(upbeat funk jazz music)
>> Hello, and welcome to theCUBE Studios
in Palo Alto, California for another CUBE Conversation,
where we go in depth with thought leaders
driving innovation across tech industry.
I'm your host, Peter Burris.
What does every CIO want to do?
They want to support the business
as it evolves and transforms,
using data as that catalyst for better customer experience,
improved operations, and more profitable options.
But to do that we have to come up with
a way of improving the underlying infrastructure
that makes all this possible.
We can't have a situation where we introduce
more complex applications in response to
richer business needs and have that translated into
non-scalable underlying technology.
CIOs in 2020 and beyond have to increasingly push
their suppliers to make things simpler.
And that's true in all domains,
but perhaps especially storage,
where the explosion of data is driving
so many of these changes.
So what does it mean to say that
storage can be made more simple?
Well to have that conversation we're going to be speaking with
Eric Herzog, CMO and VP of Global Channels at IBM Storage,
about, quite frankly, an announcement that IBM's doing
to specifically address that question,
making storage simpler.
Eric, thanks very much for coming back to theCUBE.
>> Great, thank you.
We love to be here.
>> All right,
I know you got an announcement to talk about,
but give us the update.
What's going on with IBM Storage?
>> Well, I think the big thing is,
clients have told us, storage is too complex.
We have a multitude of different platforms,
an entry product, a mid-range product, a high-end product,
then we have to traverse to the cloud.
Why can't we get a simple, easy to use,
but very robust feature set?
So at IBM Storage with this FlashSystem announcement,
we have a family that traverses entry, mid-range,
enterprise and automatically can go out
to a hybrid multicloud environment,
all driven across a common platform,
common API, common software,
our award-winning Spectrum Virtualize,
and innovative technologies around,
whether it be cyber-resiliency,
performance, incredible performance,
ease of use, easier and easier to use.
For example, we can do AI-based automated tiering
from one flash array to another,
or from storage class memory to flash.
Innovation, at the same time driving better value
out of the storage but not charging a lot of extra money
for these features.
In fact, our FlashSystems announcement,
the platforms, depending on the configuration,
can be as much as 50% lower than our previous generation.
Now that's delivering value, but at the same time
we added enhanced features, for example,
the capability of even better container support
than we already had in our older platform.
Or our new FlashCore Modules that can deliver performance
in a cluster of up to 17.2 million IOPS,
up from our previous performance of 15.
Yet, as I said before, delivering that enterprise value
and those enterprise data services,
in this case I think you said, depending on the config,
up to as much as 50% less expensive than some of our
previous generation products.
>> So let me unpack that a little bit.
So, historically, when you look at, or even today,
when you look at
how storage product lines are set up,
they're typically set up for one footprint for the low end,
one or more footprints in the mid-range,
and then one or more footprints at the high-end.
And those are differentiated by the characteristics
of the technologies being employed,
the function and services that are being offered,
and the prices and financial arrangements
that are part of it.
Are you talking about, essentially, a common product line
that is differentiated only by the configuration needs
of the volume and workloads?
>> Exactly.
The FlashSystem traverses entry, mid-range, enterprise,
and can automatically get you out
to a hybrid multicloud environment,
same APIs, same software, same management infrastructure.
Our Storage Insights product, which is a could-based
storage manager and predictive analytics,
works on the entry product, at no charge,
mid-range product at no charge,
the enterprise product at no charge,
and we've even added, in that solution,
support for non-IBM platforms, again.
So, delivering more value across a standard platform
with a common API, a common software.
Remember, today's storage is growing exponentially.
Are the enterprise customers
getting exponentially more storage admins?
No.
In fact, many of the big enterprises,
after the downturn of '08 and '09
had to cut back on storage resources.
They haven't hired back to how many storage resources
they had in 2007 or '8.
They've gotten back to full IT, but a lot of those guys
are DevOps people or other functions,
so, the storage admins and the IT infrastructure admins
have to manage extra petabytes, extra exabytes
depending on the type of company.
So one platform that can do that
and traverse out to the cloud automatically,
gives you that innovation and that value.
In fact, two of our competitors, just as example,
do the same thing, have four platforms.
Two other have three.
We can do it with one.
