Storage Effect

500GB, 7200 rpm - who needs 3.5″?

Seagate announced two new 500GB notebook drives.  So what?

• The 50-year history of the disk drive is all about cramming more and more bytes on less and less real estate.  The real estate shrinks when drive formats drop a size.
• 500GB 2.5″ drives mean we’re close to not needing the capacity advantage of 3.5″ drives. It’s the beginning of the end for the 3.5″ form factor.  Servers have mostly made the switch with 2.5 SAS drives like Seagate’s Savvio.
• 500GB 2.5″ 7200 rpm drives mean notebooks can get desktop performance without sacrificing capacity.  Expect rapid adoption of 7200 rpm vs. 5400 rpm in notebooks now that there is capacity parity and less of a premium in power consumption.

The world’s biggest drives just got 50% bigger

Though not near as sound-bytable as 1 TB, Seagate’s announcement of the world’s first 1.5 TB drive is big news.  The newest Barracuda  7200.11 adds 500 gigabytes to each drive in one fell swoop. It’s the biggest capacity jump in the history of disk drives. 

Expect to see 1.5 TB and 3 TB solutions start popping up in all those high-capacity hot spots: high end destop PCs, backup drives and home entertainment systems. 

UPDATE: What others are saying:Engadget, ZD Net, Daily Tech, Blocks and Files and PC World.

Next: the exabyte drive

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Content comes first, opening up new uses and usefulness

Seagate announced Maxtor CentralAxis today, a really cool New Thing in home storage.  Until now, external storage devices have mostly been storage add-ons for a PC.  Even the NAS devices out there have focused on providing a “PC drive for the home”.  It’s shareable storage, but shackled to the PC model.

CentralAxis puts the content first, rather than the PC.  That opens up uses that until now have been reserved for the techies among us:

• OS-independent content sharing. Content doesn’t have to decide to be Windows or Mac OS X, and can be used by either one.
• File sharing with DLNA-compliant devices like Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 systems.  Easily watch videos and view photos on TV screens instead of a PC.
• Access content directly via the web. CentralAxis allows this with a simple username and password, without going through a PC or compromising a network firewall. 

CentralAxis does all the “home storage” basics as well: 1 TB capacity, centralized backups from PCs on the network, etc.  But it’s the new approach to content that makes it a game changer. 

Becomes the first major supplier to offer a 2.5″ SAS storage system

Dell uncharacteristically took the role of technology leader and launched the MD1120, a direct-attach storage system with 2.5″ SAS drives for their PowerEdge servers (thanks Blocks and Files). It’s likely that their major competitors (and others) will follow with their own announcements in the near future.

Why 2.5″ SAS?

Make no mistake - they may be small, but they are the cream of the crop.  Fastest (for 10K rpm), most reliable, highest data integrity.  Oh - and they use less space and a lot less power than 3.5″ drives.

Don’t confuse 2.5″ SAS drives with notebook drives.  They’re similar in size, but that’s about the only thing they have in common.

The beginning of the end for 3.5″ enterprise drives

The only fatal flaw for 2.5″ and storage has been capacity. These drives are already the standard for servers, but storage system makers couldn’t make the numbers work with only 147GB per drive. 

It looks like 300GB may be the tipping point.  Seagate recently launched the first 300GB 2.5″ SAS drive, the Savvio 10K.3. 

What’s your 2.5″ storage plan?  Is it time?

First order for “black box” storage takes it beyond demoware

Xiotech was the Belle of the Ball at Storage Networking World with their demo of ISE technology.  Much more significant is that customers are starting to do more than kick the tires.  Evidence: an honest-to-goodness order for ISE-based Emprise systems from Argus Information & Advisory Services.

I saw some early private screenings of this technology.  It’s special because it breaks the conventional rules of storage devices and systems.  That allows Xiotech to create the “how did they do that?” specs and support commitments that have been generating such a buzz. Not to mention the benefits of its simplicity.

Let’s see how they do with the next major milestone: volume production.

Anyone out there considering Emprise?  Fill us in on your thought process.

Servers are already there; 300GB could be the tipping point for storage systems

Seagate announced a 300GB version of its Savvio 10K rpm drive, the highest 2.5″ SAS capacity yet available.  Is this the dawning of the Age of Small Form Factor for enterprise storage?  Information Week thinks so.

The server market has already made the turn.  HP and other high-volume server makers have committed to 2.5″ SAS drives for performance servers.  Power, size and reliability benefits make it a no-brainer.  And while 2.5″ hasn’t yet taken over servers from system builders, the switchover has begun.

For storage systems, the capacity just hasn’t been there. At 300GB, it may be.  A 2.5″ drive is 70% smaller than 3.5″ SAS drives, which max out at 450GB today (although 600 GB will be along before long). 

What say you?  How are you using 2.5″ 10K or 15K drives in storage applications today?

Maxtor Safety Drill automates the complex PC recovery process

No, I’m not going to get all technical. 

I don’t have to, because there’s now an out-of-the-box Bare Metal Restore solution for almost anyone.  Seagate’s Maxtor One Touch external drives have a feature called Safety Drill, a system-level recovery capability that does all the messy work for you. 

Why should you care?  You (or your customer) can now bring a crashed PC back to its original state (image) without getting dirty. 

• No manual rebuilding of files, directories, or software applications piece by piece. 
• No wondering if you remembered everything that was on your PC before it died. 

Reseller Advocate Magazine recently posted a video on how Safety Drill works.

This is a big step forward for backup - and recovery in particular.   Look even smarter with your customers (or family) without having to take another technical how-to class.

More room to save all those movies - and your cable company is happy too

Seagate just announced Showcase, add-on storage for DVRs.  This is great news for movie hoarders like you and me, but also a big plus for the service providers.

Think about it: your cable company gives you a set-top DVR free or at a discount with their service.  They’re not motivated to fill it up with lots of capacity that adds cost for them.  Yet HD movies take a lot of room, and more and more consumers want to keep it all.

Showcase will let service providers give their packrat customers what they want - a way to add space to save all those HD TV shows and movies - without adding terabytes of storage as a fixed cost for every customer.

Seagate’s drive is first to Dell’s shelves

In the world of press announcements, Seagate can be a tortoise at times.  And while flashy “first” press releases can garner attention for other disk drive vendors, it’s when the drives are in the hands of customers that really matters.

According to Engadget, Seagate has crossed the finish line first with 320GB 7200 rpm notebook drives from Dell.  The Momentus 7200.3 is a rockin’ drive, too - check it out.

Here’s a slow-motion video of the Momentus 7200 zero-G sensor in action.

Who’s using 7200 rpm in their notebook?  Is it worth the extra $46?

SSDs in notebooks show little to no benefit vs. disk drives

Bill O’Brien at Computerworld asked the same question I did in February.  He conducted some pretty comprehensive head-to-head testing between a pair of SSDs and Seagate’s Momentus and Barracuda disk drives. 

The results surprised him:

So forgive me for being contrarian, but while I recognize the exotic and alluring nature of solid state disks as a technology — and have certainly fallen victim to their potential “wow factor” on occasion — after spending 12 days with a pair of them and a pair of mechanical drives, I’m, convinced that SSDs have yet to live up to their true potential.

I disagree that his conclusions are contrarian - although they would have been not long ago.  SSD for notebooks has peaked on the hype curve and is accelerating its slide into disillusionment. 

Someday flash storage will rock in notebook PCs.  But not today, not for a $1000+ premium, not as a standalone replacement for a disk drive. 

Hybrid drives that combine the two technologies…that’s a story for another day.

Who’s using SSDs in their notebook today?  Are you satisfied?