Interview with Jason Feist on the Future of Hard Disk Drives
In this podcast, Antony Adshead is joined by Jason Feist, senior vice-president for marketing in products and markets at Seagate, to discuss the advancements in hard disk drive (HDD) technologies that are paving the way for higher capacities.
Feist sheds light on technologies such as heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) that are enhancing areal density and enabling the storage of more data on disk platters. He also delves into the future of HDDs and the specific use cases where they excel.
Pushing Capacity Boundaries
Feist emphasizes the ongoing innovations in the HDD industry that are driven by contributions from various disciplines. Engineers are focusing on mechanical and magnetic recording innovations, as well as process control enhancements to maximize areal density in hard drives.
With the availability of new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and improved simulation capabilities, engineers are exploring new design spaces to develop larger capacity drives for customers.
Future Expectations
Feist highlights the recent milestones achieved by the industry, including the introduction of 28TB hard drives and the development of 3TB per platter samples. He anticipates the delivery of 4TB and 5TB per disk in the near future, leading to 40TB and 50TB disk drives.
These capacity increases are primarily attributed to the innovation in HAMR technology, which has been a focal point for research and development. Feist believes that HAMR will continue to drive capacity enhancements in the coming years, aligning with the growing demand for cloud storage solutions.
Prolonged Relevance of HDDs
Feist emphasizes the enduring presence of spinning disk hard drives in the storage landscape, especially with the diverse range of customers and evolving use cases like AI and video analytics. He envisions a significant transformation in how large capacity drives are utilized, particularly in cloud environments.
As new businesses emerge and rely on HDDs for their data storage needs, the importance of efficient and scalable storage architectures becomes evident. Feist highlights the role of HDDs in supporting data-intensive applications and content creation at scale, positioning them as the backbone of storage solutions at exabyte levels.
