Current status and outlook of magnetic data storage devices

Big data analytics, cloud services, internet of things (IoT), personal mobile devices, social networks and artificial intelligence (AI) have created strong demand for enterprises to amass information. Studies show that the amount of data being recorded is increasing about 30–40% per year. Based on some estimates, in 2023, approximately 330 million terabytes of data were created each day. It is further estimated that 80–90% of data created never gets accessed again. Magnetic tape and hard disk drives and semiconductor-based solid-state drives are used to store data. Hard disk and solid-state drives are online, and tape drives are offline and used for archival storage of big data and backup. The market share of solid-state drives continues to increase; however, they are more expensive than hard disk drives in cost per TB. Over the years, areal recording densities of magnetic data storage devices have continued to increase by two digits annually because of the introduction of new technologies. Total capacity and units shipped have increased astronomically but price per TB continues to go down which keeps magnetic storage industry under constant pressure. In 2024, because of low cost per TB, hard disk drives are projected to control more than half of the world’s data and will remain robust for some time. In 2023, magnetic tape drives remained dominant for archival storage and backup because of high volumetric density and low cost per TB. This paper starts with a description of new technologies to meet growing areal density demands followed by an overview of the current market and outlook of magnetic data storage devices. Competitive solid-state drives for data storage are also discussed.