Seagate has begun shipping 32TB CMR hard drives across its Exos, SkyHawk AI, and IronWolf Pro product lines through channels and retail partners worldwide.
The company said the new drive is targeted at organizations that handle increasing amounts of video and analytics data. Seagate will also be showcasing its products and related storage products at Intersec.
32TB range
Seagate said it is shipping what it says is the industry's first 32TB CMR hard drive across three families.
The company has positioned its products for deployments ranging from edge video systems to data center environments.
Seagate says these drives use its HAMR technology. The company also mentioned its higher capacity Mozaic technology and said it has been confirmed for use in hyperscale cloud environments.
CMR (Conventional Magnetic Recording) is a widely used approach in hard drives for workloads that prioritize consistent write behavior. Seagate assembled the 32TB model as part of an increase in capacity per drive to accommodate data growth driven by AI use cases.
Increase in video data
Seagate cited IDC research on the expected growth in video data volumes over the next five years. More than 75% of organizations expect their video data to at least double over that period as AI generates summaries, annotations, and metadata.
The company attributed this growth to increased use of video image analysis. That referred to applications such as investigations, automated alerts, compliance, and operational analytics.
With a focus on security and safety technology, Intersec is a hub for vendors serving the surveillance and related analytics market. Seagate said it will use the event to introduce storage products aimed at edge deployments and cloud-linked workflows.
“AI applications such as computer vision are transforming the way video is used across industries,” said Melissa Banda, senior vice president of edge storage and solutions at Seagate.
“From smart city initiatives to retail and critical infrastructure, video is becoming searchable business intelligence, changing the way businesses operate every day,” said Banda.
“This transformation requires a new kind of data backbone: high-capacity storage at the edge and in the data center to keep insights flowing and archives searchable,” Banda said.
“Without this, the potential of AI-powered video analytics stalls,” Banda says.
product positioning
Seagate's SkyHawk AI product line targets network video recorders and edge security systems. The company described the 32TB model as a video-optimized CMR drive for AI-enabled NVR and edge security applications.
IronWolf Pro supports continuously running network attached storage systems in business environments. Seagate has positioned the 32 TB model for creative professionals, small businesses, and on-premises AI workloads.
Exos remains Seagate's enterprise and cloud data center product. The company said the 32TB Exos model is targeted at cloud and enterprise environments, with a focus on power efficiency.
Seagate says these drives are intended for “edge-to-cloud” deployments. This expression typically refers to an architecture where data acquisition and initial processing occur close to where the data is generated, with further storage and analysis occurring in a centralized data center or cloud platform.
Channel availability indicates Seagate expects uptake through distributors, system integrators, and resellers. Retail availability suggests this drive will also reach smaller organizations and specialty buyers who source components directly.
Hard drive vendors continue to increase maximum capacity to accommodate the growth of large datasets, including video archives and AI training data. Organizations evaluating high-capacity HDDs also consider factors such as drive rebuild time, storage density per rack, and procurement costs compared to expanding arrays using lower-capacity models.
Seagate said the SkyHawk AI, Exos and IronWolf Pro 32TB hard drives are available through authorized channel partners worldwide.
