Western Digital announced it is extending the industry’s highest capacity Ultrastar HDDs to a selection of its G-Technology products, empowering professionals with powerful, ultra-reliable solutions to manage massive volumes of content for optimized creative workflows. A first for the consumer and professional markets, the 18 TB enterprise-class Ultrastar drives are available in three G-Technology brand product families, including G-DRIVE, G-RAID with Thunderbolt 3, G-SPEED Shuttle with Thunderbolt 3 and G-SPEED Shuttle XL with Thunderbolt 3.
The commercially available enterprise-class 18 TB Ultrastar HDDs deliver the industry’s highest areal density by leveraging innovative new technologies including Energy-Assisted Magnetic Recording technology, the industry’s first Triple Stage Actuator, and a 9-disk HelioSeal platform. The powerful 7,200 RPM drives come with a 2.5M hours MTBF rating and a 5-year limited warranty.
“Over the course of my career as a commercial and fine art photographer, director, and director of photography with a specialization in aerial photography, I’ve captured over 300 TB of content. Peers often inquire about my digital storage best practices and I point them in the direction of G-Technology’s RAID-configurable G-SPEED Shuttle family for their heavy-duty archival storage needs. The massive capacities available significantly cuts the overall costs for my storage needs and allows me to be incredibly efficient when I’m in the field,” said Vincent Laforet, G-Technology G-TEAM ambassador.
The G-SPEED Shuttle range of studio-ready storage solutions were designed with one purpose in mind – to meet the workflow needs of today’s industry demands and asks of its media production creatives. Available in 4-bay and 8-bay form factors, the G-SPEED Shuttle and G-SPEED Shuttle XL are configurable in RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, and JBOD and 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, JBOD, respectively. The products are engineered to run fast and around the clock making them perfect for super-fast transfers, consolidated master backups, and scalable workflows. The range is built tough and transportable with an available Pelican case. These high-throughput solutions utilize high-capacity, high-performance enterprise-class hard drives that can be user-configured into a wide range of RAID options weighted toward speed or additional data protection and are now available in massive capacities up to 144 TB in one system.
G-RAID with Thunderbolt 3 is a desktop solution designed for rigorous applications and multi-stream HD, 2K, 4K, and HDR workflows. The dual drive bays of the G-RAID device support hardware-controlled RAID 0 and RAID 1. The default RAID 0 stripes the two drives together, providing enhanced read and write speeds, but no data redundancy, while RAID 1 mirrors the content of one drive to the other, providing 1:1 data redundancy at the cost of performance. Additionally, G-RAID offers the ability to daisy chain up to five additional devices using the Thunderbolt 3 interface. For those who do not need the benefits of a RAID, JBOD is also supported. With the inclusion of the 18 TB drive, G-RAID now offers up to 36 TB of data storage.
G-Technology’s G-DRIVE solution is available with USB 3.0, USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. These external HDD offerings are built for storage-intensive applications like audio/video editing and digital photography. The G-DRIVE external drive products provide up to 18 TB of enterprise-class storage, a rotational speed of 7,200 rpm, and an interface to meet the standards of the creative enthusiast or professional. The drives are encased in an attractive all-aluminium enclosure that is macOS-compatible and Time Machine-ready. The G-DRIVE USB-C external drive can support up to 45 watts of USB power delivery through the USB-C port, this drive can charge your compatible MacBook or MacBook Pro without having to take a separate MacBook charger out of your bag.
“We understand the value of digital content, and we create products that match the passion of the digital creators. G-Technology products improve the efficiency of digital workflows and protect high-value media with a wide range of storage solutions that enable creators to push the boundaries of what’s possible. We are excited to be able to offer this innovative, best-in-class technology to help simplify workflows and assist with archival consolidation,” said Jim Welsh, SVP and general manager, Content Solutions Business Unit, Western Digital.
Pricing and Availability
The G-SPEED Shuttle/G-SPEED Shuttle XL, G-RAID and G-DRIVE with 18 TB drives will be available to U.S. customers at shop.westerndigital.com in August.
