Seagate Research Shows Hard Disks Have Lower CO2 Emissions than SSDs
Key Takeaways
- New research shows that hard disks produce less CO2 than SSDs or LTO Tapes.
- The report also lays down three ways for a sustainable future: building energy-efficient tech, recycling, and shared responsibility.
- However, making the switch isn't easy considering the benefits of SSD storage.
As per reports, global carbon emissions have increased from around 25 billion tonnes in 2001 to close to 38 billion tonnes in 2023 - a whopping 52% increase since the turn of the century. The same report says that the CO2 emissions haven't peaked yet, which means there's more to follow.
While only industrial-level regulations can bring about a noticeable change, Seagate has shared vital research that says hard drives are better than SSDs when it comes to carbon emissions in light of increasing data center needs.
With AI growing at never-before-seen speeds, the demand for data centers will increase by a whopping 165% by 2030, which will ultimately lead to more carbon emissions. However, using hard drives rather than SSDs can cut down the emissions. Here's what the research found:
| Storage Media | Embodied Carbon by product (Kg CO^2) | Embodied Carbon per TB (CO^2/TB) | Embodied Carbon per TB per Year (CO^2/TB/Year) |
| Hard Drives | 29.7 | <1 | <0.2 |
| SSD | 4,915 | 160 | 32 |
| LTO Tape | 48 | 2.66 | <0.6 |
As the figures suggest, SSDs are a no-go for the environment, emitting the highest embodied carbon by-product, per TB, and CO^2/TB/year. On the flip side, hard drives are the most environmentally friendly.
The report also shares three strategic pillars for a sustainable future:
- Building energy-efficient tech like HVAC systems and liquid/immersion cooling technologies can reduce CO2 emissions and energy consumption.
- Reusing, repairing, recycling, and refurbishing storage equipment can increase its lifespan and help reduce e-waste.
- Collaboration across the entire value chain with shared responsibility among suppliers, vendors, and service providers.
While it seems pretty straightforward in theory, switching to hard drives is more difficult than you think. For starters, HDD storage devices are slow since they use magnetic spinning disks to read and write data.
Whenever a data request is made, the disk needs to spin to the right position to be able to retrieve that data, which slows down the whole process. This isn't ideal for AI tools and products, which rely on instant data retrievals. Plus, with HDDs, data can get scattered over time besides being more prone to physical wear and tear.
SSDs, on the other hand, use flash memory without any moving parts, allowing instant data retrievals. They also use parallel reading and writing techniques, meaning the process is almost instant.
At the end of the day, it's a simple question: Why would tech companies switch to a slower and outdated storage method? Would the fact that it leads to lower CO2 emission be enough to make the switch?
Well, it wouldn't take a genius to guess that the answer is a big fat NO. OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, or DeepSeek won't just wake up tomorrow, read the Seagate report, and become environmentalists. A more practical solution is to innovate a better SSD prototype that emits less CO2 without compromising its benefits.
Seagate is already working on bringing NVMe technology to hard drives, which uses the PCIe interface for faster data transfers. This also allows direct and quick data access required for tech-heavy AI industries. NVMe also enables direct data access from storage to GPU, without any involvement of the CPU, leading to better latency.
However, an immediate solution is, unfortunately, not in sight right now, and we might still be 2-3 years away from a major breakthrough.
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