New one terabyte hard drives launched today by Hitachi Global Storage Technologies will create partner opportunity in the SMB and enterprise-level storage system business space, says the vendor.
The Deskstar line, which includes the Deskstar 7K1000.B and E7K1000 families, mark Hitachi’s second-generation of one terabyte hard drives, following the release of its first one terabyte hard drive last January. Larry Swezey, director of marketing and strategy for hard disk drives at Hitachi, says the new hard drives offer new and existing users a more affordable and energy efficient drive at the one terabyte size capacity.
“Last year we launched a five-disk drive,” Swezey said. “(Deskstar) is a follow on to give our customers a migration path with a drive that’s more affordable, since it’s on a three-disk platform now.”
Swezey explains that more disks in a drive enable more capacity and faster access. However, he says, more heads and disks mean a higher cost for customers to pay. Because the Deskstar drives only have three disks and heads, costs are lower, important for cost-conscious SMBs.
The Deskstar 7K1000.B 3.5-inch SATA 3Gbps hard drives are built on a three-disk platform and range in storage capacities from 160GB up to one terabyte. The drives all feature 7,200 RPM performance, a speed which Swezey says is considered the standard for desktops in the value-enterprise arena. These drives will target consumer and commercial PCs and will be for customers interested in reducing their hard drive-related power and energy costs.
The drives also come with features that allow users to choose just how much power is consumed by the motor in the drive when the drive is idle. Users are able to slow the motor down to consume less watts of energy, making the drive more energy efficient.
“Idle is a power level that costs you money in the long term,” Swezey said. “Because the drive is spinning, you’re using electricity and the drive’s not actually doing anything.”
Deskstar drives also feature Hitachi’s perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology. PMR realigns data on the drive so they sit perpendicular instead of horizontal to the disk’s surface, which improves performance.
“The 7K1000.B is a nice drive for small and mid-size enterprises who are concerned with price,” Swezey said. “Desktop type businesses, OEMs, integrators, retail and the aftermarket will be well served with this product and it will give additional opportunities to partners to chase after in this market.”
To address the needs of business critical storage systems in enterprises that rely on multiple drives, Hitachi has the Deskstar E7K1000. These drives come in 500GB, 750GB and one terabyte capacities. Swezey says when more than one drive is being used there’s risk for rotational vibration, which can throw things off track. But with E7K1000, he says Hitachi’s RVS (Rotational Vibration Safeguard) technology is able to keep the drives performing how they should be without vibrating.
Partners will also be able to offer customers Hitachi’s Bulk Data Encryption (BDE) security as an option on the drives as well. The Deskstar hard drives will be the first ones to ship with this added security option.
BDE sits inside one of the key electronics chips and automatically encrypts the media written onto the disks, making the drives unreadable unless you have the encryption key.
“Partners can offer a better cost optimized and more secure product with the ability of having lower power reductions,” Swezey said. “This gives partners the ability to be very competitive as they go out to support their customers who are conscious of power requirements, costs and security.”
Swezey said the Deskstar hard drives are expected to be available worldwide to the channel by the end July, or in early August. The MSRP for the Deskstar 7K1000.B one terabyte is $239.99 and the E7K1000 one terabyte hard drive is expected to run for $279.99.