Energy efficiency is a priority for half of business leaders, according to Seagate’s Decarbonizing Data report. The company says that “aging” HDDs may be a better choice for data center operators than SSDs, Blocks & Files reports.
The report cites a Goldman Sachs forecast that data center energy consumption will increase by 165% by 2030 compared to 2023, with the growth of data processing, slowing adoption of energy-efficient technologies, and the rise of AI “putting pressure” on organizations trying to manage carbon emissions, infrastructure expansion, and total cost of ownership (TCO) simultaneously.
Seagate says data centers are under constant scrutiny, not only because they support today’s AI workloads, but also because they are becoming one of the most energy-intensive sectors of the digital economy. Operators must balance cost with sustainability, and look for opportunities to optimize both.
Image source: Seagate
Importantly, Seagate is not calling for the disposal of “obsolete” hard drives – quite the opposite. The report compares HDDs, SSDs, and LTOs in terms of carbon emissions created during production and shipping of different types of drives (Embodied Carbon). The study shows that SSDs are the least environmentally friendly in this regard, both in terms of emissions per terabyte of capacity and overall.
HDDs, on the other hand, are the most eco-friendly in both respects. Tape (LTO) drives perform “average,” but when calculated over years of operation, their emissions are higher than those of HDDs. The report proposes three pillars for building a more sustainable future:
- Technological innovations – advances in computing power, increased storage density, and the introduction of energy-efficient technologies such as liquid cooling and advanced HVAC systems can significantly reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions;
- Extended life cycle and equipment recycling – repair, reuse and regular maintenance of storage modules extends their lifespan and reduces emissions, while real-time environmental monitoring and transparent reporting provides an additional level of environmental safety;
- Ecosystem-wide reporting – Achieving meaningful reductions in Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions requires collaboration across all industry participants, including vendors, suppliers and cloud providers.
The advanced Mozaic 3+ technology based on HAMR is cited as an example of innovation. The corresponding HDDs are already in mass production, allowing you to store three times more data than a regular 10 TB hard drive. In terms of emissions, they are more than 70% greener per TB. In addition, according to IDC, they are 25% cheaper per TB.
Image source: Seagate
Seagate believes that sustainability cannot be addressed in silos. A comprehensive approach addresses infrastructure, lifecycle management, and industry-wide reporting to ensure that AI and data center operations grow without compromising the environment.
It is worth noting that Seagate also sells its own Nytro SSD drives for data centers. At the same time, the manufacturer of all-flash storage Pure Storage has a different view, suggesting to evaluate the situation as a whole. According to the company’s calculations, a storage with a capacity of 1 EB will have 107,984 tons of carbon emissions over 10 years due to hard drives, while in the case of Pure DFM SSD modules – only 14,779 tons.
In 2023, it was also reported that SSDs were more harmful than HDDs, but not during operation, but at the production stage. At the same time, it was reported that tape drives were cheaper and more environmentally friendly than hard drives for storing “cold” data. However, solutions from the same Pure Storage have already begun to selectively displace HDDs.