Current development trends of HDDs
Hard disk drives (HDDs) are one of the major non-volatile memory storage devices often used in enterprise data centers and arrays.
They are mechanical devices, read and written by floating
heads, and popular solutions for offline backup. Despite the prevailing
discussion on solid-state drives (SSDs) in the data storage industry, HDDs are
still used prominently, and they’re still undergoing improvements.
5 HDD Enterprise Trends
1. Focus on Full Disk Encryption
Self-encrypting disks (SED) and full disk
encryption (FDE) are more secure methods of storage encryption than software-based
encryption, which can be undone if an attacker steals credentials.
In full disk encryption processes, the device’s CPU does
not store the symmetric encryption key.
Hardware-based encryption for disk drives is more secure
and makes data harder to reach. If a hard drive is encrypted and it’s offline,
attackers will not be able to read its data.
2. Leaning on Other Hardware Protection Technologies
Hard drives need intensive security controls to improve
storage security environments, according to Doron Youngerwood, VP of marketing at Continuity
Software.
Data protection in general needs to strengthen defenses
against data-targeted theft, such as ransomware too:
“Existing vulnerability management solutions do not cover
storage and backup,” Youngerwood said. “Many organizations are not aware of
this major blind-spot.”
The market as a whole needs new way to protect recovery
copies of data and improve storage security, he said.
3. Raising Ransomware Protection
All storage mediums need measures to protect stored data
from cyber-attacks, particularly ransomware, an insidious type of data
theft that encrypts stolen data and requires a paid ransom to take the data
back.
Cybersecurity vendor Sophos spearheaded a 2021
survey of 5,400 businesses, and 37% reported being hit by ransomware
attacks.
Hard drives are one of the best offline storage solutions
for protecting data at rest from ransomware: they are less expensive than SSDs,
and they’re faster to access than tape.
4. Increasing Drive Capacity
Although global hard drive unit sales are decreasing,
the overall storage capacity of HDDs is increasing, according to Horizon
Technology.
“The HDD market crossed an impressive threshold in 2020,
hitting one zettabyte (ZB) of shipped capacity. That’s the equivalent
of one billion terabytes (TB) of fresh storage,” Horizon says.
IDC reported high volumes of created data in 2020,
partly due to people staying home more during the pandemic. And in a 2020
report done in partnership with IDC, Seagate Technologies predicts that by
2025, data will increase exponentially to hit 175 created zettabytes.
Overall, standard enterprise hard drives have greater
capacity than solid-state drives. And though plenty of data center SSDs range
into the multiple-terabyte size, where HDDs win is their cost per capacity.
Hard drives are still cheaper overall.
While SSDs are popular, hard drive capacity continues to
increase, IDC expects that HDDs will remain the most common installed
storage medium until at least 2024.
5. More Storage Arrays
Disk arrays don’t just hold hard drives: they include
other features like redundancy, tiering, and drive-level encryption.
Storage arrays exist in multiple environments, including
data centers and edge deployments.
The size of an edge data center partially dictates the
size of the HDD and SSD form factors and the storage arrays.
Many enterprise arrays support both HDDs and SSDs. Some
enterprise storage arrays include:
·
Hewlett Packard Enterprise HP StorageWorks
XP10000
·
Dell PowerVault ME4
·
Dell/EMC Disk Storage Array
·
Lenovo ThinkSystem DS4200
Top 8 representatives of the next generation of HDDs
1.
OptiNAND (Western Digital)
Announced in the summer of 2021 by Western Digital,
OptiNAND is an emerging technology that combines HDDs with embedded flash
drives (EFDs). The integration allows for faster, smarter hard drives with
higher densities.
OptiNAND reduces the frequency of adjacent track
interference (ATI) refreshes, which causes latency and performance degradation,
and stores essential metadata in the flash drive for quick indexing and better
data management. Furthermore, OptiNAND also benefits from the write-cache
function, allowing files to be saved to non-volatile NAND memory to prevent
data loss. It maintains data in the write queue even in the event of power
loss.
Western Digital believes that OptiNAND will be a crucial
technology in achieving its goal of making 50 TB HDDs by 2030.
2.
UltraSMR (Western Digital)
UltraSMR is one of Western Digital’s most recent
technological innovations. Announced in January 2023, UltraSMR extends the
capacity advantage of shingled magnetic recording (SMR) over conventional
magnetic recording (CMR).
UltraSMR is a result of integrating various hardware,
software, and firmware technologies, including two-dimensional magnetic
recording (TDMR), soft-track error correction code (STECC), distributed sector
(DSEC), and OptiNAND. Hence, it is an umbrella term of compiled technologies to
support WD’s aspiring plans for ultra-high-capacity HDDs.
UltraSMR overlays tracks on a disk sequentially, creating
a tight overlap similar to roof shingles. This arrangement allows more data to
be stored in the same space, increasing areal density and storage capacity by
10% compared to current SMR drives and roughly 20% over a CMR drive.
Besides the capacity expansion, UltraSMR also enhances
the disk’s inherent ability to correct errors, combining data blocks with
redundancy information that can be parsed to identify write deficiencies.
3.
