Seagate Launches Its First Enterprise SSD

A lot of people do not realize that Seagate Technology, the world's largest spinning-disk hard drive maker, hasn't brought a solid-state drive to market until now—nearly two years after NAND flash SSDs started making major inroads in the data center.

EMC started making SSDs from STEC available for data center storage use in its Symmetrix arrays back in January 2008.

Seagate on Dec. 7 introduced its own SSD, dubbed Pulsar, as the first in a new line of enterprise-quality NAND flash-based drives that it will sell to OEMs.

Pulsars, which use SLC (single-level cell) flash, come with SATA (serial ATA) interfaces and are available in 50GB, 100GB and 200GB capacities, all on a 2.5-inch card.

The drives, as one might imagine, are fast: They are rated at 30,000 read and 25,000 write IOPS, with 240MB per second sequential read and 200 MB per second sequential write throughput. These, of course, are peak-performance numbers.

Seagate, like most IT hardware companies, sees SSDs as a strategic building block in the construction of new-generation data centers, and said the Pulsar is only the first of many solid-state products it will deliver.

"Seagate is optimistic about the enterprise SSD ... and views the product category as enabling expansion of the overall storage market for both SSDs and HDDs," Seagate Executive Vice President Dave Mosley said.

"Our strategy is to provide our customers with the exact storage device they need for any application, regardless of the component technology used. We are delivering on that strategy with the Pulsar drive, and you can expect additional products in the future from Seagate using a variety of solid-state and rotating media components."

IDC analyst Dave Reinsel said Seagate's long-established "ecosystem relationships and long history of serving global storage OEMs" will enable it to get established quickly in the SSD sector.

Gartner research director Joseph Unsworth has reported that the overall enterprise SSD market is well positioned for growth, from both a revenue and unit perspective. Gartner estimates that unit growth will double and sales will reach $1 billion for calendar year 2010, Unsworth said.

Competitor Micron, also a bit late to the SSD market, unveiled its own SSD on Dec. 3.

More information for OEMs about Seagate's Pulsar SSD can be found here.