Market Trends of Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Industry
Increasing Need for Storage Space to Drive the Market
- The consumer electronics industry is constantly evolving and proliferating. The sector has witnessed several new products and developments, which have led to massive growth in data consumption as well. According to Ericsson, global smartphone subscriptions stood at just over 6.4 billion in 2022 and are expected to cross over 7.5 billion by 2028; such development is expected to propel the demand for storage solutions further.
- Further, the monthly global average usage per smartphone is expected to exceed 20 GB by the end of 2023, according to Ericsson; this is expected to push the demand for data centers as the main data consumption is in the form of video.
- As a result of the pandemic, several nations throughout the world legislated work-from-home policies, citing public health concerns that spurred the demand for working-from-home infrastructure. As a result, organizations at all levels, including government bodies, anticipated a wide range of potential impacts, including growing demand for virtual services, coupled with rising citizen expectations about how these services should be delivered, the longer-term possibility of reshaping the government workforce, and the requirement to provide adaptive and dynamic regulatory models.
- The increased requirement for scalable and adaptable infrastructure pushes the cloud industry as mobile subscriptions increase, owing to 5G technology. Because of 5G's faster speeds and reduced latency, there is an increase in data creation and consumption, necessitating the use of hybrid cloud solutions for adequate storage, processing, and application delivery across both private and public cloud environments.
- Businesses rapidly adopted cloud computing solutions in response to the abrupt transition to remote work and the requirement for scalable and robust infrastructure. As enterprises attempted to blend the advantages of public cloud services with the management and security of private or on-premises facilities, hybrid cloud gained attraction. According to Flexera Software's State of Cloud 2023, 72% of corporate respondents claimed a hybrid cloud would be used in their firm.
- The third annual Enterprise Cloud Index Report, which gauges enterprises' aspirations for adopting private, hybrid, and public clouds, was released by Nutanix, a key player in private, hybrid, and multi-cloud computing. It shows that the industry has modernized itself, with 70% of respondents noting that COVID-19 has made IT in their firms more strategically perceived.
United States to Hold Significant Market Share
- The market will be impacted due to the increasing utilization of portable devices and network-attached hard drives for storing operating systems, applications, and other data on hard disks. These are mainly used in many electronic and consumer products. They are primarily used for storing and retrieving digital information, including computer data, and consist of a re-programmable rotating magnetic disk with a magnetic writing head.
- Data centers are part of the business. They are used to store, manage, back up, and recover data for business applications and productivity applications like e-commerce transactions. The growth in the number of data centers in the United States will positively impact the market. For instance, according to Cloudscene, In 2023, the United States accounted for the most significant number of data center locations globally, with 5,375 data centers. Germany followed with 522 data center locations, and the United Kingdom with 517 data center locations.
- Additionally, power is a major issue in most of the major markets. Data center operators prioritize power availability rather than choosing markets based on geography, connectivity, water supply, and land prices. According to Cushman & Wakefield, the data center under construction in the United States in the Northern Virginia data centers reached 965 MW in the second half of 2022. If the capacity of data centers increases, the data flow in and out of the system increases, thereby fueling the growth of low-cost HDDs.
- Southern Telecom, one of the leading providers of communication services in the Southeast, has announced the expansion of its Atlanta, Georgia, data center to its new location of 350 Courtland Street. H5 Centers, the data center operator, and colocation services will be responsible for implementing the latest fiber optic network designed to provide customers with improved connectivity. This network is expected to be of high quality and reliability. It will significantly benefit customers in the Alabama and Georgia regions and those in Florida and Mississippi.
- Furthermore, Meta Platforms (Facebook) owns and operates the United States' most significant data center, encompassing a 4.6 million square feet area in Prineville, Oregon. Growth in the number of users is expected to support market growth.