Western Digital Extends HDD Technology and Areal Density Leadership Across Smart Video, Network Attached Storage (NAS), and IT/Data Center Channel Segments

By Tiera Oliver

Associate Editor

Embedded Computing Design

July 19, 2022

News

Western Digital Extends HDD Technology and Areal Density Leadership Across Smart Video, Network Attached Storage (NAS), and IT/Data Center Channel Segments

Western Digital announced that it is now shipping new 22TB¹ HDDs targeting three key segments: WD Gold HDDs for IT/data center channel customers; WD Red Pro for network attached storage (NAS), and WD Purple Pro for smart video/surveillance.

As highlighted in its What’s Next Western Digital Event, these new drives are loaded with industry-firsts, including OptiNAND™ technology, energy-assisted PMR (ePMR), triple-stage actuator (TSA), and HelioSeal to deliver high areal density at 2.2TB per platter for 22TB CMR HDDs.

Western Digital’s new enterprise-class, 22TB WD Gold™ CMR HDD with OptiNAND technology gives users the ability to lower TCO by increasing storage in the same footprint or by reducing racks, which can help reduce costs such as adding more racks, network, power, cooling, cabling, etc. Unique to Western Digital is its OptiNAND-enabled ArmorCache™ technology that combines the performance of write cache enabled mode with the data protection of write cache disabled mode without having to compromise by choosing between the two. With a full portfolio of solutions ranging from 1TB-22TB¹, these highly reliable WD Gold HDDs are ideal for demanding storage environments, providing up to 2.5M hours MTBF 2, vibration protection technology, and a low power draw thanks to HelioSeal technology (for 12TB and above). 

The new 22TB WD Red™ Pro CMR HDD with OptiNAND technology is ideal for those who have high-capacity storage needs, or for those who have reached the maximum capacity on their existing network-attached storage (NAS) system. Engineered specifically for NAS systems with up to 24 bays, WD Red Pro HDDs are optimized for multi-user environments and are designed to handle high-intensity workloads in 24x7 environments. WD Red Pro HDDs are ideal for storing, protecting, archiving, and sharing data with many users and can handle multiple data-hungry applications such as file sync and sharing, backup/archive, multimedia repository, and private cloud storage. The WD Red Pro family comes in capacities ranging from 2TB to 22TB¹.

The 22TB WD Purple Pro CMR HDD with OptiNAND technology delivers big capacity to video analytics servers and AI and deep-learning systems. The drive features Western Digital’s exclusive AllFrame AI technology that supports 32 AI streams for deep-learning analytics within the system while helping to reduce dropped frames. WD Purple Pro drives are optimized to handle up to 64 single-stream HD cameras3 as well as many of the latest smart cameras that transmit multiple streams. It offers high reliability with a MTBF of up to 2.5 million hours 2 for advanced smart video solutions that operate in 24/7 environments. The WD Purple Pro HDD family now comes in 8TB-22TB capacities¹. 

Western Digital’s industry-leading Ultrastar 22TB CMR HDDs and 26TB UltraSMR HDDs began shipping to select hyperscale cloud customers in June.

For more information, visit: www.westerndigital.com.

¹One terabyte (TB) is equal to one trillion bytes. Actual user capacity may vary depending on the operating environment. 

2MTBF and AFR specifications are based on a sample population and are estimated by statistical measurements and acceleration algorithms under typical operating conditions.

3Single stream per camera @ 3.2Mbps (1080p, H.265, 25 fps).  Results may vary depending on camera resolution, file format, frames per second, software, system settings, video quality, and other factors.

Tiera Oliver, Associate Editor for Embedded Computing Design, is responsible for web content edits, product news, and constructing stories. She also assists with newsletter updates as well as contributing and editing content for ECD podcasts and the ECD YouTube channel. Before working at ECD, Tiera graduated from Northern Arizona University where she received her B.S. in journalism and political science and worked as a news reporter for the university’s student led newspaper, The Lumberjack.

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