Rainer W. Kaese, Senior Manager, HDD Business Development, Toshiba Electronics Europe illustrates four of the 2024 trends that will characterize storage.
Hard drives are a proven and reliable data storage technology that has stood the test of time. Thanks to advantages fundamentals such as high capacities and low cost per unit of capacity, they represent an excellent resource to use in data storage strategies in various sectors and applications. Such as data centers, surveillance, gaming and cloud computing. Toshiba Electronics Europe analyzes the 4 most significant trends for the storage sector in 2024.
1.How to find the right balance between capacity and costs
The strong commitment to research and development guarantees the competitiveness of HDDs in the medium term. Recently, Toshiba launched the 22TB MG10F, a conventional magnetic recording HDD with a 10-platter sealed helium design, which increases capacity by 10% to the MG10 range in the 3.5-inch format.
Toshiba and the storage sector
However, it is important to note that engineers were able to increase terabytes in the same format and with the same power consumption, at a roughly equivalent cost. This is a critical point. Today, HDDs maintain a cost-per-capacity advantage over flash memory of approximately seven times. Add additional capacity makes no sense if costs increase exponentially.
2.Meeting the sustainability demands of data center operators
I data center they depend again from HDDs as the main storage devices. The 2TB capacity increase while maintaining the same format offers advantages in terms of rack space in urban locations that are often space-constrained. Here individual hard drives are combined in RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) mode, creating larger and faster storage solutions. It is common to see 24 HDDs integrated into a housing unit, and this figure is expected to increase, probably up to 60-120 units.
Toshiba and the storage sector: technologies and trends
In terms of sustainability HDDs can make a difference. As for energy efficiency, if you want to spin a disk at a certain frequency and access it at a certain speed, you run afoul of the laws of physics. These typically require around 10 watts per unit, but, thanks to helium technology, it is possible to go down to around 7-8 watts. The only way to achieve greater efficiency is to increase capacity for those 10 watts, which recent advances have helped achieve. Additionally, data center engineers are thinking about how to use the HDD more efficiently, such as in idle or shutdown mode.
Aluminum and copper HDDs are back in circulation
Another trend is recycling. The first phase of HDD installations in cloud data centers dates back 6 or 7 years ago and these components are now reaching the end of their life cycle and are being phased out. divestment. Since HDDs are made of aluminum and copper, they are easier to recycle than other components and materials. Thus becoming an integral part of the circular economy.
3.Provide consultancy on storage solutions
Most HDDs are intended for cloud and enterprise applications. HDD vendors are increasingly expected to act as partner able to help identify the best technologies and configurations for specific implementations. Toshiba’s European HDD Laboratory can propose multiple HDD combinations to test their operation and performance.
The most suitable configuration
Recently, a high-capacity JBOD enclosure with 78 18TB HDDs, totaling 1.4 petabytes, was installed connected to a server, allowing a single HDD to be used to determine its throughput in MB/sec. You can then switch to any combination of the 78 units, adding them incrementally and precisely measuring total performance. Furthermore, this infrastructure can also be used to perform detailed trade-off calculations, allowing you to choose the most suitable configuration for the activity to be carried out.
4.Crucial in write-intensive surveillance applications
The surveillance sector continues to have a high need of storage. And that’s given the trend towards higher quality video streams, 24/7, supported by affordable and reliable hardware. In some parts of the world, such as Central Europe, where GDPR requirements dictate keeping only a small amount of records for a short period, vendors may also consider low-capacity SSDs for storage.
Wich problems
However, this type of configuration does not solve the problems associated with write-intensive operations. High overwrite cycles, where data can only be retained for a few days, would quickly exhaust a flash component, a limitation that HDDs do not have. Furthermore, hard disks excellently support sequential write operations, which are widely required in this industry. They also guarantee theintegrity and data retention in the event of power outages or unexpected system shutdowns.
Rainer W. Kaese, Senior Manager Business Development Storage Products, Toshiba Electronics Europe
It is therefore clear that HDDs have a future positive. Toshiba continues to invest in research and development to achieve constant advancements, while expanding production capacity to meet demand. By partnering with data center system vendors, system integrators in surveillance, and IT OEMs, HDDs will continue to play a central role in the data age.