Ultrastar DC HC650 20TB drives . The latter use SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) technology managed by the system.
What are the different technologies used on hard drives?
The 2 most used technologies are PMR and SMR. PMR or Perpendicular Magnetic Recording has been used since 2005 to replace LMR (Longitudinal Magnetic Recording) . This PMR technology allows for a higher density, i.e. 1 TB per tray. It is also known by the term CMR or Classic Magnetic Recording.
SMR or Shingled Magnetic Recording was created around 2013 by Western Digital . It consists of recording by shingles, thus allowing for more density, and therefore more capacity. However, reading and writing speeds are slower. Thus, for access requiring high transfer speed, you can favor PMR. On the other hand, SMR should be chosen for large volume storage that does not require high read/write rates.
Why is Dropbox choosing SMR technology drives?
SMR disks are less efficient than PMR disks. On the other hand, in data centers, these disks can be controlled by the system or directly by disk controllers which can partially correct the limitations of this technology. These DC HC650 disks benefit in any case from the implementation of an energy-assisted recording technique (EAMR), 5th generation of HelioSeal technology with the first 3-stage actuator. In addition, Western Digital's SMR drives are part of Zoned Storage , an open source platform initiated to ensure scalability of SMR drives to ZNS SSD when needed.
In fact, Dropbox mainly looks for storage and archiving drives. The data is in fact written only once on the hard drive and archived without rarely being modified. In addition, only Western Digital DC HC650 SMR drives offer the largest capacity on the market: 20 TB. This allows for a significant yield per square meter in storage centers. These reasons therefore justify Dropbox's choice to opt for the DC HC650.
A long partnership between Dropbox and Western Digital
It is also a logical continuation of a long collaboration between Western Digital and Dropbox. Indeed, according to Andrew Fong, Vice President of Engineering at Dropbox, Western digital has supported Dropbox since the development phases of its storage platforms. He confirms that Western Digital is an essential strategic partner for Dropbox, enabling it to continuously improve its cloud infrastructures . Andrew Dorian, Vice President of Enterprise Hard Drives at Western Digital, said Western Digital is excited to support Dropbox to keep up with growing customer demands in the cloud space.
The DC HC650 hard drive is the first to offer a capacity of 20 TB on the market. Other Companies will surely study its various advantages and will follow Dropbox.
