Toshiba unveils 28TB hard disk drive to compete with Western Digital and Seagate — but is it too little too late for the Japanese outfit?

Toshiba has announced its Mx11 family of hard disk drives, aiming to challenge the dominance of Western Digital and Seagate in the high-capacity storage market .

The new Mx11 series includes the MG11, offering up to 24TB using conventional magnetic recording (CMR), and the MA11, which reaches 28TB with shingled magnetic recording (SMR).

Both models are designed to address the growing demand for storage in data centers and enterprise environments. Featuring a 10-disk, helium-sealed design and operating at 7,200rpm, Toshiba claims these drives offer improved storage density and energy efficiency.

Stiff competition

The MG11 supports cloud, data center, and video applications with options for a 6Gbps SATA or 12Gbps SAS interface, and advanced security features such as sanitize instant erase (SIE) and self-encrypting drives (SED). Built with Toshiba’s FC-MAMR technology, the MG11 is designed for higher density and power efficiency. Engineered for 24/7 reliability, it features a 1GiB buffer, a workload rating of 550TB per year, and an MTTF of 2.5 million hours. With a 9% improvement in sustained transfer speeds, reaching up to 295MiB/s, it is ideal for fast, high-capacity storage applications.

The MA11, focused on higher capacity, achieves up to 28TB per disk by using shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology. This allows for overlapping tracks on the disk to increase storage density, making the 28TB drive especially suitable for data centers with software optimized for SMR. Like the MG11, the MA11 is available with a 6Gbps SATA interface and self-encrypting drive options for enhanced security.

“Backed by 50 years of continuous HDD innovation, the Mx11 Series delivers new levels of capacity and total cost of ownership (TCO) efficiency, enabling customers to optimize operational costs while expanding their data center infrastructure,” said Larry Martinez-Palomo, Vice President and Head of the Storage Products Division at Toshiba.

Despite the impressive specifications, Toshiba faces stiff competition. Seagate offers the Exos X26z , a 25TB host-managed shingled magnetic recording (HM-SMR) unit, and the Exos Mozaic 3+ , a 30TB HDD. Western Digital's offerings include the 24TB WD Gold Enterprise class SATA HDD , as well as 26TB, 27TB, and 28TB models in its Ultrastar DC HC680 range. Larger models are already being developed.

Shipments for the MG11 Series are set to start soon, with the MA11 expected to be available by the end of 2024.

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