Seagate Ships World's First 8 TB Hard Drives

[Cristian_25H]

Seagate Technology plc, a world leader in storage solutions, today announced it is shipping the world's first 8 TB hard disk drive. An important step forward in storage, the 8 TB hard disk drive provides scale-out data infrastructures with supersized-capacity, energy-efficiency and the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) in the industry for cloud content, object storage and back-up disaster recovery storage.

"As our world becomes more mobile, the number of devices we use to create and consume data is driving an explosive growth in unstructured data. This places increased pressure on cloud builders to look for innovative ways to build cost-effective, high capacity storage for both private and cloud-based data centers," said Scott Horn, Seagate vice president of marketing. "Seagate is poised to address this challenge by offering the world's first 8 TB HDD, a ground-breaking new solution for meeting the increased capacities needed to support the demand for high capacity storage in a world bursting with digital creation, consumption and long-term storage."





A cornerstone for growing capacities in multiple applications, the 8 TB hard drive delivers bulk data storage solutions for online content storage providing customers with the highest capacity density needed to address an ever increasing amount of unstructured data in an industry-standard 3.5-inch HDD. Providing up to 8 TB in a single drive slot, the drive delivers maximum rack density, within an existing footprint, for the most efficient data center floor space usage possible.

"Public and private data centers are grappling with efficiently storing massive amounts of unstructured digital content," said John Rydning, IDC's research vice president for hard disk drives. "Seagate's new 8 TB HDD provides IT managers with a new option for improving storage density in the data center, thus helping them to tackle one of the largest and fastest growing data categories within enterprise storage economically."

The 8 TB hard disk drive increases system capacity using fewer components for increased system and staffing efficiencies while lowering power costs. With its low operating power consumption, the drive reliably conserves energy thereby reducing overall operating costs. Helping customers economically store data, it boasts the best Watts/GB for enterprise bulk data storage in the industry.

"Cleversafe is excited to once again partner with Seagate to deliver to our customers what is truly an innovative storage solution. Delivering absolute lowest cost/TB along with the performance and reliability required for massive scale applications, the new 8 TB hard disk drive is ideal for meeting the needs of our enterprise and service provider customers who demand optimized hardware and the cost structure needed for massive scale out," said Tom Shirley, senior vice president of research and development, Cleversafe.

Outfitted with enterprise-class reliability and support for archive workloads, it features multi-drive RV tolerance for consistent enterprise-class performance in high density environments. The drive also incorporates a proven SATA 6Gb/s interface for cost-effective, easy system integration in both private and public data centers.

Shipping drives to select customers now with wide scale availability next quarter.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Mathragh]

I wonder whether these will be helium filled or not.

 

[Coldzero]

Nice, this way prices of the 4, 5 and 6TB will drop faster
Nice to see hdd capacity grow a lot again.

 

[robert3892]

Outstanding. Curious about pricing though.....

 

[Sony Xperia S]

I do not wanna spoil your fun and joy, guys, but these thingies, when full with precious information, and when they get some defect, it won't be so funny, for you.

Come give us finally cheap 512 GB SSDs!

 

[Mathragh]

I do not wanna spoil your fun and joy, guys, but these thingies, when full with precious information, and when they get some defect, it won't be so funny, for you.

Thats why we have backups!

Come give us finally cheap 512 GB SSDs!

Right on

 

[TheDeeGee]

Come give us finally cheap 512 GB SSDs!

Id like to see affordable 1 - 2TB SSDs for Storage. Let's say 100 - 150 Euros.

- Reduced Speeds, but still atleast twice as fast as a traditional HDD.
- Increased Cell Durability.

But noooo, keep pushing and pushing the tech. We need to get rid of traditional HHDs, not make them larger.

 

[Mathragh]

Id like to see affordable 1 - 2TB SSDs for Storage. Let's say 100 - 150 Euros.

- Reduced Speeds, but still atleast twice as fast as a traditional HDD.
- Increased Cell Durability.

But noooo, keep pushing and pushing the tech. We need to get rid of traditional HHDs, not make them larger.

The only way one could do that with current tech is by increasing the bits per cell, which progressively reduces the durability.

There simply isn't any other way, as you're limited to making a cell for each(couple of) bit(s), and manufacturing processes simply aren't good yet for them to do that cheaply.

 

[Octavean]

Nice, this way prices of the 4, 5 and 6TB will drop faster
Nice to see hdd capacity grow a lot again.

Doubtful,.....

Prices for new 8TB drives will likely be astronomical. 4, 5 and 6TB HDD prices will likely remain unchanged.

 

[micropage7]

8Tb is too much for most and as usual, the more you can save if lost the more you cry
but after the disk goes beyond 2 Tb maybe backup or get some Raid is more important

 

[WithoutWeakness]

The only way one could do that with current tech is by increasing the bits per cell, which progressively reduces the durability.

There simply isn't any other way, as you're limited to making a cell for each(couple of) bit(s), and manufacturing processes simply aren't good yet for them to do that cheaply.

You could do it with a different controller design. Most SATA SSD controllers only address 8 channels of NAND which makes having more than 8 chips on the PCB pointless. If controllers with more channels were used you could have 16 or 32 chips on a PCB and double or quadruple storage capacity. The downside is wear leveling across all those cells and the added cost of design/manufacture vs the size of the niche market that would be able to afford such high capacity drives.