Simple platform, common API, common storage management,
common interface, incredible performance,
cyber-resiliency, but all built in something that's
a common data management infrastructure
with common data software, yet continuing to innovate
as we've done with this release of the FlashSystem family.
>> OK, so talk about the things that,
common API, common software, also, I presume,
common, the core module, that FlashCore Module
that you have, common across the family as well?
>> Almost all the family.
At the very entry space we still do use interstandard SSDs
but we can get as low as a street price for all-flash config
of $16,000 for an all-flash array.
Two, three years ago that would've been unheard of.
And, by the way, it had six lines of availability,
same software interface and API
as a system that could go up to millions of dollars
at the way high end, right?
And anything in between.
So common ease of use, common management,
simple to manage, simple to deploy, simple to use,
but not simple in the value proposition.
Reduce the TCO, reduce the ROI,
reduce the operational manpower, they're overtaxed as it is.
So by making this across the portfolio with the FlashSystem
and go out to the hybrid multicloud
but bringing in all this high technology
such as our FlashCore Modules and, as I said,
at a reduced price to the previous generation.
What more could you ask for?
>> OK, so you've got some promises that you made
in 2019 that you're also actually realizing.
One of my favorite ones,
something I think is pretty important,
is storage class memory.
Talk about how some of those 2019 promises
are being realized in this announcement.
>> So what we did is,
when we announced our first FlashSystem family in 2018
using our new NVMe FlashCore Modules,
we had an older FlashSystem family for several years
that used, you know, the standard SaaS interface.
But our first NVMe product was announced
in the summer of 2018.
At that time we said, all the way back then,
that in early '20 we would be start shipping
storage class memory.
Now, by the way, those FlashSystems NVMe products
that we announced back then,
actually can still use storage class memory,
so, we're protecting the investment of our installed base.
Again, innovation with value on the installed base.
>> A very IBM thing to do.
>> Yes, we want to take care of the installed base,
we also want to have new modern technologies,
like storage class memory,
like improved performance and capacity
in our FlashCore Modules
where we take off the shelf Flash
and create our own modules.
Seven year media warranty, up to 17.2 million IOPS,
17 mites of latency,
which is 30% better than our next nearest competitor.
By the way, we can create a 17 million IOP config
in only eight rack U.
One of our competitors gets close, 15 million,
but it takes them 40 rack U.
Again, operational manpower, 40 rack U's harder to manage,
simplicity of deployment,
it's harder to deploy all that in 40 rack U,
we can do it in eight.
>> And pricing.
>> Yes.
And we've even brought out now, a preconfigured rack.
So what we call the FlashSystem 9200R built into the rack
with a switching infrastructure, with the storage you need,
IBM services will deploy it for you,
that's part of the deal,
and you can create big solutions
that can scale dramatically.
>> Now R stands for hybrid?
>> Rack.
>> Rack. Well talk to me about some of the hybrid packaging
that you're bringing out for hybrid cloud.
>> Sure, so, from a hybrid cloud perspective,
our Spectrum Virtualize software, which sits on-prem,
entry, mid-range and at the upper end,
can traverse to a cloud
called Spectrum Virtualize for Cloud.
Now, one of the keys things of Spectrum Virtualize,
both on-prem and our cloud version,
is it supports not only IBM arrays,
but through a storage virtualisation technology,
over 450 arrays from multi-vendors,
and in short our competition.
So we can take our arrays,
and automatically go out to the cloud.
We can do a lot of things.
Cloud air gapping,
to help with malware and ransonware protection,
DR, snapshots and replicas.
Not only can the new FlashSystem family do that,
to Spectrum Virtualize on-prem and then out,
but Spectrum Virtualize coming on our FlashSystem portfolio
can actually virtualize non-IBM arrays
and give them the same enterprise functionality
and in this case, hybrid cloud technology,
not only for us, but for our competitors products as well.
One user interface.
Now talk about simple.
Our own products,
again one family, entry, mid-range and enterprise
traversing the cloud.
And by the way, for those of you who are heterogeneous,
we can deliver those enterprise class services,
including going out to a hybrid multi-cloud configuration,
for our competitors products as well.
One user interface, one throat to choke,
one support infrastructure
with our Storage Insights platform,
so it's a great way to make things easier,
cut the CAPEX and OPEX,
but not cut the innovation.
