Data centres are increasingly looking for optimised storage solutions that can lower total cost of ownership (TCO) at scale. Taking a cue, data infrastructure firm Western Digital has introduced massive capacity — 24 terabyte (TB) and 28TB — enterprise-class hard disk drives (HDDs), as these are critical for data centres to design more cost-efficient, scalable and sustainable infrastructure. Western Digital is now shipping its new 10-disk 24TB CMR (conventional magnetic recording) HDD family for hyperscale, cloud and enterprise data centre customers.
Khalid Wani, senior director – Sales, India, Western Digital, told FE: “HDDs are foundational to helping enterprises and businesses transform and extract value from data. The 24TB CMR HDDs and 28TB SMR (shingled magnetic recording) HDDs not only address the escalating demands of data-intensive applications but also contribute significantly to our sustainability goals. These innovations support our mission to help our customers create digital infrastructure that is not only technologically advanced but also environmentally conscious.”
The two principal technical challenges that have been addressed here in order to increase the storage capacity of HDDs are: one, improvements in the performance of main parts including magnetic heads, magnetic disks, and the signal processing circuit in the case of conventional magnetic recording (CMR) HDDs; and two, the overwriting of data on tracks, analogous to the shingling of a roof, in the case of shingled magnetic recording (SMR) HDDs.
Analysts say Western Digital is driving the next big shift in cloud data centres with SMR HDDs. “Western Digital’s new product offerings set a new benchmark in data storage capacity, empowering data-intensive applications, reducing data center costs, and driving sustainability,” said Shipra Sinha, analyst – Industry Intelligence Group, CyberMedia Research (CMR).
For instance, at 28TB, the new Ultrastar DC HC680 SMR HDD provides the utmost in storage density for hyperscale, cloud and enterprise customers. Designed for sequential write workloads where storage density, watt/TB and $/TB are critical parameters, it targets environments such as bulk storage, online backup and archive, video surveillance, cloud storage, storage for regulatory compliance, big data storage, and other applications where data may be infrequently accessed.
Similarly, the Ultrastar DC HC580 24TB CMR HDD is more power efficient, providing 12% less Watt/TB compared to the company’s previous 22TB version. These high-capacity HDDs are also a significant step forward in meeting the company’s sustainability targets and toward helping data centre customers meet theirs.
“As data volumes continue to explode, 24TB and 28TB HDDs have become indispensable tools for organisations across diverse industries — from media and entertainment to healthcare, from manufacturing to financial services amongst others, for enabling efficient storage, management, and analysis of massive datasets, driving innovation and growth,” Sinha added.
As per CyberMedia Research insights, Western Digital commands 54% share in India’s enterprise HDD market in Q3 2023 with 96% year-on-year growth in shipments.