Seagate’s 30TB+ Hard Drives Signal Storage Industry Turning Point

Seagate has reached a significant milestone with its 30TB+ hard drives, marking a pivotal moment in the storage industry. The Mozaic 3+ platform, powered by Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) technology, achieves unprecedented areal densities of 3TB+ per platter, with plans for 4TB+ and 5TB+ in the future. Seagate’s Exos® product family, utilizing the Mozaic 3+ platform, now offers industry-leading capacities of 30TB and beyond, catering to hyperscale cloud customers.

The areal density innovation of Mozaic 3+ allows for more data storage in the same space, effectively doubling capacity compared to conventional drives. This results in significant cost savings for data centers, including a 40% improvement in per terabyte power consumption. Additionally, Mozaic 3+ contributes to sustainability goals with a 55% reduction in embodied carbon per terabyte compared to traditional drives.

Seagate is experiencing high demand from data center customers, with qualification of Mozaic 3+ expected to be completed this quarter. A prominent cloud service provider is actively transitioning to Seagate’s Mozaic 3+, underscoring confidence in the technology.

Dave Mosley, Seagate’s CEO, emphasized the importance of areal density in accommodating the growing need for raw data sets, particularly in AI use cases. Mozaic 3+ incorporates several innovations, including Superlattice Platinum-Alloy Media, Plasmonic Writer with nanophotonic laser technology, Gen 7 Spintronic Reader, and a 12nm Integrated Controller.

These innovations contribute to the efficiency and scalability of Mozaic 3+, positioning Seagate as a leading hard drive manufacturer with unique capabilities. The technology is expected to benefit various markets beyond data centers, including enterprise, edge computing, NAS, and video and imaging applications.