Toshiba has announced four new large capacity nearline hard disk drives (HDDs), including the first self-encrypting models in the company's enterprise capacity-optimized storage lineup. The 3.5-inch 7,200 rpm MG Series includes both SATA models — the MG03ACA400 and the MG03ACA400Y — and SAS models — MG03SCA400 and the MG03SCP400 — and all deliver 4TB1 of storage, the company's largest capacity to date. Sample shipments of the MG 4TB series models will start in December, with volume shipments scheduled to begin early next year. As businesses work to keep up with the explosion of unstructured data, large capacity HDDs are crucial for IT systems designed to organize and access the growing pools of valuable information.
The massive capacity of the MG Series is perfectly suited for RAID storage and arrays, tiered virtual infrastructures for public and private cloud deployments, archives, and disk-based backup and data protection solutions. The robust 24x7 design and massive capacity provide the cost-effectiveness required for business-critical servers and external storage systems, including NAS, SAN and tiered storage deployments for large enterprises, as well as for direct-attached storage in general purpose servers and SMB-oriented systems and applications. Utilizing Toshiba's latest five-platter mechanical design, the new 4TB models provide a 100 percent increase in capacity over Toshiba's prior business-critical models while improving the power-profile and operational efficiency in the industry-standard 3.5-inch form factor. The new 4TB models also deliver an 18 percent increase in sustained transfer rates for both the SATA and SAS interface versions. In addition, the MG Series includes power management features designed to reduce power consumption during off-peak activity periods, helping to reduce operating costs and environmental impact. The optional SATA self-encrypting (SED) models support fast and secure cryptographic- erase using both the latest T13 SANITIZE crypto-scramble protocol and the older T13 ATA Security Erase command protocol. The optional SAS SED models support both the T10 SANITIZE crypto-erase feature and the Trusted Computing Group Enterprise Security Sub-Classification protocols. These proven, industry-standard security technologies support “nearly instantaneous” cryptographic-erase of user data to enable fast and secure device retirement or re-deployment. Using SEDs can eliminate the need for lengthy data overwrite cycles and reduce IT department expenses associated with secure data destruction and device sanitization. — SG
