IDC says “develop faster HDD performance for PC markets”. Okay

The “HDD Industry Needs to Transform Itself“.  That the headline of a recent post by StorageNewsletter.com based on IDC’s latest “Worldwide Hard Disk Drive 2011-2015 Forecast: Transformational Times” research.

What does IDC suggest we do? (c/o StorageNewsletter.com)

“The HDD industry needs to shift its R&D priorities, giving more attention to developing faster HDD performance for PC markets while simultaneously delivering HDD capacity advancements to support enterprise storage growth demands,” said John Rydning, research director for Storage Mechanisms: Disk. “At the same time, HDD vendors have an opportunity to transform into storage solution providers with a broad range of products that address the needs of both consumers and small businesses.”

Okay, so…

1. Make PC hard drives faster (check)
2. Make enterprise hard drives bigger (check)
3. Become storage solution providers (huh?)

Make PC hard drives faster:  Say no more…the re-introduction of hybrid technology last year, now with a focus on performance over battery life, makes this a reality. Seagate’s Momentus XT solid state hybrid drive (SSHD) ushered in a new thinking for hybrid storage.  All of the performance benefits of SSD, with the capacity and price of HDD.  Momentus XT was just the beginning. The learning from close to 1 Million Momentus XT drives sold is enabling Seagate to make it better, as we can assume a 2nd generation is coming. In addition, countless customers have been clamoring for a hybrid desktop (3.5-inch) version…no news on this, but you can bet it’s being talked about inside the walls of Seagate. So far, only Seagate has shipped an SSHD, so does that mean so far only Seagate is hearing what IDC is saying?

Make enterprise drives bigger: This gets a little more difficult. Yes, we have introduced 3.0TB drives, and yes we have 1.0TB 2.5-inch drives. We even have a 900GB 2.5-inch 10,000RPM drive, but what does IDC mean by bigger? 4TB, 5TB, 10TB?  I recently posted how aerial density is getting tougher and tougher to grow, and new technologies like BPM and HAMR will help facilitate that, and all hard drive manufacturers are investing millions in R&D to make this a reality.  After all, since the beginning of the hard drive, all we have done is made them bigger.

Become storage solution providers:  This one honestly caught me off guard a bit, but when you start to think about it, many HDD guys have already started doing this through branded products sold online and through retail that focus on SMB. Products like Seagate’s BlackArmor NAS solutions are an example, or Seagate’s i365 division that provides SMBs with cloud based data protection and disaster recovery professional services and solutions. But, perhaps IDC means HDD vendors need to go even deeper. Could they mean branded enterprise class storage systems, or software? Or greater investments in the cloud and cloud storage services? I don’t know – I haven’t read the entire research doc – yet.

All I can figure is that if IDC is consulting hard drive manufacturers to transform, Seagate seems to have already started.

What’s your prediction for the HDD transformation?

Also, check out: “Future Of HDD Market Lies In Hybrid Drives” by Information Week’s Chandler Harris

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