PRESS RELEASE
Second Generation SMR Technology Coupled with HelioSeal® Technology Deliver Breakthrough Capacity For Sequential Write Workloads
SAN JOSE, CA — Oct. 3, 2017 — Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC), a global data storage technology and solutions leader, today announced that it is providing cloud and hyperscale data centers the capacity required by big data applications with the world’s first 14TB enterprise-class hard drive featuring host-managed shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology. Western Digital’s HGST-branded Ultrastar® Hs14 delivers 40 percent more capacity and more than twice the sequential write performance of its predecessor, enabling more economical and efficient capture of the growing volume and variety of data.
The future is built on the insights and predictive power of big data. As data grows exponentially, storing it all in an affordable and accessible manner is an ongoing challenge for enterprise and cloud service data center operators. With a focus on total cost of ownership (TCO), the factors of capacity per rack, power consumption, cooling, maintenance, and acquisition cost are all paramount. To combat the big data challenge, Ultrastar Hs14 drives deliver unprecedented capacity leadership and online watt/TB power efficiency for extremely low TCO by harnessing two core complmentary technologies – fourth generation HelioSeal® technology, and second generation host-managed SMR – along with enterprise-class relaibility. These mature, field-proven technologies provide the foundation for delivering efficiency, quality and reliable performance required by cloud and hyperscale environments, perfect for ultra-dense scale-out storage systems running sequential write workloads. By utilizing SMR technology, Ultrastar Hs14 HDDs offer a 16 percent increase in capacity[1] while keeping highly predictable, highly reliable performance.
“Over 70 percent of the exabytes Western Digital ships into the capacity enterprise segment are on helium-based high capacity drives and continue to support customers with outstanding reliability, performance and value Quality of Service (QoS),” said Mark Grace, senior vice president of devices at Western Digital. “The TCO and reliability benefits of our HelioSeal platform is the foundation of our leadership in high capacity enterprise storage.”
Ultrastar Hs14 14TB Enterprise Drive Features and Specifications:
- HelioSeal Technology: Western Digital’s fourth generation helium filled drive technology brings the highest capacity hard drive to market much sooner than competing offerings.
- Host-managed SMR Technology: Second-generation enterprise storage deployment of host-managed SMR delivers 14TB with no compromise of performance predictability and consistency. Host-managed SMR hard drives are designed specifically for sequential write environments, and will not work as drop-in replacements for traditional capacity enterprise drives.
- Reliability: Amongst the industry’s highest MTBF rating at 2.5M hours.
- Availability: The Ultrastar Hs14 enteprise hard drive is currently sampling to select OEMs and comes with a 5-year limited warranty. For more information on the Ultrastar Hs14 14TB enterprise drive, visit: http://www.hgst.com/products/hard-drives/ultrastar-hs14.
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About Western Digital
Western Digital is an industry-leading provider of storage technologies and solutions that enable people to create, leverage, experience and preserve data. The company addresses ever-changing market needs by providing a full portfolio of compelling, high-quality storage solutions with customer-focused innovation, high efficiency, flexibility and speed. Our products are marketed under the HGST, SanDisk and WD brands to OEMs, distributors, resellers, cloud infrastructure providers and consumers. Financial and investor information is available on the company's Investor Relations website at investor.wdc.com.
As used for storage capacity, one terabyte (TB) = one trillion bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment. Product specifications subject to change without notice. Not all products are available in all regions of the world.
[1] Compared to 12TB drives using Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) technology
