Seagate Unveils 1TB Enterprise Hard Drive

Seagate Constellation.2 Hard Drive

Storage device maker Seagate Technology has unveiled the first enterprise-class hard drive to reach a 1 terabyte capacity, the company said Monday.

The 2.5-inch, 15-mm z-height Constellation.2 is geared at dense server storage applications needing high capacity and low power consumption, Seagate said. It can be used by small to midsized businesses up to large enterprise data centers that store and host data in the cloud for a number of applications in directed attached storage (DAS), network attached storage (NAS), and storage area network (SAN) environments.

"Data center managers continue to seek out more efficient storage technologies without sacrificing performance, while still meeting capacity growth requirements," said John Rydning, research director for IDC, in a statement. "Reaching the 1TB capacity in a small form factor design gives IT managers more options to meet capacity requirements with efficient storage platforms. IDC expects the use of capacity-optimized drives like Seagate's 1TB Constellation.2 to increase by more than 50% from 2010 to 2014."

Capacity choices for the Constellation.2 drive are available in 250 GB, 500 GB, and 1 TB, and with 6-GB/s SATA or 6GB/s serial-attached SCSI interface options. The Constellation.2 has an increased reliability of 1.4 million hours mean time between failures (MTBF) through its advanced second-generation design and new T10 Protection Information standard, according to Seagate. Data security is provided through a self-encrypting drive (SED) option, the company said.

The Constellation.2 operates on less than 6.4 watts (and up to 54% of that during slow or idle periods); saves up to 72% over traditional 3.5-inch hard drives; and lowers data management costs by deploying a scalable and secure tiered storage system, according to Seagate. The drive supports up to 76 TB per square foot to maximize the data center footprint, the company said.

The Constellation.2 drive comes with a five-year limited warranty and will be shipped in systems by Dell and other vendors starting in late December. Pricing was not given.

"The enhanced capacity and reliability of the Seagate Constellation.2 drives will help deliver even greater value to Dell's customers focused on their ever-increasing storage needs," said Lewie Newcomb, executive director of storage core technologies at Dell, in a statement. "The Dell PowerVault storage enclosures and PowerEdge servers are being enabled for even more powerful storage alternatives using these energy-efficient, capacity-optimized, and performance-enhanced 2.5-inch drives."