We believe in value and innovation,
but in an easy deploy methodology,
so that you're not overly complex.
And that is killing people,
the complexity of their solutions.
>> All right.
So there's a couple of things about cloud,
as we move forward,
that are going to be especially interesting.
One of them is going to be containers.
Everybody's talking about, and IBM's been talking about,
you've been talking about this,
we've talked about this a number of times,
about how containers and storage and data
are going to come together.
How do you see this announcement supporting
those emerging and evolving need for
container-based applications in the enterprise.
>> So, first of all,
it's often tied to hybrid multi-cloudness.
Many of the hybrid cloud configurations
are configured on a container based environment.
We support Red Hat OpenShift.
We support Kubernetes environments.
We can provide on these systems at no charge,
persistent storage for those configurations.
We also, although it does require a backup package,
Spectrum Protect,
the capability of backing up that persistent storage
in an OpenShift or Kubernetes environment.
So really it's critical.
Part of our simplicity
is this FlashSystem platform with this technology,
can support bare metal workloads,
virtualised workloads,
VMware, HyperV, KVM, OVM,
and now container workloads.
And we do see, for the next coming years,
think about bare metal.
Bare metal is as old as I am.
That's pretty old.
Well we got tons of customers
still got bare metal applications,
but everyone's also gone virtualized.
So it's not, are we going to have one?
It's you're going to have all three.
So with the FlashSystems family,
and what we have with Spectrum Virtualized software,
what we have with our container support,
we need with bare metal support, incredible performance,
whatever you need, VMware integration, HyperV integration,
everything you need for a virtualized environment,
and for a container environment, we have everything too.
And we do think the, especially the mid to big accounts,
are going to try run all three,
at least for the next couple of years.
This gives you a platform that can do that,
at the entry point,
up to the high end,
and then out to a hybrid multi-cloud environment.
>> With that common software and APIs across.
Now, every year that you and I have talked,
you've been especially passionate
about the need for turning the crank,
and evolving and improving the nature of automation,
which is another one of the absolute necessities,
as we start thinking about cloud.
How is this announcement helping to take that next step,
turn the crank in automation?
>> So a couple of things.
One is our support now for Ansible,
so offering that Ansible support,
integrates into the container management frameworks.
Second thing is,
we have a ton of AI-type specific based technology
built into the FlashSystem platform.
First is our cloud based storage and management
predictive analytics package, Storage Insights.
The base version comes for free across our whole portfolio,
whether it be entry, mid-range or high-end,
across the whole FlashSystems family.
It gives you predictive analytics.
If you really do have a support problem,
it eases the support issues.
For example, instead of me saying,
"Peter send me those log files."
Guess what?
We can see the log files.
And we can do it right there while you're on the phone.
You've got a problem?
Let's make it easier for you to get it solved.
So Storage Insights across AI based, predictive analytics,
performance, configuration issues,
all predicatively done, so AI based.
Secondly, we've integrated AI
in to our Spectrum Virtualize product.
So as exemplar, easier to your technology,
can allow you to tier data from storage class memory
to Flash, as an example,
and guess what it does?
It automatically knows based on usage patterns,
where the data should go.
Should it be on the storage class memory?
Should it be on Flash core modules?
And in fact, we can create a configuration,
we have Flash core modules
and introduce standard SSDs,
which are both Flash,
but our Flash core modules are substantially faster,
much better latency,
like I said,
30% better than the next nearest competition,
up to 17.2 million IOPS.
The next closest is 15.
And in fact, it's interesting,
one of our competitors has used storage class memory
as a read cache.
It dramatically helps them.
But they go from 250 publicly stated mites of latency,
to 125.
With this product, the FlashSystem,
anything that uses our Flash core modules,
our FlashSystems semi 200,
our FlashSystem 9200 product,
and the 9200-R product.
We can do 70 mites of latency,
so almost twice as fast,
without using storage class memory.
So think what that storage class memory will offer.
So we can create hybrid configurations,
with StorageClass and Flash,
you could have our Flash core modules,
and introduce standard SSDs if you want,
but it's all AI based.
So we have AI based in our Storage Insights,
predictive analytics, management and support infrastructure.
