Innovations

Why Does Areal Density Matter in the Data Center?

The future of sustainable, mass-capacity storage is now.

Data is growing faster than the world’s ability to store it.

By 2027, 291 ZB of data will be generated.

Only 2 ZB of storage capacity will be manufactured in 2024 alone.

Yikes. This 15× gap¹ indicates a huge need for more storage. As data continues to explode in the wake of AI productization, enterprise data centres will need to find sustainable ways to scale against limited space, power and budget.

Adding more disks to a hard drive may help scale capacity.

But it isn’t the most efficient approach.

Each disk in a hard drive requires many materials. The more disks added, the more it costs to build (and buy), and the more it takes from the Earth.
Each extra disk also increases power consumption by up to 12.5%.² Scaled in a data centre, where they are running 24×7, this equates to massive spend on just power alone.

Boosting areal density — now that is efficient.

Essentially, this means increasing how much data each disk can hold.

Imagine a 10-disk hard drive, and each disk can hold 3 TB of data. In total, you could store 30 TB of data on that drive.

Now imagine the same exact drive — but each disk is increased to 3.33 TB instead of just 3 TB. Now with only 9 disks, you still achieve the same amount of 30 TB.

That’s the magic of areal density, resulting in less build material and less power consumption.

See how areal density impacts build and power costs.

Select Target Capacity

Optimisation

Build Savings

Power Savings

Fewer Platters

Areal Density

Areal density’s impact at scale is profound.

With greater areal density, data centres can:

Double their capacity without increasing footprint³
Consume 45% less power³
Achieve sustainability goals by decreasing consumption of space, power and natural resources

Seagate is leading the way.

As the world’s only hard drive manufacturer with areal density capabilities of 3 TB per disk, with 5 TB per disk on the horizon, Seagate is at the helm of a storage revolution. It starts with Mozaic 3+™.

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Exos Mozaic 3+™

The proven path to breakthrough areal density is here. Built to enable hyper-efficient, sustainable data storage, Exos mass-capacity hard drives now feature Mozaic 3+, a powerful platform that unleashes areal density of 3 TB per disk so that you can store more exabytes in the same space for a significantly lower cost.

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IDC StorageSphere. 2024 vs. 2025 install base, IDC Datasphere, 2024 vs. 2025 Incremental New Data Generated.
Based on Exos X24, Max Operating, Random Read/Write 4K/16Q.
Savings calculated per TB. Method: 16 TB to 30 TB capacity upgrade (or 1.78 TB per disk to 3 TB per disk) comparing Exos X16 to Exos 30 TB Mozaic drive, max operating power and weight.

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Whether you’re new to enterprise storage or just looking for a next-level upgrade, we can help you find the right solution. Start now by connecting with our experts to better assess your storage needs.

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Why Does Areal Density Matter in the Data Center?

Data is growing faster than the world’s ability to store it.

By 2027, 291 ZB of data will be generated.

Only 2 ZB of storage capacity will be manufactured in 2024 alone.

Adding more disks to a hard drive may help scale capacity.

But it isn’t the most efficient approach.

Boosting areal density — now that is efficient.

Essentially, this means increasing how much data each disk can hold.

See how areal density impacts build and power costs.

Select Target Capacity

Optimisation

Areal Density

Areal density’s impact at scale is profound.

With greater areal density, data centres can:

Seagate is leading the way.

Exos Mozaic 3+™

Have Questions?