Beyond the Hype: Efficient Data Storage at Scale

February 05, 2025

Blog

From the proliferation of connected devices to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), the amount of data being created is staggering. As this data grows, so does the need for scalable and economical storage solutions that minimize total cost of ownership (TCO) for data center leaders around the world.

While flash is all the rage, due to its extreme performance and low latency, not all data should live on flash. Each application and type of data has requirements on how often it will be accessed, how quickly it will need to be accessed, and how much it’s worth paying for the speed of access.

There can be a big difference between warm and hot data. Think of a popular internet video streaming site. They may host a brand-new music video from a globally famous recording artist that will receive billions of views. On the exact same platform, they host a video from a struggling influencer trying to amass views in the thousands as well as a video of an amateur golfer who filmed her swing to share with her golf coach and will only receive a few views. The storage demands for these videos are significantly different. The music video likely needs to be maintained on SSD for primary storage or even held in RAM due to the high frequency of access, while the latter two video types can be stored on HDD and still easily meet the performance needs of the application to serve the video to a viewer while keeping TCO costs as low as possible for the streaming company.

Besides performance, there are other important TCO factors like capacity, power, cooling, storage density, and more that data centers leaders have to consider. They will choose storage that performs just right for the application requirements while optimizing to minimize the TCO of that storage over time.

There’s one thing for sure, particularly in the data center: SSDs and HDDs are not fighting over a fixed pie. The pie is growing rapidly, as data storage is a secular growth market. Both technologies are expanding to capture a share of that pie and trying to keep up with rapidly growing demand.

A Tailwind of Demand

The AI Data Cycle has emerged as another growth driver for the storage industry. As AI systems become more sophisticated, they generate vast amounts of data that must be stored efficiently.

HDDs play a crucial role in this ecosystem, handling both the input side, where data is ingested and stored, and the output side, where AI-generated content is produced and stored. This dual role positions HDDs as a linchpin in the AI-driven data cycle, ensuring that data is available when needed and stored with the lowest TCO.

With AI tailwinds, HDD exabyte shipments are expected to experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30% from 2023 to 2027, according to Western Digital analysis. As businesses and consumers alike generate more data, storage requirements will continue to rise, making HDDs an essential component of the digital age.

Today, virtually everything makes its way to the cloud, or is powered by the cloud – social media, IoT devices, mobile applications, e-commerce, streaming services, enterprise systems, and more. This data, generated in massive volumes from these diverse sources, is increasingly being moved to the cloud for storage, processing, and analysis. The cloud offers scalability, flexibility, and advanced analytics capabilities, making it the ideal destination for organizations to derive insights from this ever-expanding ocean of data.

And data growth is not slowing down. IDC projects that global data creation will increase from 132.4 zettabytes (ZB) in 2023 to 393.9 ZB in 2028. (IDC Source:  Worldwide Global StorageSphere Forecast, 2024-2028). While a majority of this data will not get stored, Ed Burns, research director for HDD and storage technologies at IDC says,“The amount of data stored will still be significant – around 13.6 ZB stored in 2028.” In addition, Burns says, “Approximately 85% of enterprise data is still stored on HDDs, and our forecast is that this HDD percentage is only expected to drop very slowly over our 5-year forecast." (IDC Source:  Market Analysis Perspective: Worldwide Hard Disk Drives, 2024, IDC Doc#US52409624, Jul 2024)

So, in a world where data is growing faster than ever—especially in AI, big data, and the cloud—HDDs are not going anywhere anytime soon; they’re just getting started.

Recent innovations in HDD technology have further solidified its position as the go-to storage solution for large-scale data environments. For instance, advancements in conventional magnetic recording (CMR) and shingled magnetic recording (SMR) have pushed HDD capacities to new heights, with CMR drives now offering up to 26 terabytes (TB) and SMR drives reaching up to 32TB. This capacity advancement on well-established recording technologies is critical as they are drop-in ready, enabling organizations to optimize storage infrastructure for lower TCO today and well into the future.

Meeting the Challenges of Modern Data Storage

One of the biggest challenges facing data centers today is the need to reduce TCO while managing the growing demand for data storage.

HDDs, with their high capacity, allow businesses to store more data at lower TCO compared to SSDs. Higher capacity HDDs are more space-efficient than lower capacity HDDs which can help reduce the need for additional racks, power, and cooling. Consider the example of a data center that needs to deliver 192 petabytes (PB) of total storage. The solution they have is 4U rack servers capable of holding 100 drives each. By using 24TB drives, the data center would require eight racks to meet its storage needs. However, by utilizing 32TB drives, the same amount of storage can be achieved with only six full racks. This reduction in the number of racks not only saves physical space but also leads to lower power and cooling costs, ultimately reducing the TCO by 20-25%.

In addition to lower TCO, the transition to higher-capacity HDDs is also driven by the need for greater efficiency and sustainability. As businesses increasingly prioritize Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives, the ability to reduce physical footprint without increasing power demands becomes a key consideration. High-capacity HDDs are well-positioned to help organizations meet these goals on a Watt/TB basis.

HDDs are also important in industries where massive amounts of data are generated and need to be stored or archived online for extended periods. From cloud storage providers to data-intensive industries such as media and entertainment, healthcare, research, and financial services, HDDs offer the most practical solution for meeting the growing demands of the digital age.

As data continues to grow exponentially, the role of HDDs will only become more critical. The ongoing innovations in HDD technology, coupled with their ability to deliver high-capacity storage with lower TCO, ensure that they will remain the backbone of data storage for years to come.

The Future of Data Storage

The demand for scalable, efficient data storage solutions is greater than ever. HDDs, with their unmatched capacity, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness, are the ideal solution for meeting this demand. As the AI Data Cycle and other growth drivers continue to push the boundaries of data creation, HDDs will remain the preferred choice for storing data at scale.

As we look to the future, the continued innovation in HDD technology will ensure that they remain at the forefront of data storage, powering the digital world for years to come.