With data growing exponentially with each passing year, Seagate Technology is presenting the market with a comprehensive portfolio that will enable companies to manage ever-increasing storage demands.
The data age is fast upon us. In a recent white paper sponsored by
Seagate Technology, IDC forecasted that the global datasphere – the sum of all data created, captured and replicated on the planet – is expected to grow to 163 zettabytes by 2025, an astounding tenfold increase from 16 zettabytes in 2016. The nature of data, itself, is also set to undergo a critical change, evolving from being “life enhancing” to “life critical.”
Seagate Technology, a frontrunner in the surveillance storage industry, possesses an in-depth understanding of these developments and their implications for the market. “IoT devices are fueling data creation. Video surveillance devices like cameras, considered as the ‘master of all sensors,’ are capturing important video data. With advancements in technologies such as video analytics, AI, deep learning and image sensors, cameras are now equipped to do far more, even beyond security,” said Robert Yang, VP of Asia-Pacific Sales for Seagate Technology.
This marks a turning point in how data will be generated and utilized by different computing platforms. As data creation is increasingly automated, analyzed and delivered in real time to the edge of the network, enterprises (and not consumers) will soon emerge as the main creators of information. The transformation of data into a life-critical component makes this vital for almost all operations – for businesses, governments and consumers. The need to manage and process this information is driving businesses to deploy data analytics and infrastructures that can deliver high reliability and availability.
“In this new data age, users need to understand storage requirements and revisit their strategies. They should also understand that all these new sources of data make systems more vulnerable than ever to security breaches. Hardening security for both data in transit and at rest will become a necessity,” added Yang.
Changing Needs in New Data Landscape
Where the data will be primarily used and stored will also undergo a marked change. Ongoing improvements in network connectivity will push the shift of data storage from endpoint devices such as PCs and mobile devices to enterprise-level data centers. With the market moving toward AI, edge computing and cloud solutions, traditional “one-size-fits-all” storage infrastructures are proving ineffective against this onslaught of new data and processing requirements.
Seagate has seen this trend of ‘shifting of storage locality’ before in the IT industry with the rise of cloud computing. Storage will spread out over multiple devices from edge capture to long-term storage. “Going forward, we anticipate more storage applications being used and not just NVRs and DVRs. We are seeing the growth of enterprise storage like SAN, NAS and DAS being adopted alongside IP surveillance adoption like VMS,” said Yang
Future expansion will not be possible without adequate storage and processing power. Recently, Seagate announced few key technologies that’s going to enable a higher capacity and higher performance storage offerings in the future. “This breakthrough in technology is HAMR – Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording. A laser is placed on the actuator heats the storage media and allows smaller bit cells to be written, this enables more bits to be crammed in the media. In addition, we have Multi Actuator Technology that allows two sets of data to be written or read from the same drive at the same time, essentially doubling the performance,” said Yang.
Seagate is also focused on delivering a comprehensive solution for the video surveillance segment. “With our ‘One Seagate, One Roadmap Strategy,’ we are delivering a full suite of solutions encompassing everything from components (hard drives, SSDs), systems designed for video streaming, to services such as for data recovery. This is a portfolio approach, as opposed to an appliance-focused approach, that will enable Seagate to answer demands of the ever growing video surveillance industry,” said Yang.
“Our new SkyHawk family of surveillance-optimized drives is designed for video streaming, optimized for real-time analytics, higher data integrity protection and higher capacities to cater to further data growth. We can deliver smart, safe and secure storage suitable for our customers’ unique applications,” said Yang.
SkyHawk Drives Poised and Ready for Data Growth
The SkyHawk drives were designed specifically for the surveillance industry, where storage requirements are much higher and stricter. These environments involve strenuous workloads that a standard hard disk drive can’t handle, making the deployment of purpose-built drives more effective and cost-efficient. The fact that every SkyHawk drive comes with built-in SkyHawk Health Management (SHM) to prevent data loss prevention, intervention and recovery options further offers peace of mind.
The newest addition to the series, the SkyHawk Lite, is a surveillance-optimized security solution designed for small office or home environments. For increased scale, Seagate offers its standard
SkyHawk drives which come NVR-ready and optimized for 24/7 write-intensive workloads. It features a larger cache memory to buffer HD video with zero frame loss, while powerful error correction and data recovery algorithms help to prevent dropped frames, even when recording up to 64 video streams. High-speed on-the-fly error correction further prevents freeze frames during live playback.
Seagate’s SkyHawk AI drives are ideal for applications that require advanced video analytics in addition to video streaming. More than capable of handling the intensive computational workloads that accompany AI work streams, the AI drive provides unprecedented bandwidth and processing power to manage always-on, data-intensive workloads, while simultaneously analyzing and recording footage from multiple HD cameras.
Vast Potential of Data and Storage
We have only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to data and the value it holds for optimizing businesses and security operations. Data storage needs will continue to grow, with rising industry demands for safer, scalable and higher-performance infrastructure. With an eye to the future and through continuous innovation, Seagate is forging ahead into the age of data and onto the frontlines of a more data-driven tomorrow.