For months, the storage industry has been conjuring up HAMR technology and the Mozaic-3+ platform to revolutionise data density. Meanwhile, Seagate is taking a step that may seem conservative at first glance, but is in fact a pragmatic response to the current needs of data centres and business. The US giant has launched three new 32TB hard drive models, based entirely on its proven Classic Magnetic Recording (CMR). The data storage density in which manufacturers are now competing is incredibly important from a business perspective. With this direction, data growth does not necessarily mean increasing data centre space, but merely upgrading the current infrastructure to one with higher density. Such a direction can significantly reduce data storage and processing costs as the amount of data per square metre will increase.
The decision to use conventional technology, at a time when the company already has next-generation solutions capable of producing media in excess of 30TB, is a signal to the market as a whole. It suggests that while HAMR is the undisputed future in the data packing race, CMR technology still offers a better balance between production cost, reliability and volume availability. Seagate thus proves that the older standard has not yet been definitively played out and still has the potential to scale.
The new drives reinforce the manufacturer’s key product lines, precisely targeting various B2B sectors. The Exos model is designed for servers in data centres, the SkyHawk AI is optimised for advanced video surveillance, while the IronWolf Pro is dedicated to NAS systems. On the technical side, Seagate engineers have opted for unification: all three models are 3.5-inch 7200rpm SATA drives supported by 512MB of cache. The manufacturer claims their endurance at 550 TBW per year and a mean time without failure (MTBF) of 2.5 million hours, which is reflected in the five-year warranty.
The pricing policy clearly differentiates the segments. The most affordable SkyHawk AI model is priced at USD 699.99. Enterprises will pay USD 729.99 for the Exos server variant, while the highest-positioned IronWolf Pro on this list involves an expenditure of USD 849.99. This launch demonstrates that the priority for business customers today remains capacity delivered in a proven architecture, and not necessarily a technology race at any price.
