The death of the hard drive has been greatly exaggerated

Pete Steege

Pete Steege

November 3, 2009

twain3SSD is all the rage in the storage industry.  Very exciting technology for sure and just now going Prime Time in the enterprise. But the rise of SSDs does not correlate with a fall for hard drives.  

In fact, it looks like hard drives have quite a bit of life left in them. 

A new study by Dr. Mark Kryder and Chang Soo Kim at Carnegie Mellon on the state of storage technology in 2020 yields some surprising findings:

  • A 2.5″ disk drive will likely store 14 TB for about $40
  • Hard drives look to remain considerably less expensive than any competing technology
  • Flash memory will be the next best technology, but will be battling technology limits at about that time
  • Two other technologies to watch: phase change random access memory (PCRAM) and spin transfer torque random access memory (STTRAM)

The question to ask is not “Which technologies will replace hard drives?”, but “Which technologies will complement hard drives?”

What are your thoughts?  Agree or disagree?

By Pete Steege | Posted in SSD, Technology, Trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Seagate 3.0

Pete Steege

Pete Steege

October 30, 2009

30thSeagate is celebrating 30 years in the storage device industry.  That’s quite an achievement in one of the most dynamic and competitive industries in existence.

How did we get here?

Seagate 1.0 – the Megabyte Era

These were heady times.  Seagate was the pioneer, the first with a 5 1/4″ disk drive, just in time for the massive IBM PC ramp.

The first Seagate drive had 5 MB.  One Seagate engineer at the time was discouraged from joining the company by a colleague because he couldn’t see how anyone could need 10 MB in a disk drive.

Seagate 2.0 – The Gigabyte Era

The drive industry changed in the 90’s as drive volumes shot through the roof.  There was massive consolidation, but Seagate navigated it with massive innovation – as much in it’s automated factories as in its industry-leading drive technology.

Seagate 3.0 – The Terabyte Era

And here we are today.  Storage devices show no sign of slowing down in either what they can do or where they go.  Disk drives will continue their advance, along with new technologies like solid state drives (SSDs). Seagate is poised to be at the center of it all yet again.

It’s been a bumpy ride the past year, but what else is new?  Seagate has found a way time and time again to regroup, innovate, and execute. 

Few expected to see such strong results from Seagate  just a few short months ago.  Anyone who had taken a close look at this industry and what Seagate has achieved through it all might have changed their minds.

I’m looking forward to the Petabyte Era!

By Pete Steege | Posted in Random | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

The “evil maid” hack can’t touch self-encrypting drives

Pete Steege

Pete Steege

October 28, 2009

evil maid 4There’s a new chink in the armor of software-based drive encryption – the Evil Maid Hack.  Privacy Digest explains how it works. 

Just like hacks before it (remember Cold Boot?), the Evil Maid doesn’t work on self-encrypting hard drives like those from Seagate.  That’s because encryption is hard-wired into the drive and automatically locks it when power is removed.  Nothing on the drive, including the bootcode, can be accessed without the user’s password.

The Evil Maid would be staring at a password entry screen, cursing away, unable to see let alone change the bootcode.

You can close this gap – in laptops, servers or storage systems – with self-encrypting versions of Seagate Momentus, Savvio, Cheetah, and Constellation drives.

By Pete Steege | Posted in Security | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

A Seagate Barracuda for everyone

Pete Steege

Pete Steege

October 27, 2009

 

With the launch of Seagate’s groundbreaking Barracuda XT, there’s now a Barracuda drive for every need.  Which one’s right for you? 

David Burks explains it well in this video. David blogs at The Digital Den.

Mark Wojtasiak sums it up nicely on his Storage Means Business blog.

Not only do these drives cover the needs of the market, they do it better than anyone else:

Barracuda XT is just now in the hands of reviewers.  Stay tuned for 3rd party reviews on that screamer.

By Pete Steege | Posted in Desktop PC, Products, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Seagate Barracuda crowned the king of 1 TB drives

Pete Steege

Pete Steege

October 22, 2009

Alien EditorsChoice_thumbAlienBabelTech.com conducted an extensive review of the Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB drive and proclaimed it the best 1 TB drive available. 

Why?  It was the fastest drive tested, and a great value for well under $100.

Among other things, the Barracuda copied a 7 GB Crysis game folder 28 seconds faster than a 1 TB drive from another drive maker.

Seagate was able to achieve this by cramming 500GB on each platter in this 2-platter drive.  That’s the best areal density available anywhere.  Quite the feat!

Makes me wonder what AlienBabel will think of the new lightning-fast Barracuda XT drive with the same areal density, up to 2TB capacity and up to 64MB cache.

By Pete Steege | Posted in Desktop PC, Products, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Seagate drives are faster with Microsoft Windows 7

Pete Steege

Pete Steege

October 15, 2009

Windows 7Microsoft may have a hit on their hands with Windows 7.  If you still need convincing, here’s one more reason:  Seagate disk drives go faster on Windows 7.

Seagate internal tests have shown a dramatic performance improvement for Windows 7 based PCs using Windows 7 compatible Seagate disk drives.

Why do systems with Seagate drives zoom with Windows 7?

  • Windows 7 is more efficient with storage resources. Using less for system boot & general OS functions leaves more for applications.
  • Windows 7 is more efficent with cache. That means PCs that use hard drives with larger caches (like the Barracuda XT’s 64MB cache) will run faster.

