Western Digital (WD), now separate from SanDisk and focused on hard drives, announced a new 26TB WD Red Pro HDD designed for use in RAID arrays and network attached storage (NAS).
The company says the introduction of this high-capacity HDD is meant to address “the growing storage demand of NAS environments” and represents a substantial storage capacity increase.
“Rated for up to 550TB/year workloads and boasting an impressive 2.5M hours MTBF, it’s designed for 24/7 multi-user environments, supporting everything from creative workflows to enterprise-level NAS systems,” WD says. This new high-capacity HDD will retail for $570.
Along with the higher capacity HDD, Western Digital provided a batch of possible use cases including G-branded RAID solutions meant for both storage and backup. For example, for $8,200, WD offers a 208TB G-RAID Shuttle 8, a transportable eight-bay hardware RAID that, when set into the RAID 5 configuration, offers transfer speeds of up to 1700MB/s read and 1500MB/s write. The Smaller G-RAID Shuttle 4 can now reach a maximum 104TB capacity and, again in RAID 5, promises to provide enough speed to support multi-stream 4K, 8K, and VR workflows.
Western Digital also notes its 52TB G-RAID Project 2, a $1,700 RAID 0 dual-HDD drive, and its 26TB G-DRIVE Project and standard G-DRIVE which max out at 260MB/s read and 270MB/s write speeds. Given the slow transfer speeds of the last two, which is typical of single HDDs, those options are more suited as backups rather than working drives.
“At Western Digital, we are constantly redefining what’s possible to meet the evolving storage demands of creatives and professionals, from 4K and 8K video production to AI analytics and critical workload storage,” Nitin Kachhwaha, Director of Product Management at Western Digital, says. “With the introduction of our expanded 26TB-based Professional lineup and WD Red Pro HDDs, we’re offering the capacity and reliability that today’s consumers and businesses need to stay ahead in an increasingly data-driven world. These solutions represent our ongoing commitment to delivering innovative storage solutions that empower creativity and drive digital transformation.”
Last February, WD finalized its separation from SanDisk and focused its business on HDDs, leaving SSDs to SanDisk. There are, obviously, some branding holdovers on both sides that will likely be ironed out over the coming months.
“Looking ahead, we see massive opportunity. As AI accelerates and impacts industries around the world, and as companies generate and store more data, HDD exabyte shipments are expected to increase. In addition, much of the data stored by cloud service providers, such as native cloud application data, AI data lakes, media, and machine learning data, runs on HDDs,” Irving Tan, WD’s new CEO, says. “I feel incredibly lucky to have the chance to lead the team at Western Digital, with a reinvigorated focus on HDD technology, and united in delivering the best storage capabilities.”
WD will showcase the new HDD and associated products at the NAB Show on April 5-9, 2025.
Image credits: Western Digital
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