Western Digital releases new line of high capacity, low power hard drives
Western Digital, better known as WD in the market, released a new line of hard drives on March 10, geared toward today’s datacenter architects. The WD Re+ hard drive family is designed for power efficiency, consuming only six watts of power for six terabytes of space.
“Dollars and watts are the finite currencies in the modern datacenter,” said Matt Rutledge, senior vice president of storage technology at WD. “With a leading watt-per-gigabyte ratio and the long-trusted reliability of the WD Re hard drive platform, WD Re+ offers our customers with limited power budgets a WD Re-class choice for tier-2, high-intensity storage applications.”
Other features of the product line include vibration protection, dual actuator technology, and a multi-axis shock sensor designed to detect even the slightest shock events that could harm data. The WD Re+ drives also come with dual processors for redundancy and improved performance.
WD has incorporated some of its trademark technology into the hard drives as well. StableTrac, for instance, secures the motor shaft at both ends to reduce system-induced vibration. NoTouch ramp load technology makes sure that the recording head never touches the disk media, enhancing drive protection.
While designed for datacenters, these drives may also be of interest to home users who want extremely reliable long-term storage. Their many terabytes of space is sure to attract interest, as well.
All of the new hard drives will come with a five-year warranty from the company. More information on each of the products can be found on the WD product website.