And we have predictive analytics
in things like our Easy Tier.
So not only do we think storage is a critical foundation
for the AI application workload and use case,
which it is,
but you need to imbue your storage,
which we've done across FlashSystems,
including what we've done with our cloud edition,
because Spectrum Virtualize has a cloud edition,
and an on-prem edition, seamless transparency,
but AI in across that entire platform,
using Spectrum Virtualize.
>> All right, so let me summarize.
We've got an absolute requirement from enterprise,
to make storage simpler,
which requires simple product families
with more commonality,
where that commonality delivers great value,
and at the same time the option to innovate,
where that innovation's going to create value.
We have a lot simpler set of interfaces and technologies,
as you said they're common,
but they are more focused
on the hybrid cloud, the multi-cloud world,
that we're working in right now,
that brings more automation
and more high-quality storage services to bear
wherever you are in the enterprise.
So I've got to ask you one more question.
I'm a storage administrator,
or a person who is administering data,
inside the infrastructure.
I used to think of doing things this way,
what is the one or two things
that I'm going to do differently
as a consequence of this kind of an announcement?
>> So I think the first one,
it's going to reduce your operational expenses
and your operational man power,
because you have a common API,
a common software platform,
a common foundation for data management and data movement,
it's not going to be as complex for you
to pull your storage configurations.
Second thing, you don't have to make as many choices
between high-end workloads, mid-range workloads,
and entry workloads.
Six lines across the board.
Enterprise class data services across the board.
So when you think simple,
don't think simple as simplistic, low-end.
This is a simple to use, simple deploy,
simple to manage product,
with extensive innovation and a price that's-
>> So simple to secure?
>> And simple to secure.
Data rest encryption across the portfolio.
And in fact those that use our FlashCore Modules,
no performance hit on encryption,
and no performance hit on data compression.
So it can help you shrink
the actual amount you need to buy from us,
which sounds sort of crazy,
that a storage company would do that,
but with our data reduction technologies,
compression being one of them,
there's no performance hits,
you can compress compressable workloads,
and now, anything with a FlashCore Module,
which by the way, happens to be FIPS 140-2 certified,
there's no excuse not to encrypt,
because encryption, as you know,
has had a performance hit in the past.
Now, our 7200, our 5100 FlashSystem,
and our FlashSystem 9200 and 9200R,
there's no performance on encrypting,
so it gives you that extra resiliency,
that you need in a storage world,
and you don't get a non-compression,
which helps you shrink how much you end up buying from IBM.
So that's the type of innovation we deliver,
in a simple to use, easy to deploy,
easy to manage but incredible innovative value,
brought into a very innovative solution,
across the board,
not just let's innovate at the high end
or you know what I mean?
Trying to make that innovation spread,
which, by the way, makes it easier for the storage guy.
>> Well, look, in a world,
even inside a single enterprise,
you're going to have branch offices,
you're going to have local this, the edge,
you can't let the bad guys in
on a lesser platform that then can hit data
on a higher end platform.
So the days of presuming
that there's this great differentiation in the tier
are slowly coming to an end
as everything becomes increasingly integrated.
>> Well as you've pointed out many times,
data is the asset.
Not the most valuable one.
It is the asset of today's digital enterprise
and it doesn't matter whether you're a global Fortune 500,
or you're a (mumble).
Everybody is a digital enterprise these days,
big, medium or small.
So cyber resiliency is important,
cutting costs is important,
being able to modernize and optimize your infrastructure,
simply and easily.
The small guys don't have a storage guy,
and a network guy and a server guy,
they have the IT guy.
And even the big guys,
who used to have hundreds of storage admins in some cases,
don't have hundreds any more.
They've got a lot of IT people, but they cut back
so these storage admins and infrastructure admins
in these global enterprise,
they're managing 10, 20 times the amount of storage
they managed even two or three years ago.
So, simple, across the board,
and of course hyper multicloud is critical
to these configurations.
>> Eric, it's a great annoucement,
congratulations to IBM to actually delivering on
what your promises are.
Once again, great to have you on theCUBE.
>> Great, thank you very much Peter.
>> And thanks to you, again,
for participating in this CUBE conversation,
I'm Peter Burris, see you next time.
(upbeat, jazz music)