This IBM® Redpaper Product Guide describes the history and evolution of IBM FlashCore® Modules (FCM), provides a general technology overview, and explains how IBM continues to lead the industry in high-speed, low-latency enterprise storage innovation. This updated edition also introduces the latest IBM FlashCore Module 5 (FCM5) technologies and enhancements.

FCM technology is used in IBM FlashSystem®, IBM Elastic Storage System (ESS), and IBM Storage Scale System (SSS) environments. It combines flash memory and an NVMe-based architecture with data reduction, ransomware detection, and computational storage capabilities, and integrates with IBM Storage Virtualize features such as high availability.

Modern FCM generations also function as computational storage devices, offloading operations such as compression, ransomware analytics, telemetry collection, and metadata management from the storage controllers to improve efficiency, scalability, and operational intelligence.