Western Digital Announces Their High Capacity Drives Up To 20TB

Addressing the TCO requirements of data center customers, Western Digital has announced its nine-disk mechanical platform, which includes energy-assisted recording technology and maintains the company’s areal density leadership while delivering the highest capacity available. The company will sample the 18TB Ultrastar DC HC550 CMR HDD and the 20TB Ultrastar DC HC650 SMR HDD to select customers by the end of 2019 with production ramp expected in the first half of 2020.

Enterprise SMR Drives Powering Companies Like Dropbox

This rapid ramp and availability of the 20TB SMR drive following a technology preview in June 2019, support a growing ecosystem and the continued industry adoption of SMR. Western Digital estimates that 50 percent of its HDD exabytes shipped will be on SMR by 2023. Western Digital will offer a unique and full portfolio of Capacity Enterprise HDDs, with cost-optimized configurations for every important capacity point: six-disk 10TB Ultrastar DC HC330 air-based HDD; eight-disk 14TB Ultrastar DC HC530 helium-based HDD; nine-disk 18TB Ultrastar DC HC550 helium-based HDD; and a nine-disk 20TB Ultrastar DC HC650 helium-based HDD. The company’s strong execution has resulted in a rapid ramp and majority share at its capacity point for the Ultrastar DC HC530 HDD3, the industry’s only available eight-disk 14TB CMR drive. According to TRENDFOCUS, 14TB will continue to be the industry’s dominant capacity point through the first half of 2020.

“At Dropbox, we are constantly looking for ways to improve efficiency and power in our data centers,” said Akhil Gupta, vice president of engineering at Dropbox. “We’re excited to see SMR drives reach a 20TB capacity point, which will enable us to power collaboration and deliver long-term value to our customers.”

“Western Digital continues to innovate to deliver efficient, purpose-built storage with excellent TCO with the optimal combination of industry-leading areal density, mechanical innovations and materials advancements,” said Christopher Bergey, senior vice president and general manager of Data Center Devices, Western Digital. “Leveraging our success in bringing energy-assisted recording to market with our expertise in mechanical design, we can deliver this scalable HDD platform with significant capacity increases to our customers, particularly in the transition from 14TB to 18TB.”

Availability

Western Digital’s 10TB Ultrastar DC HC330 and 14TB Ultrastar DC HC530 are available now. The company will sample the 20TB Ultrastar DC HC650 SMR HDD and the Ultrastar DC HC550 CMR HDD in 18TB and 16TB capacities to select customers by the end of this year, with qualification and volume shipments beginning in the first half of 2020.