Seagate 16 TB hard drives amplify storage for Exos, IronWolf

Seagate has begun shipping 16 TB-capacity enterprise hard drives in its Exos, IronWolf and IronWolf Pro lines. The Seagate 16 TB hard drives are capable of storing massive amounts of data without sacrificing rack space.

With its 16 TB hard drives, Seagate aims to answer the increasing demand for hyperscale, cloud and NAS storage. While SSDs are preferred for high-performance workloads, HDDs are still the most appropriate storage choice with regard to capacity. All three of Seagate's 16 TB HDD models have a 3.5-inch form factor and spin at 7,200 rpm.

The helium-based Exos X16 HDD is designed for enterprise data center, hyperscale, OEM and distribution channel storage and comes with Seagate Secure Instant Secure Erase for secure driver erasure. The Exos X16 delivers 33% more petabytes per rack when compared to the 12 TB drives and is capable of speeds up to 261 MBps.

Seagate claims that the Exos X16 HDD will reduce TCO for enterprise system developers and cloud data centers.

The IronWolf and IronWolf Pro HDDs, on the other hand, are suitable for home and small business NAS systems, enabling backup, remote access and file sharing. The IronWolf drives maintain their rotational vibration sensors from previous iterations, which help counteract vibrations in multibay enclosures.

Both IronWolf HDDs support workloads up to 300 TB per year and come with Seagate's Rescue Services for data recovery.

The Exos X16 is available now with an MSRP of $629. The 16 TB models of IronWolf and IronWolf Pro are not yet available but will retail for $609 and $664, respectively.

Seagate will not be alone in the realm of 16 TB HDDs for long. In January, both Toshiba and Western Digital announced 16 TB-based products were being sampled; Western Digital is also looking ahead to 18 TB and 20 TB drives that are set to hit the market in 2020. According to IDC, the global amount of data will grow from 33 zettabytes in 2018 to 175 ZB by 2025.