Western Digital Blows Hard Disk Drive Future Wide Open

Why It Matters

The innovations promise SSD‑class bandwidth at near‑line capacity, extending magnetic storage’s relevance for hyperscale data centers and reducing total‑cost‑of‑ownership. They also give enterprises a scalable, power‑efficient alternative for massive AI and analytics workloads.

Key Takeaways

• 40TB UltraSMR HDD qualified, production H2 2026
• Roadmap targets 100TB HAMR drives by 2027
• HBD tech promises up to 4× bandwidth gains
• Dual‑pivot actuators could double I/O to 2,000 MB/s
• API simplifies advanced HDD features for hyperscale deployments

Pulse Analysis

The data‑intensive demands of artificial‑intelligence workloads are stretching traditional storage hierarchies. While solid‑state drives dominate latency‑critical tiers, their cost per terabyte remains prohibitive for petabyte‑scale archives. Western Digital’s qualification of a 40 TB UltraSMR drive, coupled with a clear path to 100 TB HAMR units, signals a strategic shift: magnetic storage can now deliver the massive capacities required for AI model training and large‑scale analytics without inflating capital expenditures.

Performance has long been the Achilles’ heel of hard‑disk drives, but WD’s High‑Bandwidth Drive (HBD) technology and dual‑pivot actuator design aim to rewrite that narrative. By placing read/write heads on every platter surface and adding an independent actuator, the company projects up to 2,000 MB/s sequential throughput—levels once reserved for SSDs. These gains, achieved without a corresponding rise in power draw, close the I/O‑per‑TB gap and make HDDs competitive for near‑line and warm storage tiers, where latency tolerances are higher but bandwidth remains essential.

Beyond hardware, WD is addressing operational complexity with an open API and intelligent software layer slated for 2027. This abstraction lets hyperscalers integrate advanced HDD features—UltraSMR, ePMR, HAMR, and the new bandwidth enhancements—into existing management stacks without bespoke engineering. The move lowers adoption barriers, accelerates time‑to‑value, and positions Western Digital as a preferred partner for the AI‑driven data economy, potentially reshaping the balance between flash and magnetic storage in enterprise and cloud environments.

Western Digital blows hard disk drive future wide open

By Irving Tan, CEO · February 2026

Western Digital is qualifying 40 TB hard‑disk drives, has outlined a roadmap to 100 TB, and is announcing two major performance‑boosting technologies alongside reduced power consumption and a software abstraction layer aimed at hyperscalers operating at 200‑plus‑petabyte scale.

The company unveiled the developments at its Innovation Day 2026 event, saying it is reinventing the HDD for the AI era with a new generation of storage technologies spanning scalable capacity, performance optimization, power efficiency, and an intelligent platform API designed to improve economics at scale. It is also emphasizing the WD brand.

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CEO Irving Tan

“Today, we are showcasing innovation that reflects our deep connection to our customers and how we are meeting demand for capacity, scale, quality, enhanced performance, and ease of technology adoption.”

WD is qualifying the world’s highest‑capacity drive, a 40 TB UltraSMR drive using ePMR technology, at two hyperscalers, with volume production planned in the second half of this year.

• UltraSMR – shingled magnetic recording where tracks partially overlap to increase capacity, though rewrite operations must cover entire zones.

• PMR – conventional perpendicular magnetic recording.

• ePMR – WD’s enhanced PMR technology that strengthens the write signal.

• HAMR – heat‑assisted magnetic recording, also being pursued by Seagate, to overcome PMR limits as bit sizes shrink.

WD has also built a 30 TB conventional (non‑shingled) ePMR drive. Chief Product Officer Ahmed Shihab said:

“We are extending that roadmap a little further. So we think, we know, that we can get to 50 and little beyond that on ePMR.”

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HAMR Roadmap

WD is qualifying HAMR drives at two hyperscalers with volume production slated for 2027. The company says it can extend ePMR capacity to 60 TB “by leveraging HAMR innovations without increasing power consumption.” HAMR and ePMR drives share a common architecture, allowing mixed‑use in the same chassis.

