Seagate announced it is now shipping the world's fastest 6 TB hard disk drive (HDD) - the Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4. Boasting industry-leading performance, the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4 is an important step forward in scale-out data infrastructures delivering supersize storage and enterprise reliability to meet the explosive growth of corporate and cloud-based data centers.

"Unstructured data growth is doubling exponentially and will propel the digital universe to reach 16 Zettabytes of data by as early as 2017. This will cause cloud service providers to look for innovative ways to store more within an existing footprint while lowering operational costs," said Scott Horn, Seagate vice president of marketing. "Seagate is poised to address this challenge by offering the fastest 6 TB enterprise capacity HDD based on our proven, reliable platform meeting this never-ending demand in both private and public cloud data centers."

Featuring the fastest performance available for a nearline HDD, the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4 enables faster data transfers by building on an eighth-generation platform that enables the drive to deliver up to a 25 percent increase in performance over competing 6 TB drives - making it ideal for 24 X 7 bulk data storage. Utilizing the latest generation of 12 Gb/s SAS, the drive provides customers with the scalability for future-proofing their systems. It is also available in an enterprise-ready SATA 6 Gb/s interface for easy system integration. 

"Supermicro's new TwinPro and wide range of SuperServer, SuperStorage solutions all feature integrated 12 Gb/s SAS 3.0 support enabling full and immediate access to the maximum performance and capacity offered by Seagate's new 6 TB 12 Gb/s Enterprise-class HDDs," said Wally Liaw, vice president of sales, international at Supermicro. "In addition to the increased I/O bandwidth, our SAS3 optimized platforms are cost competitive with current SAS2 6 Gb/s enabled systems offering customers not only performance but also accelerated ROI advantages. With Seagate's new 6 TB Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4, Supermicro now offers the most cost effective scale-out storage solutions maximized for performance, density and energy efficiency in enterprise, data center, cloud and HPC applications."

A family of drives with up to 6 TB of capacity, the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4 provides customers with the highest capacity density needed to address an ever increasing amount of unstructured data in an industry-standard 3.5-inch HDD. Supporting the highest density storage per square foot in the industry, it features a 50 percent increase in capacity over the last generation (4 TB) nearline drive. Ideal for both replicated and RAID environments, the drive delivers a lower TCO for enterprise storage by providing the highest capacity available without sacrificing performance.

The drive employs multi-drive rotational vibration tolerance for consistent enterprise-class performance and accurate data storage in high density environments. With its robust 7200-RPM performance, ramp load technology, and a humidity sensor, it delivers optimum performance even in the harshest environments. Purpose-built for enterprise environments, the drive utilizes the T10 and T13-compliant power management standards enabling organizations to tailor systems for optimal energy usage resulting in up to 90 percent more power savings.

Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4 Key Features:

• Industry-Leading Performance- 25 percent faster than competitive 6 TB drives.
• Highest Capacity Available-Up to 6 TB per drive for maximum density server and storage solutions.
• Enterprise-Class Reliability- Industry-leading rotational vibration tolerance for consistent performance and enhanced error correction for accurate data storage.
• Best-in-Class Security- Self-Encrypting Drives (SED) with Instant Secure Erase for easy drive disposal or repurposing and FIPS SED security options.

The drive is shipping now to select Cloud partners and resellers globally. It will also be integrated into Seagate business and branded storage products starting this spring.