IBM announced enhancements to its storage systems portfolio last month with a focus on two of the hottest topics in the enterprise world: security and as-a-service delivery.

The company added new features and protections for its FlashSystem all-flash arrays by offering IBM Safeguarded Copy to create securely isolated data copies that cannot be changed. And IBM unveiled its Storage-as-a-Service solution designed to make it simpler and more cost effective for customers to choose the ideal option for data management.

“IBM is enhancing data and cyber resiliency across all non-mainframe platforms, and we’re changing CapEx to OpEx with our Storage-as-a-Service,” said Eric Herzog (pictured), chief marketing officer and vice president of global storage channels at IBM Storage Division. “Those are the key takeaways and the hot ticket items from an end-user perspective.”

Herzog spoke with Dave Vellante, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, and they discussed new protection features for IBM storage platforms, free cyber resiliency assessments, moving from CapEx to OpEx with Storage-as-a-Service, and IBM’s latest options for capacity and performance. (* Disclosure below.)

Storage of immutable copies

IBM’s recent moves in the security area are designed to address the scourge of ransomware attacks that have plagued enterprises at record levels for well over a year. Total ransomware costs are projected to exceed $20 billion in 2021, with one attack on an organization occurring every 11 seconds.

IBM’s response has been to automatically create data copies in immutable snapshots that can be “air gapped” to avoid access or alteration by unauthorized users.

“We can create on a single FlashSystem array, up to 15,000 immutable copies; you can’t delete them and you can’t change them,” Herzog explained. “This is all managed with our storage copy manager, which can automate the entire process. If I’m going to hold theCUBE for ransom, if I don’t get control of your secondary storage – snaps, replicas and backups – you can avoid paying and just do a recovery.”

The added protection features include integration with IBM Security QRadar, a security information and event management tool for real-time visibility into threats against IT infrastructure, and multiple administrative capabilities.

“We have three separate, different administrative levels,” Herzog said. “One admin can’t delete, one admin can, and that way you’re also safe from industrial espionage. With multiple administrative capabilities, it makes it much more difficult for someone to steal your data and then sell it to somebody.”

Herzog indicated that customers are already prioritizing workloads and applications to determine that should be first in line to receive the added storage protections. In the event that some firms may have questions about what to prioritize, IBM will perform a vendor-agnostic, NIST-compliant assessment at no cost.

“We have a comprehensive and free cyber resiliency assessment, with no charge to the end user or business partner if they want to engage with us,” Herzog said. “Storage is intrinsic to every datacenter whether you are big, medium or small, and when most people think about cybersecurity strategy from a corporate perspective, they usually don’t even think about storage. We make sure that we’re talking to the end users, as well as the channel, to realize that if you don’t have data resilient storage, you do not have a corporate cybersecurity strategy.”

A full OpEx model

IBM’s new Storage-as-a-Service offering is designed to allow customers to identify the ideal capacity, performance and service term without the capital expense of purchasing hardware.

“You don’t buy storage; it’s a full OpEx model. IBM retains legal title, and we own it,” Herzog said. “We’ll do the software upgrades as needed, and we may even swap the physical system out. If you’ve signed a Tier 2 contract for five years and two years later, we decide to put a different physical system in there, and it’s faster or has four more software features. We don’t charge you for any of that.”

IBM has also structured its as-a-service offering to accommodate business flexibility and a base minimum level of performance that won’t result in extra costs if the per-terabyte speed turns out to be better than advertised.

“It includes every feature function that’s on our FlashSystem technology, such as Safeguarded Copy, AI-based tiering, data at rest encryption, with no performance penalty,” Herzog noted. “On Tier 2, we give you our worst-case performance at 2,250 IOPS per terabyte. This means that if your applications or workloads get 4,000 IOPS per terabyte, it’s free.”

The Storage-as-a-Service offering will be available in North America and Europe this fall, with plans to offer it in Asia and Latin America next year, according to Herzog. By providing the install and configuration, including concierge level technical advisor services, IBM is intent on providing the benefits of an on-premises deployment with the convenience of a cloud service.

It is a model that Herzog believes will become the major solution in less than 10 years.

“It will be one of a few, but it will be one of the biggest,” Herzog said. “At the end of this decade, 40% to 50% will be on the OpEx model.”

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

Photo: SiliconANGLE