Western Digital Unveils AI Data Cycle Storage Framework

Western Digital has unveiled a cutting-edge AI Data Cycle framework aimed at optimizing storage solutions for AI workloads at scale. This revolutionary framework empowers customers to strategize and implement advanced storage infrastructures, maximizing the value of their AI investments while streamlining efficiency and reducing total cost of ownership (TCO).

AI models operate within a perpetual loop of data consumption and generation, handling various data types such as text, images, audio, and video while generating new data concurrently. As AI technologies evolve, storage systems must evolve in tandem, providing the necessary capacity and performance to support computational demands and manage vast data volumes efficiently. Western Digital has aligned its Flash and HDD product roadmaps strategically with the storage needs of each stage of the AI Data Cycle. To this end, they have introduced a new high-performance PCIe Gen5 SSD tailored for AI training and inference, a high-capacity 64TB* SSD optimized for swift AI data lakes, and the world’s highest-capacity ePMR, UltraSMR 32TB* HDD designed for cost-effective large-scale storage.

Ed Burns, Research Director at IDC, commented, “Generative AI stands as the next transformative technology, and storage plays a pivotal role. Storage’s influence on the speed, efficiency, and accuracy of AI models will be substantial, particularly as larger and higher-quality datasets become prevalent. Western Digital’s strong market position and diverse portfolio position it to thrive in this expanding AI landscape.”

Rob Soderbery, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Western Digital’s Flash Business Unit, emphasized, “Data serves as the lifeblood of AI, and as AI permeates across industries, storage emerges as a crucial and dynamic component of the AI technology stack. The new AI Data Cycle framework equips our customers to construct storage infrastructures that significantly impact performance, scalability, and deployment of AI applications, underscoring our commitment to delivering unparalleled value.”

Western Digital’s suite of enterprise AI storage solutions includes the Ultrastar DC SN861 SSD, the company’s first enterprise-class PCIe Gen 5.0 solution boasting industry-leading random read performance and projected best-in-class power efficiency for AI workloads. The Ultrastar DC SN655 enterprise-class SSD range has also been expanded to include options reaching up to 64TB, catering to storage-intensive applications. Additionally, Western Digital is now sampling the industry’s highest-capacity 32TB ePMR enterprise-class HDD, the Ultrastar DC HC690, designed for massive data storage in hyperscale cloud and enterprise data centers.

Soderbery further added, “Each stage of the AI Data Cycle demands unique infrastructure and compute requirements. By comprehending the dynamic relationship between AI and data storage, Western Digital delivers solutions that not only offer higher capacities but also support the extreme performance and endurance demanded by next-generation AI workloads. With our expanding portfolio, long-term roadmap, and relentless innovation, we aim to assist customers in unlocking the transformative potential of AI.”