Triple-Stage Actuator (Western Digital)
Triple-stage actuators are advanced actuators for HDDs
that enable precise head positioning, improved performance, and allow for
higher data density.
The term "triple stage" comes from the
actuator's design, which includes three independent pivot points. Namely, the
Voice Coil Motor (VCM) actuator, the milli-actuator, and the micro-actuator.
VCM is the primary actuator that controls the main arm's movement. The other
two are smaller actuators attached to different components on the suspension
and use piezoelectric elements to achieve extremely precise positioning over
the data tracks. In numbers, the milli-actuator can pivot to 200 nm, while the
micro-actuator pivots to 100 nm.
This high-precision positioning enables the disk's
read/write heads to reach the data quicker. At the same time, it reduces
ringing and seek-induced vibration as the number of internal spins decreases.
4.
Helio-Seal (Hitachi)
Helio-Seal was a technology originally developed by
Hitachi before Western Digital’s acquisition. It involves filling hard drives
with helium to reduce resistance to spinning disks and heat generation in their
components.
Helium allows HDD manufacturers to increase drive
capacity by moving platters closer. It also improves reliability and longevity
and reduces noise, vibration, and power consumption. The downside is that
manufacturers must hermetically seal helium-filled drives to prevent leakage,
which increases the cost of manufacturing and total product weight and
complicates hard
drive recovery efforts.
5.
HAMR (Seagate)
Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) increases the
storage capacity of HDDs by utilizing a nanoscopic laser diode attached to the
read/write head. The laser diode creates and parses smaller data bits that are
still magnetically stable.
Designers developed HAMR to overcome a fundamental
problem with current HDD technology, known as perpendicular magnetic recording
(PMR). PMR features spontaneous magnetic polarity flips on data bits positioned
very close together. HAMR creates bits on a stable material at room
temperature, so the polarity flip is eliminated.
Specifically, Seagate’s HAMR technology uses glass-based
platters that reach temperatures as high as 752°F (400°C) and heat sinks to
further control the heat flow. The nominal endurance of those drives surpasses
3.2 petabytes of data writes per single drive head per year, which is 20 times
higher than the minimum industry standards.
HAMR allows manufacturers to produce HDDs with data
densities ranging between 2 and 5 terabits per square inch (Tbpsi), which is
almost three times higher than conventional drives. Seagate has stated that it
could manufacture HDDs that achieve densities of 10 Tbpsi by the end of the
decade due to advancements in HAMR.
6.
MACH.2 (Seagate)
MACH.2 is Seagate’s proprietary multi-actuator technology
that aims to improve drive read/write performance.
Conventional drives use a single actuator that moves to a
single location on the data plane at a time, but MACH.2 has two independent
actuators that can access different parts of the drive simultaneously. The
design effectively doubles the drive’s input/output operations per second
(IOPS) performance, increases the data throughput, and reduces latency.
Seagate’s performance measurements have shown that MACH.2
uses 40% less power than two single-actuator drives, while achieving a
sustained data throughput of 480 MB/sec, which is 60% faster than a 15K drive.
That is approximately 20 times higher than the industry requirement.
7.
MAS-MAMR (Toshiba)
Microwave-assisted magnetic recording (MAS-MAMR) is a
next-generation recording technology developed by Toshiba and used by Western
Digital. MAMR’s goal is to increase the storage capacity of HDDs by enabling
manufacturers to increase areal density without sacrificing performance or
reliability.
From a technical perspective, MAS-MAMR relies on short
bursts of highly targeted, concentrated microwave energy. The energy is
generated by a bi-oscillation spin torque oscillator (dual FGL STO), which
changes the magnetic orientation of the bits on the drive and enables more data
to be stored in the same physical space.
Toshiba claims MAS-MAMR can build HDDs that exceed 30
terabytes without requiring any other advanced technology. Demo models have
shown stable performance with areal densities over 4 Tbpsi, but higher figures
are expected as the development progresses.
Production difficulties concern the miniaturization of
the magnetic grains on the recording medium, maintaining thermal stability, and
achieving adequate recording performance. Advancements in micromechanics,
physics, and electronics would address all these challenges.
All these challenges are addressed with the help of
advancements in micromechanics, physics, and electronics.
8.
NVMe HDDs
Another recent breakthrough is the introduction of NVMe
HDDs, which are disks using the non-volatile memory express (NVMe) protocol
instead of SATA or SAS protocols.
NVMe is currently exclusive to SSDs, which take advantage
of the higher bandwidth and data throughput PCle bus on computer motherboards
to maximize performance potential. HDDs switching to NVMe means more
standardization in data centers, leading to cost reductions, universal
performance enhancements, and significant energy savings at scale. Moreover,
NVMe supports multi-actuator technologies. That change alone could lead to
drastic performance improvement with the same disk hardware.
In 2023, Seagate presented the first model to integrate
the NVMe protocol within the disk controller. More data storage manufacturers
are expected to follow, as the NVMe 2.0 protocol announced in 2021 supports all
HDDs. The protocol’s benefits guarantee widespread adoption in the coming
years.
Sources and Additional Information:
https://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/hardware/hdd-industry-trends/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomcoughlin/2023/08/14/c2q-2023-hard-disk-drive-industry-update
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