 

[techy1]

why some of you dream about SSD for STORAGE? I want my SSD's like I want my woman: 1) fast, 2) small, 3) cheap... and if they are gone one day with all my stuff - I will not cry about - just get another one and start all over again (cuz I keep my precious stuff on my HDD's)

 

[xorbe]

Hdd transfer speeds aren't increasing to match these huge drives. Say at 100MB/s sustained, then it takes nearly 24 hours to read or write the entire drive.

 

[Athlon2K15]

I wonder whether these will be helium filled or not.

No Helium, just SMR.

 

[newtekie1]

Hdd transfer speeds aren't increasing to match these huge drives. Say at 100MB/s sustained, then it takes nearly 24 hours to read or write the entire drive.

So, when was the last time you read your entire hard drive from beginning to end?

 

[Sony Xperia S]

Thats why we have backups!

8Tb...
but after the disk goes beyond 2 Tb maybe backup or get some Raid is more important

I have always been wondering how in hell you would make a backup... Buy a second hard drive equally as large, and copy all the information to it... or you have a better idea?

So, when was the last time you read your entire hard drive from beginning to end?

He probably means that the transfer speed is so slow that it will take you infinity for some operations which I assume can happen more often than you can imagine.

 

[natr0n]

Imagine 8 TB of data loss... IMAGINE.

 

[Disparia]

You could do it with a different controller design. Most SATA SSD controllers only address 8 channels of NAND which makes having more than 8 chips on the PCB pointless. If controllers with more channels were used you could have 16 or 32 chips on a PCB and double or quadruple storage capacity. The downside is wear leveling across all those cells and the added cost of design/manufacture vs the size of the niche market that would be able to afford such high capacity drives.

And sometimes, just use more controllers

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

4TB+ drives have a high failure rate now and HDD manufacturer's try and blame shipping. I call bs on that. Doubtful that Ill get a 4TB anytime soon even on an awesome deal.

 

[The Von Matrices]

Id like to see affordable 1 - 2TB SSDs for Storage. Let's say 100 - 150 Euros.

- Reduced Speeds, but still atleast twice as fast as a traditional HDD.
- Increased Cell Durability.

But noooo, keep pushing and pushing the tech. We need to get rid of traditional HHDs, not make them larger.

The only way one could do that with current tech is by increasing the bits per cell, which progressively reduces the durability.

There simply isn't any other way, as you're limited to making a cell for each(couple of) bit(s), and manufacturing processes simply aren't good yet for them to do that cheaply.

Or you can just look at V-NAND, which simultaneously increases durability and cell density. Samsung's roadmap has 1Tbit V-NAND chips planned for 2017.

SSD prices are typically proportional to the number of flash dies inside. Currently, you can get a 256GB drive (with 16 128Gbit chips) for less than €150. If Samsung's roadmap holds true, then a 2TB drive with 16 1Tbit chips should cost less than €150 by 2017.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

I'm hoping samsung takes the training wheels off v-nand. It has the potential to catch up with HDDs for density, one less source of case resonation and other errant noises. Not to mention finally getting decent transfer rates and access speeds for pictures and videos.

I have always been wondering how in hell you would make a backup... Buy a second hard drive equally as large, and copy all the information to it... or you have a better idea?

That's exactly what you do. Then you either use raid or software backup. I prefer software but there's def. a pro-con to each. Sadly it makes upgrading your storage twice as expensive. I'm out of space on my 3TB setup but unfortunately spending $600 on two 6TB drives is a bit much for me at the moment.

 

[newtekie1]

And sometimes, just use more controllers

And in turn way more cost.

That's exactly what you do. Then you either use raid or software backup. I prefer software but there's def. a pro-con to each. Sadly it makes upgrading your storage twice as expensive. I'm out of space on my 3TB setup but unfortunately spending $600 on two 6TB drives is a bit much for me at the moment.

That is the beauty of RAID. A 6TB drive is nearly $300, two 3TB drives are only $200. So run the two 3TB drives in RAID0, and back it up to the 6TB drive.

 

[xorbe]

So, when was the last time you read your entire hard drive from beginning to end?

Every month when I do a backup between two sets that I rotate!

 

[Sony Xperia S]

That's exactly what you do.

I'm sorry but that's exactly what I am NOT going to do because of financial reasons.

If somehow I have other devices with free hard space, I will copy what is the most precious.

But no way in hell I will pay double price because those cannot build reliable equipment! I prefer to sue them.

 

[wiak]

I do not wanna spoil your fun and joy, guys, but these thingies, when full with precious information, and when they get some defect, it won't be so funny, for you.

Come give us finally cheap 512 GB SSDs!

putting alot of important things on a 8TB drive is asking for it
but many of us are planning to upgrade RAID6 arrays from 2TB drives, so now that the new drives come out, and the older 6TBs go down in price, its nice, now we can get alot more space in the same case

And in turn way more cost.




That is the beauty of RAID. A 6TB drive is nearly $300, two 3TB drives. So run the two 3TB drives in RAID0, and back it up to the 6TB drive.

heard of RAID5 or RAID6? makes better use of the drives