IBM (NYSE:IBM) said on February 10 that it is rolling out three new enterprise storage platforms equipped with artificial intelligence tools aimed at cutting down manual storage administration. The new FlashSystem 5600, 7600 and 9600 models integrate what IBM calls FlashSystem.ai, a suite of AI agents designed to support and automate storage management tasks.
The systems feature a fifth-generation FlashCore Module that, based on IBM’s internal testing, can identify ransomware activity in under a minute. IBM said the AI-driven interface can reduce storage management workloads by as much as 90% compared with traditional manual processes performed through graphical user interfaces.
In terms of performance and capacity, the FlashSystem 5600 offers up to 2.5 petabytes of effective storage in a 1U form factor and supports as many as 2.6 million IOPS. The FlashSystem 7600 scales to 7.2 petabytes in a 2U system with up to 4.3 million IOPS, while the high-end FlashSystem 9600 delivers as much as 11.8 petabytes in a 2U chassis and up to 6.3 million IOPS.
IBM said the new lineup provides up to 40% higher data efficiency than the prior generation and can shrink the physical storage footprint by between 30% and 75%, depending on configuration. For the FlashSystem 9600, the company estimates operational cost reductions of up to 57% through AI-driven automation and system consolidation compared with earlier models.
FlashSystem.ai relies on an AI model trained using what IBM described as tens of billions of data points gathered from telemetry and operational environments. The platform is built to make automated decisions that previously required human intervention and to dynamically adapt to changing application workloads.
The latest FlashCore Module supports capacities of up to 105TB and uses hardware-accelerated analytics to identify security threats without degrading system performance, IBM said, adding that false-positive rates remain below 1%.
According to the company, the new FlashSystem products are scheduled to become generally available on March 6, 2026.