New Seagate 6TB HDD With Traditional PMR, Not SMR, Shipping

Seagate Technology plc is shipping the world’s fastest 6TB HDD drive – the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4.

Boasting industry-leading performance, the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4 is a step forward in scale-out data infrastructures delivering supersize storage and enterprise reliability to meet the growth of corporate and cloud-based data centers.

“Unstructured data growth is doubling exponentially and will propel the digital universe to reach 16ZB of data by as early as 2017. This will cause cloud service providers to look for innovative ways to store more within an existing footprint while lowering operational costs,” said Scott Horn, Seagate VP marketing. “Seagate is poised to address this challenge by offering the fastest 6TB enterprise capacity HDD based on our proven, reliable platform meeting this never-ending demand in both private and public cloud data centers.”

Featuring the fastest performance available for a nearline HDD, the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4 enables faster data transfers by building on an eighth-generation platform that enables the drive to deliver up to a 25% increase in performance over competing 6TB drives – making it for 24 X 7 bulk storage. Utilizing 12Gb SAS, the drive provides customers with the scalability for future-proofing their systems. It is also available in an enterprise-ready 6Gb SATA interface for system integration.

“Supermicro’s new TwinPro and wide range of SuperServer, SuperStorage solutions all feature integrated 12Gb SAS 3.0 support enabling full and immediate access to the maximum performance and capacity offered by Seagate’s new 6TB 12Gb/s enterprise HDDs,” said Wally Liaw, VP sales, international at Super Micro Computer, Inc. “In addition to the increased I/O bandwidth, our SAS3 optimized platforms are cost competitive with current SAS2 6Gb/s enabled systems offering customers not only performance but also accelerated ROI advantages. With Seagate’s new 6TB Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4, Supermicro now offers the most cost effective scale-out storage solutions maximized for performance, density and energy efficiency in enterprise, data center, cloud and HPC applications.”
 
A family of drives with up to 6TB of capacity, the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4 provides customers with the capacity density needed to address an ever increasing amount of unstructured data in an industry-standard 3.5-inch HDD. Supporting the highest density storage per square foot in the industry, it features a 50% increase in capacity over the last generation (4TB) nearline drive. For both replicated and RAID environments, the drive delivers a lower TCO for enterprise storage by providing high capacity without sacrificing performance.

The drive employs multi-drive rotational vibration tolerance for enterprise performance and accurate storage in high density environments. With its 7200rpm performance, ramp load technology, and a humidity sensor, it delivers performance even in the harshest environments. Purpose-built for enterprise environments, the drive utilizes the T10 and T13-compliant power management standards enabling organizations to tailor systems for optimal energy usage resulting in up to 90% more power savings.

Key Features:

• Leading Performance – 25% faster than competitive 6TB drives.
• Highest Capacity Available – Up to 6TB per drive for maximum density server and storage solutions.
• Reliability – Industry-leading rotational vibration tolerance for consistent performance and enhanced error correction for accurate storage.
• Security – Self-Encrypting Drives (SED) with Instant Secure Erase for drive disposal or repurposing and FIPS SED security options.

The drive is shipping now to select cloud partners and resellers. It will also be integrated into Seagate business and branded storage products starting this spring.

“Cloud service providers across the globe are amassing terabytes of digital content each month and we expect this number to continue its aggressive growth in the coming year,” noted Dave Reinsel, IDC’s group VP for storage and semiconductors. “With this immense appetite in mind and looking at cloud architecture’s boundless demand for solid-performing and reliable drives – reaching higher capacities, like Seagate did with its new, traditional 6TB drive, should be well received by IT managers looking to meet their data center’s soaring need for storage with the performance.”  

“QNAP is excited to offer support for Seagate’s new 6TB Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4 to our users. With 50% greater storage density and optimized performance for nearline workloads, it is ideal for meeting the needs of our cloud data center customers who demand optimized hardware for their unique workloads as well as our high capacity SAS-enabled Turbo NAS users who demand high capacity and high reliability storage,” said Meiji Chang, GM, QNAP Systems Inc.