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Seagate (STX) Adds New HDD and SDDs to IronWolf Portfolio

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Seagate Technology (STX - Free Report) recently extended its IronWolf and IronWolf Pro family-based on Network Attached Storage (NAS) architecture with 18TB storage capacity HDD (Hard Disk Drive). It also added an SSD each to IronWolf and IronWolf Pro portfolios with varying storage capacities.

Per Seagate, the 18TB IronWolf Pro storage HDD can support workloads of around 300TB capacity per year and has 250 MB/s Sustained Transfer Rate. It is optimized for NAS architecture with AgileArray firmware that is built using the CMR technology. The new IronWolf Pro HDD is priced at $608.99 and comes with a five-year warranty.

The new 18TB drive will also support Seagate’s IronWolf Health Management (“IHM”) software, which helps in improving the overall system reliability by displaying actionable prevention and intervention or recovery options for the user. Additionally, it can support multi-user environment and RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) performance.

The SATA SSDs – IronWolf Pro 125 and IronWolf 125— are also optimised for NAS architecture and support IHM solution and multi-user environment. IronWolf Pro 125 SSD allows 1 DWPD (Drive Writes Per Day), whereas IronWolf 125 allows 0.7 DWPD.

IronWolf 125 SSD is available in five storage capacities namely 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB at varying price points ranging from $62.99 to $608.99. The IronWolf Pro 125 is available in 240GB, 480GB, 960GB 1.92TB and 3.84TB capacities at varying price points ranging from $94.99 to $944.99.

The new product launches will enhance Seagate’s existing product portfolio and aid it in fortifying foothold in the HDD and SSD market against Western Digital (WDC - Free Report) .

Rapid Growth in SMB Market Augurs Well

Seagate is one of the leading hard disk drive (HDD) producers in the United States. The company is witnessing robust demand for its 16 terabyte (TB) products and is well poised to gain from ramp up of 18 TB drives.

HDDs enable enterprises to address the growing storage needs amid huge influx of data generated by emerging technologies and services like AI, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), and 4K resolution.

Seagate believes that the expanded capacity will improve demand for the HDDs among large enterprises, small and medium size businesses (SMBs) and creative professionals.

Per a survey conducted by Seagate, 65% of the SMBs, which were questioned across the United States, the U.K., Germany, China, South Korea, and Taiwan, are adopting data-based recovery strategies in the aftermath of COVID-19.

This spells big opportunity for Seagate’s IronWolf and IronWolf Pro HDD products as these are well-suited for managing data infrastructure for SMBs.

Market research firm IDC forecasts the global datasphere will witness a CAGR of 26% between 2020 to 2024. The increase is data creation is due to coronavirus-led remote working trend. The massive growth in digital data and work-from-home wave will fuel demand for advanced data storage solutions.

Per a Grand View Research report, the SSD market is anticipated to witness a CAGR of 15% during 2020-2026.

Apart from exponential growth in digital data and increasing penetration of high-end cloud platforms, SSD demand is being driven by increased usage in connected car applications.  These applications require better storage, high-quality graphics and communications, which are fulfilled by the SSDs.

Also, SSDs are increasingly being leveraged by data centers, owing to the reduction in latency, which in turn facilitates faster response to real-time applications.

Considering encouraging growth prospects, the company’s expansion into the SSD storage market with new product launches bodes well for its top line in the days ahead.

Persistent Challenges

In the near term, supply chain disruptions and lockdowns stemming from the coronavirus outbreak are likely to affect the end-market demand for Seagate. Moreover, management expects higher COVID-19-related costs to be a headwind.

Further, increasing expenses on product enhancements are likely to weigh on the bottom line, at least in the near term.

Zacks Rank and Key Picks

At present, Seagate carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Better-ranked stocks worth considering in the broader sector is Keysight Technologies (KEYS - Free Report) and Blackbaud (BLKB - Free Report) , both sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Long-term earnings growth rate for Keysight and Blackbaud is currently pegged at 8.8% and 7.6%, respectively.

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