Seagate unveils 30TB drives to power AI-ready data centres

Seagate has announced the global availability of its 30TB Exos M and IronWolf Pro hard drives, engineered to address growing demand for scalable storage in AI-driven data centres.

The new drives are based on Seagate's Mozaic3+ platform and utilise heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology. With more than one million Mozaic hard drives shipped to date, Seagate is marking a milestone in its storage technology offering. The larger capacity options are designed for use in on-premises, private, and sovereign data centres, reflecting current trends towards AI adoption and compliance with new data sovereignty laws emerging around the world.

Recent years have seen a significant increase in investment into on-premises and hybrid data centre infrastructure, driven in part by advancements in artificial intelligence and requirements for local data stewardship.

Melyssa Banda, Senior Vice President of Edge Storage and Services at Seagate, addressed the shifting landscape:

"Today, approximately 90% of the world's data is stored in just 10 countries. However, data gravity is increasingly pulling networks to the edge as nearly 150 countries adopt data sovereignty requirements, and AI workloads continue to expand. Datacentres - on-prem, private, and sovereign - are leveraging AI to unlock the value of their proprietary data," said Melyssa Banda, SVP of Edge Storage and Services, Seagate. "Our 30TB drives are designed to support these rapidly growing trends, delivering the capacity, efficiency, and resilience needed to power the AI workloads."

Industry observers are aligning with the notion that the storage industry is experiencing fundamental shifts. Ed Burns, Research Director for Hard Disk Drive and Storage Technologies at IDC, commented on the wider infrastructure changes:

"Hyperscalers and enterprise data centres are in the early stages of an all-out arms race to develop AI infrastructure resulting in rapidly increasing capex spending on performance-oriented hardware," said Ed Burns, Research Director, Hard Disk Drive and Storage Technologies at IDC. "While not often associated with performance such as low latency, the highest capacity HDDs are a critical strategic asset in the AI development process, filling the need for mass capacity storage of the foundational data essential to building and improving the highest quality AI models in the market today and into the future. Enterprise customers are seeking ways to improve the density of their data centres, lowering power consumption and square footage requirements while ensuring storage continues to meet strategic requirements, and Seagate's new 30TB Exos product is the highest density hard drive offered in the industry today. Hyperscale and enterprise data centre customers looking for optimal performance and cost tradeoffs for mass-capacity storage will benefit from Seagate's HAMR product roadmap, which is poised to accelerate areal density growth rates for HDDs in the years to come."

Industry forecasts suggest rapid market changes are underway. Hewlett Packard Enterprise projects the on-premises AI market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 90%, reaching an estimated USD $42 billion within three years. NVIDIA has described the new approach to handling AI data as developing 'AI factories' – data centres that manufacture intelligence at scale.

Industry demand for high-density and high-throughput storage correlates with the adoption of AI for use cases like video analytics and predictive maintenance. This shift has driven changes in storage architecture, such as greater adoption of disaggregated storage that separates compute and storage resources, enabling more flexibility and scalability.

Product specifics

The Exos M 30TB drive is engineered to provide high-capacity, energy efficient storage and allows for scalable solutions that support real-time analytics and reliable performance in edge environments. Similarly, the IronWolf Pro 30TB is optimised for NAS systems, supporting workloads that require both high throughput and low latency.

Dhaval Panara, Product Manager with QNAP, addressed how these high-capacity drives enhance enterprise NAS applications:

"QNAP NAS systems are increasingly used for on-premise AI workloads - enabling enterprises to run local AI models and leverage RAG and LLM technologies to process and analyse local datasets," said Dhaval Panara, Product Manager, QNAP. "By integrating Seagate's IronWolf Pro 30TB drives, we deliver petabyte-scale, high-integrity storage that ensures fast access, reliable performance, and scalable infrastructure at the edge."

Evan Li, Head of International Business at UGREEN, also highlighted the drives' significance for edge applications:

"With AI workloads increasingly moving to edge environments, reliable high-capacity storage becomes critical for local data processing. Seagate's IronWolf Pro 30TB drives provide the robust foundation UGREEN NAS systems require - delivering massive scalability and the operational stability needed for local AI applications," said Evan Li, Head of International Business, UGREEN.

IDC analysis points to sectors such as retail, manufacturing, and financial services as key adopters of AI at the edge, with global NAS market growth projected at over 17% annually through to 2034. The convergence of AI, IoT, and hybrid cloud is cited as accelerating the need for high-integrity, large-capacity storage solutions.

Regional availability and pricing

The Exos M 30TB and IronWolf Pro 30TB drives are currently available through authorised resellers in Australia and are set to become available in New Zealand soon. Prices for the Exos M 30TB are listed at AUD $1,309 and NZD $1,569, while IronWolf Pro 30TB is available at AUD $1,319 and NZD $1,499.