IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud on Microsoft Azure provides software defined block storage that allows you to create solutions that span from on premises to Microsoft Azure, as well as create all-in cloud data management using Azure Managed Disks. Among many capabilities, this offering provides an optimization layer for native cloud block storage infrastructure and provides a way to mirror data from on premises to cloud for Disaster Recovery solutions, Dev/Test, or Data Migration. It can also reduce the cost of your cloud storage, through greater efficiency in managing data and reducing infrastructure costs. IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud is based on the same software that runs in IBM's award-winning FlashSystem on premises storage, but it has been optimized to run on public cloud provider Infrastructure as a Service, specifically - in this case on Microsoft Azure.

IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud capabilities include:

• Migrate data between on-premises and Microsoft Azure regions or between two Microsoft Azure regions
• Implement disaster-recovery strategies between on-premises and Microsoft Azure or between two Microsoft Azure regions.
• Enable cloud-based DevOps with easy replication of data from on-premises sources
• Enhance performance and functionality, and lower cost of Azure Managed Disk block storage with advanced data services such as snapshots, thin provisioning, data reduction, and automated tiering
• Enjoy consistent data management between on-premises storage and Microsoft Azure block storage.
• Safeguarded Copy provides secure, immutable snapshots to protect and recover from cyber- attacks
• Policy-based asynchronous replication provides radically simple data resiliency with extremely low RPOs
• Support for virtualized and containerized server environments including VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V, Red Hat OpenShift, and Kubernetes services on Microsoft Azure