Good news: Seagate has a whole slew of Microsoft Windows 7 compatible hard drives today, many with 32MB and 64MB caches.

If you’re going to pull the trigger on Windows 7, make sure your hard drive is ready to rock too.

By Pete Steege | Posted in Desktop PC, Notebook PC, Products | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (2)

There’s more to being intelligent than putting it in your name

Pete Steege

Pete Steege

October 12, 2009

Cereal_Box_C3P0sWhen I’m in the cereal isle at the grocery store, I’m OK with letting marketing have its way with me.  Sell me something “New!”, even if it’s really just a repackaging of the same old stuff.

But when I buy technology, I’m less tolerant of the “shiny new penny” approach.  I want to know what I’m getting and what the new features will actually deliver.

Some Seagate folks did a little digging into Western Digital’s Intellipower feature available on the WD Caviar “green” drive. Their conclusion: “IntelliPower” basically means “5400 rpm” on that drive.

According to Maximum PC, the Seagate Barracuda LP is greener than the WD “green” drive.  Seagate achieved this honor by thinking out of the box and designing Barracuda LP to run at 5900 rpm.

Some (like BareFeats in a recent review) say this delivers the ideal balance of power and performance:

“Of all the green drives we’ve ever tested, it provides the best compromise between low power and speed.”

There’s more to being green – or intelligent – than a name.

Image source: cerealbuzz.com

By Pete Steege | Posted in Green, Products, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

What it means to be green in the storage industry

Pete Steege

Pete Steege

October 7, 2009

Newsweek green rankings smallSeagate was recognized as the greenest storage device manufacturer by Newsweek in their 2009 Green Rankings of Fortune 500 companies.  Seagate was ranked 182 positions higher than its nearest competitor on the list.

Just as significantly, Seagate is a strategic supplier to the #1, #2 and #4 ranked technology companies – HP, Dell and IBM.  Seagate’s focus on sustainability contributes directly to its customers’ ability to be green.

Why would Seagate be rated so much higher than its competitors?  I can’t speak for Newsweek, but here are some things to consider:

Seagate drives are more efficient. Seagate’s low-power Barracuda LP was recently tested by Maximum PC and shown to use less power and run 20% faster than similar low-power drives from other manufacturers.  Sometimes it pays to look beyond a product’s “green” label to its actual performance.

Seagate leads the industry in environmental transparency.  Most storage device manufacturers are aware of the exact make-up of <1% of materials in their products. Why? Because those are the toxic materials that their customers hold them accountable for.  Seagate tracks 96% of the materials in their hard drives from all of their suppliers, with a goal to track 100%.  This documented understanding allows Seagate to respond quickly and with credible data as their customers choose to monitor or restrict new materials.

It takes more than a product name to be truly “green”.

By Pete Steege | Posted in Green | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

Seagate cited as a leader in green manufacturing

Pete Steege

Pete Steege

October 6, 2009

chemsecSeagate has been recognized by two non-profit environmental organizations as a leader in green electronics manufacturing.

Seagate was cited by ChemSec and Clean Production Action as one of seven firms that have negated the need for most if not all brominated and chlorinated chemicals.  The other firms profiled: Apple, Sony/Ericsson, DSM Engineering Plastics, Nan Ya, Indium and Silicon Storage Technology.  Check out the full report here.

Bromine and Chlorine have been linked to the formation of dioxins,  very nasty human carcinogens.

A half billion hard drives are manufactured every year. Changing what goes into those drives by even a little bit makes a huge impact on our planet.

Green is about so much more than just low-power hard drives – although Seagate leads there as well.

Here’s BusinessWeek’s take.

By Pete Steege | Posted in Green | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Sustainability requires getting beyond “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

Pete Steege

Pete Steege

October 5, 2009

green-globeA recent BusinessWeek article shows how Steve Jobs is driving a new level of environmental sensitivity at Apple.  It’s happening at all of the major technology brands these days.  This is good for us all.

That said, it’s not easy.  Changing the material makeup of consumer electronics and other devices has a cascading effect on the supply chain.  It often causes severe disruption for suppliers.  It can take a long time for them to get “in line”.

Seagate has taken a unique approach both up and down its supply chain to reduce the quantity of toxic substances within its products.  The approach has made a huge difference in Seagate’s ability to respond to these important and inevitable changes.

“Tell us everything”

Rather than asking suppliers “How much of (blank) substance is in your component?”, Seagate says, “Tell us everything that is in your component.”

The difference is dramatic.  Seagate knows what substances make up 96% of their disk drives. Other companies using the traditional “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” model know only about the substances currently being restricted – less than 1% of a disk drive by weight.

That’s important when a customer ratchets up their “green” game and asks its suppliers to tell them how much of a previously unrestricted substance is in their products.  Seagate is able to quickly comply, and provide credible data as proof.

Seagate is proud to be a supplier for Apple, and to be leading the industry in manufacturing truly green hard drives.  When Apple decided to restrict all forms of Bromine and Fluorine Chlorine, Seagate was able to say “We’ll do it”, and promptly back it up with data.

Steve Jobs said it well:

“All of this stuff is only important for the world if you actually do it.”

Image source: enduradecor.com

By Pete Steege | Posted in Reviews, Trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

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