Driving India’s Data Storage Evolution: AI, Innovations in Hard Drives, and the Symbiosis of HDDs and AFAs

CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Sameer Bhatia, Director of Asia Pacific Consumer Business Group and Country Manager for India & SAARC at Seagate Technology

1. What is the primary influence shaping the growth and evolution of data storage in India?

The primary factor driving the growth and evolution of data storage in India is the surge in data driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications. AI’s success hinges on data, which fuels machine learning and enables accurate predictions. In the age where AI advancements have made data more valuable than ever, IDC predicts that data creation will greatly outstrip manufactured storage capacity, and the global datasphere to generate 291ZB of data in 2027.

Businesses are storing more operational data to train AI models on both external and internal data to leverage their proprietary information. There will be an increase in demand of scalable storage for handling the country’s expanding digital footprint, complex models and large datasets. Therefore, storing data without increasing the physical and carbon footprint enhances business value and future utility.

2. Considering the increasing popularity of all-flash arrays (AFA), could you elaborate on how hard drives are being innovated to maintain their relevance in today’s technology landscape? How is Seagate shaping the future of HDDs to meet the evolving demands of the market?

Hard drives remain the main storage of choice for hyperscale data centres, with hard drives taking up almost 90% of the storage install base. As large data centres and enterprises are now tasked to scale infrastructure and expand storage capacity at an unprecedented speed, we have introduced an areal density innovation that marks a new era of data storage.

Mozaic 3+™ is a hard drive platform that brings unparalleled areal densities of 3TB+ per platter, with 4 and 5 per platter on the horizon. Mozaic is an answer to the challenges of scale, TCO, and sustainability. It is Seagate’s unique implementation of HAMR, plus a collection of other breakthrough nanoscale technologies, to deliver mass-capacity storage.

The conventional PMR technology gave us 8% CAGR over 9 years to double capacity. Mozaic 3+ can achieve 20% CAGR and doubling of capacity in just under 4 years.

If data centres were to upgrade a fleet of 16TB drives to 30 TB drives, Mozaic drives would allow businesses to effectively double storage capacity and reduce watts-per-terabyte power consumption. Seagate’s areal density innovation reinforces hard drives’ vital role for years to come.

3. Since HDDs and AFAs have a symbiotic relationship, could you provide more insight into how these technologies complement each other in the data storage domain?

Here’s how these technologies complement each other:

1. Scale: Contrary to optimistic claims from some all-flash array vendors, it is not possible to replace hard drives with AFAs. This is the case not only because of the prohibitive NAND supply cost and capability, but also because NAND does not hit the required cost to drive a transition.
2. Pricing: Recent forecasts from IDC and TrendFOCUS confirm that hard drives will remain the most cost-effective option for most enterprise tasks. The smallest annual price-per-TB difference between enterprise AFAs and nearline enterprise hard drives is projected to rebound and stay at or above a 5:1 premium for flash-only storage at least the next decade.
3. Purpose: The type of workload matters. Enterprise storage architecture uses various types of media, from disk to hybrid arrays, depending on the purpose of a workload required, which needs a certain budget, storage capacity, and performance. Rather than serving that purpose on a device level, hard drive performance level — at scale in data centre racks — is more than enough for most workloads, amounting to almost 90% of the storage installed base in hyperscale data centres. Simply put, hard drives remain the most economical way to satisfy mass storage needs.

Overall, it is not a zero-sun game. In data centres, hard drives and flash have always worked in synergy, supporting different services, forming a balanced and efficient data storage ecosystem.

4. Can you provide a detailed overview of Seagate’s product lineup for hard drives? 

As the company focuses on our greatest advantage – the areal density innovation — we are ramping hard drives enabled by Mozaic 3+ hard drive platform. Today, the platform powers our flagship Exos 30 TB+ product family, with industry-leading capacity points of 30 TB and beyond. As on-prem enterprises benefit from all the data growth, businesses will keep data on-site or into the cloud, and will benefit substantially benefit from the dramatic increase in storage capacities and a significant improvement in cost structures, and a reduction in carbon footprint.