WESTERN DIGITAL Ultrastar DC HC550 18TB Internal HDD

The WD Ultrastar DC HC550 integrates a suite of technologies on a 9-disk platform to create a new class of HDDs. Its 18TB capacity is achieved by combining technologies that improve areal density with technologies that improve performance and reduce power consumption. It uses Energy-Assisted Magnetic Recording (EAMR) technology to improve writability and increase areal density, while a Triple Stage Actuator (TSA) enhances head-positioning accuracy, delivering better performance and increased areal density. Lastly, this drive uses HelioSeal technology, which is now in its 6th generation.

With its massive capacity and 2.5 million hour MTBF reliability rating, the UltraStar DC HC550 is made for object storage implementations. Object storage systems with erasure coding provide better data durability compared to RAID systems, given their tolerance for simultaneous error conditions. The DC HC550 offers security and encryption options to help protect data from unauthorized use, including SED models in both SATA and SAS. A SED-FIPS will be available in SAS configuration.

Driving Up Capacity and Driving Down TCO for Cloud and Hyperscale Data Centers

The breadth and depth of Big Data is driving the universal need for higher capacities across a broad spectrum of applications and workloads. Laying the foundation for a worry-free data center, Western Digital delivers the capacity to conquer the data explosion with the Ultrastar DC HC500 series of hard disk drives (HDDs). The DC HC500 series is designed for public and private cloud environments where storage density and cost-efficient infrastructure is critical.

The 18TB Ultrastar DC HC550 HDDs are the first commercial implementation of Energy-Assisted Magnetic Recording technology and utilize the industry’s first Triple Stage Actuator. These technologies, integrated with HelioSeal on a 9-disk platform, deliver the highest areal density and unmatched Total Cost of Ownership for customer and market needs.

Product Highlights

• Up to 18TB capacity in a standard 3.5-inch form factor with 7200 RPM
• CMR technology works with all capacity enterprise applications & environments
• Industry’s first Energy-Assisted Magnetic Recording technology
• Industry’s first Triple Stage Actuator
• Leading HelioSeal technology
• Reliable, field-proven design across five generations
• HelioSeal design delivers outstanding power efficiency (Watts/TB)
• 2.5 Million hours MTBF rating and a 5-year limited warranty

Applications and Workloads

• Cloud & Hyperscale Storage
• Massive Scale-Out (MSO), high-density data centers
• Distributed File Systems
• Bulk storage using Object storage solutions like Ceph™ and OpenStack Swift
• Primary and secondary storage for Apache Hadoop® for Big Data Analytics
• Surveillance Analytics

The Ultrastar DC HC550 18TB CMR HDD delivering industry leading capacity for the data center through a combination of new and proven technologies.

Western Digital is the first to deliver Energy-Assisted Magnetic Recording (EAMR) technology and a Triple Stage Actuator (TSA). These new technologies combined with further mechanical innovations and HelioSeal technology provide the industry’s highest capacities to enable data at scale with optimized TCO for data center architectures, while maintaining workload reliability and performance.