Western Digital launches 26TB hard drives for business & AI

Western Digital has expanded its storage portfolio by introducing two high-capacity hard disk drives tailored for business, creative, and smart video applications.

The company has launched the 26TB WD Red Pro HDD, which is intended to address the increased demands of network-attached storage (NAS) environments, and the 26TB WD Purple Pro HDD, designed for large-scale video recording and AI-enabled surveillance solutions.

Data storage needs are escalating due to advancements in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and enhanced data analytics in business processes. Western Digital indicated that the new products respond to these evolving requirements for robust, high-capacity storage technology.

The 26TB WD Red Pro HDD, priced in the United Kingdom at GBP £742.99, offers an increase in storage capacity for multi-bay, RAID-optimised NAS systems. The drive supports a 550TB/year workload rating and a 2.5 million-hour mean time before failure (MTBF) specification. It is aimed at businesses and creative professionals seeking scalable and reliable storage that can operate around the clock.

Western Digital highlighted the use of OptiNAND technology in the WD Red Pro HDD, which is designed to improve data tracking and efficiency within the drive. The company described the drive as suitable for applications ranging from creative professional workflows to enterprise-grade NAS deployments, supporting multi-user environments requiring persistent data availability.

The new 26TB WD Purple Pro HDD coincides with the tenth anniversary of the Purple product line. This addition leverages Western Digital's 11-disk technology platform and enhanced PMR (ePMR) technology, enabling performance for continuous, 24/7 large-scale video recording demands. Its features include a 550TB/year workload rating and technologies that support AI-driven video recording and analytics.

The WD Purple Pro HDD incorporates Western Digital Device Analytics for drive health management and AllFrame AI technology, which enables support for up to 64 single-stream high-definition cameras or 32 AI streams for deep learning analytics. These attributes are designed for environments running AI-enabled video recorders, analytics servers, or cloud-based video storage applications, where reliability and performance are critical.

Nigel Edwards, Vice President Sales at Western Digital, commented on the new drives: "As data creation, consumption, storing, and archiving is skyrocketing worldwide, we are proud that Western Digital's field-proven innovations help to meet the evolving storage demands of the zettabyte age. With the introduction of our WD Red Pro and WD PurpleTM Pro 26TB, we leverage Western Digital's 11-disk platform and ePMR technology that deliver the capacity, performance, durability, and reliability needed to drive the digital transformation of small, medium, and larger businesses."

Both products are designed for high-intensity, heavy-workload environments where data integrity and continuous operation are required. The company's upgrade to 26TB capacity for both the Red Pro and Purple Pro lines highlights ongoing developments to keep pace with technological shifts and increasing volumes of digital content in multiple sectors.