoke with John Furrier (@furrier) and Stu Miniman (@stu), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the IBM Think event in San Francisco. They discussed IBM’s focus on cyber resilience in its storage products and meeting customer needs in a multicloud environment. (* Disclosure below.)

New features for resiliency

In addition to multicloud and AI, IBM’s storage operation has also been focused on cyber resilience. In August, the company launched Cyber Incident Recovery among the features included in the latest release of its Resiliency Orchestration platform.

The new product was designed to rapidly recover data and applications following a cyberattack. “Yes, everyone is used to the ‘great wall of China’ protecting you, and then of course chasing the bad guy down when they breach you,” Herzog said. “But when they breach you, it would sure be nice if everything had data at rest encryption.”

Enhancements to IBM’s storage portfolio over the past year have been designed to accommodate customer environments that are increasingly multicloud-oriented. The focus has been on software-defined storage solutions that move and protect information in a wide range of compute ecosystems, as Herzog wrote in a recent blog post.

“You may have NTT Cloud in Japan, you may have Alibaba in China, you may have IBM Cloud Australia, and then you might have Amazon in Latin America,” said Herzog, who appeared at the conference wearing a symbolic Hawaiian surfer shirt. “You don’t fight the wave; you ride the wave. And that’s what everyone is dealing with.”

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

Photo: SiliconANGLE

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Support our open free content by sharing and engaging with our content and community.

Join theCUBE Alumni Trust Network

Where Technology Leaders Connect, Share Intelligence & Create Opportunities

11.4k+  
CUBE Alumni Network
C-level and Technical
Domain Experts
15M+ 
theCUBE
Viewers
Connect with 11,413+ industry leaders from our network of tech and business leaders forming a unique trusted network effect.

SiliconANGLE Media is a recognized leader in digital media innovation serving innovative audiences and brands, bringing together cutting-edge technology, influential content, strategic insights and real-time audience engagement. As the parent company of SiliconANGLE, theCUBE Network, theCUBE Research, CUBE365, theCUBE AI and theCUBE SuperStudios — such as those established in Silicon Valley and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) — SiliconANGLE Media operates at the intersection of media, technology, and AI. .

Founded by tech visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a powerful ecosystem of industry-leading digital media brands, with a reach of 15+ million elite tech professionals. The company’s new, proprietary theCUBE AI Video cloud is breaking ground in audience interaction, leveraging theCUBEai.com neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.