Toshiba Corp. on Wednesday expanded its portfolio of enterprise-class hard disk drives with its first ever family of 3.5” drives use the latest-generation platters. The new MG-series hard drives are designed 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 severs and SMB-oriented systems and applications.

Available in 1TB, 2TB, 3TB and 4TB capacities, Toshiba MG-series drives feature Serial ATA-6Gb/s or SAS-6Gb/s interfaces, 7200rpm rotation speed and feature 64MB DRAM buffers. The highest-capacity model utilizes Toshiba’s latest five-platter mechanical design, which enables 100% increase in capacity over Toshiba’s prior business-critical models while improving the power-profile and operational efficiency in the industry-standard 3.5” form-factor. The new 4TB models also deliver an 18% increase in sustained transfer rates ( up to 165MB/s). 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.

“Organizations of all sizes continue to be challenged by the exponential growth of big data and information they need to protect and maintain. Toshiba’s new 4TB drives provide the high-capacity and enterprise-class reliability required to keep up with rapid data growth,” said Joel Hagberg, vice president of marketing at Toshiba Storage Products Business.

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 severs and SMB-oriented systems and applications.

Sample shipments of the MG 4TB series models will start in December, with volume shipments scheduled to begin early next year.

Tags: Toshiba, HDD