• HAMR drives have a longer capacity roadmap (up to 100 TB) versus ePMR’s 60 TB.

• Shihab explained: “What we’ve done is make the performance and capabilities the same between ePMR and HAMR so that customers can put them side by side and use them at the same time. They get very comfortable with this plan. They’re very, very comfortable, and that parallel roadmap is really appealing to them.”

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Quadrupling HDD Bandwidth

High Bandwidth Drive (HBD) Technology

WD’s HBD technology uses read/write heads on each platter surface, enabling simultaneous reading and writing across many tracks. Initial implementations deliver up to 2× bandwidth, with a roadmap to 4×, 6×, and 8×. This improves the I/O density (capacity‑to‑bandwidth ratio) without increasing power draw.

• Typical near‑line drives: 250‑275 MB/s I/O.

• A non‑shingled 26 TB Ultrastar (11 platters) reaches up to 302 MB/s.

• With HBD, “you can get 500‑plus MB/s.”

Shihab likened the change to “adding a turbocharger to the I/O channel.” Theoretical future bandwidths could reach 1,000 MB/s, 1,500 MB/s, and 2,000 MB/s for 4×, 6×, and 8× increases respectively.

Dual‑Pivot Actuator Design

WD is adding a second, independent set of read/write heads and actuators on a separate pivot inside a 3.5‑inch drive. This design:

• Reduces spacing between platters, allowing more platters (WD currently uses 11 vs. Seagate’s 10).

• Provides an additional up to 2× bandwidth boost.

Dual‑pivot drives are in the lab and expected to be available in 2028. Shihab noted:

“It’s not the same way it was built before, where you had effectively two drives with a SAS interface or two SATA interfaces that was really hard for customers to use. This is a drive you can plug into your existing infrastructure, same software, and just double the I/O.”

Combining dual‑pivot actuators with the initial 2× HBD yields up to 4× bandwidth, enabling 100 TB HDDs while maintaining current I/O‑per‑TB ratios.

The dual‑pivot and HBD technologies apply to both HAMR and ePMR drives. If 4× HBD reaches 1,000 MB/s, dual‑pivot could push that to 2,000 MB/s. SATA link saturation becomes a consideration.

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Power‑Optimized Drives

WD is developing drives that “reduce power consumption, and therefore customer operating costs, while maintaining a sub‑second access storage tier.” These drives will:

• Trade minimal random I/O for higher capacity and substantially lower power.

• Shrink the gap between warm (near‑line) and cold (tape) storage tiers, offering an intermediate tier with tape‑like power use but near‑disk latency and bandwidth.

Details are limited, but slower spindle speeds are a likely approach.

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Simplified JBODs

WD offers Ultrastar Data60 and Data102 multi‑drive chassis (JBODs) that can house up to 102 SAS‑interface HDDs in a 4‑RU enclosure, featuring:

• Redfish‑based SPI, IPMI, resource manager, and SCSI enclosure services for monitoring and control.

Shihab explained that many large enterprises lack the resources to fully exploit the advanced capabilities (UltraSMR, HBD, dual‑pivot, 100 TB drives). To address this, WD is adding a simple API that abstracts the complexity, allowing storage software to quickly leverage the new performance, capacity, and efficiency features.

An intelligent software layer with an open API is slated for launch in 2027, enabling companies operating at 200 + petabyte scale to achieve hyperscale storage economics across WD’s UltraSMR, ePMR, HAMR, and flash platforms.

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Overall Outlook

“WD is challenging conventional storage assumptions and removing the complexity and cost barriers that limit their AI‑driven growth. Our capacity, performance, power efficiency, and platform innovations solidify our position as the innovation partner for the AI‑driven data economy.” – Ahmed Shihab

WD’s announcements at Innovation Day 2026 aim to reset the balance between SSDs and HDDs by delivering massive I/O bandwidth gains to disk drives. While SSDs will retain latency advantages, the new HDD capabilities could keep magnetic storage relevant for decades, especially for hyperscalers and enterprises seeking SSD‑class bandwidth with near‑line capacity.