Home
Seagate, after hinting in May that it would release 8TB and 10TB hard drives in the next 12 months, has started delivering early samples of its 8TB hard drive to “major customers” (i.e. enterprise customers). Curiously, while Western Digital hit 6TB last year by filling its drives with helium, Seagate appears to be pushing the 3.5-inch spinning disk storage envelope by simply increasing areal density. Western Digital, incidentally, despite being the first to 6TB, hasn’t announced anything new since November 2013. Maybe helium wasn’t quite ready for prime time?
During Seagate’s quarterly earnings call, CEO Steve Luczo spoke about all of the company’s major efforts — including its recent move into 6-, 8-, and 10-terabyte drives. Seagate officially announced its 6TB non-helium-filled drive in April 2014, and Luczo says that , “In the enterprise market, most of our major OEMs and cloud customers are qualified or are actively qualifying” the drive. With the 6TB done and dusted, attention has moved to even larger drives: “We have also delivered 8 terabyte customer development units to major customers and cloud service providers and the initial customer feedback has been very positive.”
What’s missing from the earnings call, however, is any mention of when these hard drive behemoths are coming to the consumer market — and, more importantly, how exactly Seagate is reaching such incredible storage densities.
During Seagate’s quarterly earnings call, CEO Steve Luczo spoke about all of the company’s major efforts — including its recent move into 6-, 8-, and 10-terabyte drives. Seagate officially announced its 6TB non-helium-filled drive in April 2014, and Luczo says that , “In the enterprise market, most of our major OEMs and cloud customers are qualified or are actively qualifying” the drive. With the 6TB done and dusted, attention has moved to even larger drives: “We have also delivered 8 terabyte customer development units to major customers and cloud service providers and the initial customer feedback has been very positive.”
What’s missing from the earnings call, however, is any mention of when these hard drive behemoths are coming to the consumer market — and, more importantly, how exactly Seagate is reaching such incredible storage densities.