Western Digital is one of the most well known names in storage, and while spinning disks may seem boring to all of those looking for something very flashy like NAND (I can’t help it!), most of us still do have at least one HDD in our primary systems and many of us run several of them in home NAS systems. They are also still the backbone of most Datacenters and servers out there.
Earlier this week, Western Digital announced its nine-disk mechanical HDD platform that includes energy assisted recording tech and will deliver the highest capacity available currently. The company will sample the 18 TB Ultrastar DC HC550 CMR HDD and the 20 TB Ultrastar DC HC650 SMR HDD to select customers by the end of 2019 with production expected to ramp up in the first half of 2020.
Western Digital estimates that 50 percent of its HDD exabytes shipped will be on SMR by 2023.
At Dropbox, we are constantly looking for ways to improve efficiency and power in our data centers. We’re excited to see SMR drives reach a 20 TB capacity point, which will enable us to power collaboration and deliver long-term value to our customers.
Akhil Gupta, vice president of engineering at Dropbox.
Western Digital will continue to offer many options for different capacity points like the
- Six-platter 10 TB Ultrastar DC HC330 air-based HDD
- Eight-platter 14 TB Ultrastar DC HC530 helium-based HDD
- Nine-platter 18 TB Ultrastar DC HC550 helium-based HDD
- Nine-platter 20 TB Ultrastar DC HC650 helium-based HDD.
Availability
The WD 10TB Ultrastar DC HC330 and 14TB Ultrastar HC530 are available now and the company will sample the 20 TB Ultrastar DC HC650 SMR HDD and the Ultrastar DC HC550 CMR HDD in 18 TB and 16 TB capacities to select customers by the end of this year, with qualification and volume shipments beginning in the first half of 2020.
