Seagate launches 20TB IronWolf and Exos hard drives

Seagate has just launched two highly-anticipated 20TB hard disk drives (HDD) to help businesses elevate their storage capacities for two separate use cases.

The Exos X20 20TB and the IronWolf Pro 20TB are conventional magnetic recording (CMR)-based HDDs, which will ship later this month and retail for £669 and £559.90, respectively. TechRadar Pro has asked Seagate for confirmation of US pricing.

While much-faster solid-state drives (SSDs) rule the roost in the consumer market, they can't match HDDs in terms of sheer capacity, which is an all-important factor for enterprise use cases.

Right on schedule

The IronWolf Pro 20TB is purpose-built for heavy network attached storage (NAS) workloads, and offers sustained transfer rates of 285MB/s. It also comes with built-in rotational vibration (RV) sensors, and a three year subscription to Seagate’s Rescue Data Recovery Services. 

On the other hand, the Exos X20 20TB is designed for hyperscale data centers. Seagate claims it built the drive with cloud storage in mind, and offers three times the caching performance of comparable products. 

Seagate says the Exos X20 HDD can be paired with the recently announced Exos CORVAULT storage system, which can accommodate up to 106 Exos enterprise drives in only seven inches (18 cm) of rack space.

The announcement comes shortly after last month’s earning’s call, in which Seagate CEO Dave Mosley confirmed it was ramping up production of the affordable 20TB HDDs.

Seagate already has a portfolio of 20TB HDDs based on the heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology, which it has made available only to select customers. However, the affordable variants are expected to find ready takers in the price-sensitive SMB segment. 

• Looking to build a NAS? Check our list of the best NAS devices, and also take a look at the best high capacity drives

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