Recently IBM Redbooks team published the following IBM Redpaper: “IBM FlashCore Module (FCM) Product Guide: Features the newly available FCM4 with AI-powered ransomware detection” https://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp5725.html.
This Product Guide describes the IBM FlashCore Module (FCM) history, a general overview and then a deeper dive on the way IBM leads the field in the adoption of high speed, low latency storage, with special focus on the fourth-generation FlashCore Module technology (FCM4) with AI-powered ransomware detection capabilities.
With the availability of FCM4, IBM introduced an industry leading breakthrough called Ransomware Threat Detection, which is a process that identifies and responds to security threats before they can damage data or systems.
The FCM4 collects detailed statistics on every I/O operation (IOP) for each virtual disk (Vdisk). This data is then intelligently summarized for efficient processing. The FCM4 transmits this summary to Storage Virtualize, which relays it to an AI-powered inference engine. This engine can identify unusual activity, like potential ransomware attacks, in under a minute. Upon detection, an immediate alert is sent to IBM Storage Insights Pro, allowing for swift action. Additionally, the information can be shared with IBM Storage Defender if available, further strengthening your security posture. IBM also advanced the data reduction abilities of the FCM4 by supporting the ability to have up to 3-to-1 data compression if the user has the right type of data. In a move to further optimize performance, all FCM4s are based on PCIe Gen4.
IBM pioneered custom inline compression and encryption into their FlashCore Modules (FCM), which again has no impact on performance.
For a deeper discussion on these topics refer to the Redpaper.
The Redbooks team would like to thank Jon Herd from IBM UK and Hartmut Lonzer from IBM Germany for authoring this important Redpaper.
Also, for a good overall overview of FCM4 and IBM’s strategy to combat ransomware, you can check out the recent article by Sam Werner, VP, IBM Storage Product Management on the launch of IBM's fourth-generation FlashCore Module technology.
I hope you enjoy this Redpaper. If you have any comments or questions, please use the Comments section of this entry.
Vasfi Gucer
IBM Redbooks Team Storage Team Leader
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