A 60 Terabyte time crunch...the clock is ticking

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Via @computerworld, “The maximum areal densities of hard disk drives are expected to more than double by 2016, according to an IHS iSuppli report on the memory and storage market.”

Seagate has already projected that with the new HAMR technology coming out, a 60TB 3.5-inch drive is not out of the question before too long. Capacity has and may always be the measuring stick for how hard drive suppliers are measured against each other in terms of technical “leadership.” But, let’s face it, there are many other innovations in drive design, firmware design, and features that will ultimately lead to whether you are #1, #2, or #3 in terms of shipments. Being first is a nicety. A short-lived blip on the media’s radar screen that comes and goes with what seems to be a blink of the eye. Being the best in terms of quality, ease of use, and performance is the ultimate measuring stick.

When I think of a 60TB hard drive and what it would mean in terms of RAID rebuilds, I get about as excited as the guy in the photo.

Imagine what it would take to rebuild a disk array should a drive fail. In today’s world, with 3TB drives, it can take days…yes days. According to a yobitech blog, “The Perfect Storm even with RAID 6 protection looks like this…Higher Capacity Drives = longer rebuild times: The industry has released 3TB drives. Depending on SAN vendor, this will vary. I have seen 6 days for a rebuild of a 2TB drive.”

Granted, not everyone has a RAID 5 or RAID 6 system in their home, but most businesses do, and time is money. But as capacity demands grow in the home and office, higher capacity hard drives are a welcome sight to meet that demand, but like I said above, capacity is only part of the equation. It’s the quality, features, firmware, performance that end up mattering more in the long run.

Good thing the RAID rebuild nightmare is being met head-on. Seagate has been working on a feature in its enterprise drives appropriately named RAID Rebuild for the past couple years. Seagate has been relatively quiet about this new feature, working behind the scenes with customers and partners on ways to best implement the feature – to make it a standard.

The sooner the better, because 60TB drives are on the horizon…tick, tick, tick.

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HAMR follows PMR to keep disks driving