HAMR is expected to become a game-changer: Western Digital

Western Digital has a vision to unleash the power and value of data. It has been at the forefront of storage innovation that fuels a mission to be the market leader in data storage, delivering solutions for now and the future. Owais Mohammed, Sales Director India, Middle East, and Africa, Western Digital, tells us more.

Excerpts from an interview:

DQ: Following the recent separation, how is Western Digital’s sharpened focus on HDDs influencing its strategic growth trajectory?

Owais Mohammed: We are energized by the growing opportunities in India and around the world. As businesses generate, consume, and store more data than ever before—driven by digital transformation, accelerated AI adoption, and ongoing cloud expansion—the demand for scalable, high-capacity infrastructure continues to surge.

In today’s digital-first world, data is the new currency. It fuels innovation, powers AI, and drives business growth. But managing that data at scale requires infrastructure that is not only high-performing and reliable but also cost- and energy-efficient.

AI is only as powerful as the data that feeds it, and most of that data lives on hard drives. In fact, HDD exabyte shipments are projected to grow at a 23% CAGR from 2024 to 2028, underscoring their critical role in supporting AI and cloud workloads.

With a legacy of innovation in HDD technology, Western Digital continues to deliver trusted, high-capacity storage solutions. Our hard drives remain the most cost-effective and dependable option for storing massive datasets at scale.

Looking ahead, we see tremendous potential to lead the data storage industry, meeting the needs of customers in both mature and emerging markets worldwide.

DQ: With AI driving explosive data growth, how is Western Digital evolving its HDD portfolio to support the rising storage demands?

Owais Mohammed: AI is driving an unprecedented surge in data, across generative models, autonomous systems, and more.  AI runs on unstructured data, and since most of that data is stored on hard drives, they are an integral part of the AI infrastructure.

Western Digital is constantly evolving its HDD portfolio to deliver high-capacity, power-efficient, and scalable storage solutions. Our roadmap is focused on providing the best total cost of ownership while supporting the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s cloud and AI workloads.

Technologies like UltraSMR, ePMR, and OptiNAND are already enabling drives up to 32TB, with future advancements expected to take us to 44TB by 2026. Our HAMR development, running in parallel, will allow customers to scale even further—100TB by 2030, and transition to HAMR when the economics make sense for them.

We are not just increasing capacity, we are building a robust foundation for AI infrastructure that’s reliable, efficient, and ready to meet the exponential data demands emerging from India and beyond.

DQ: How are proprietary technologies like ePMR and UltraSMR enabling customers to achieve higher storage densities at scale?

Owais Mohammed: Western Digital’s technologies like ePMR and UltraSMR are key enablers of delivering higher storage densities at scale, and in the same 3.5-inch footprint, helping customers meet growing data demands without expanding their physical infrastructure.

With ePMR, energy is applied during the write process to write data bits more closely, increasing areal density without compromising performance or reliability. When combined with OptiNAND, an embedded flash-enhanced HDD architecture, it further boosts speed, improves metadata management, and delivers higher capacity with better efficiency.

UltraSMR builds on Western Digital’s leadership in SMR by redesigning data formats and drive architecture to enable up to 20% more capacity compared to conventional drives. It’s especially well-suited for cloud providers and AI-focused data centers looking to scale efficiently, offering improved storage density and lower cost per terabyte, all within the same footprint.

By integrating these innovations, Western Digital enables customers to significantly expand their storage capacity while maintaining power and cooling requirements, optimizing both capital and operational expenditure.

DQ: Can you explain how innovations like UltraSMR, and the upcoming HAMR-based drives are redefining scalable storage for data-intensive applications?

Owais Mohammed: As data-intensive applications continue to evolve with AI and other emerging technologies, Western Digital has reimagined scalable storage through innovations like UltraSMR and our upcoming HAMR-based drives. We understand that this is a transformative moment, and we’re responding with purpose-built solutions designed to push beyond current capacity limits.

UltraSMR is already enabling significant gains in storage density and efficiency, allowing customers to achieve 20% higher capacity, compared to CMR HDDs within the same physical footprint. At the same time, we are actively developing HAMR or Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording, as the next major leap in storage technology. 

By advancing UltraSMR, ePMR, and HAMR in parallel, we give customers the flexibility to scale based on their needs and economics. While today’s UltraSMR solutions offer excellent TCO and scalability, HAMR is expected to become a game-changer, particularly for 40TB+ capacities where the economics and performance benefits are expected to be most compelling. 

These technologies are redefining what’s possible for hyperscale, cloud, and AI workloads by enabling predictable, high-capacity growth with sustainable economics.

DQ: What are some key ways Western Digital nurtures a culture of innovation and engineering leadership across its global operations?

Owais Mohammed: At Western Digital, innovation goes beyond just a function—it’s a mindset woven into our DNA. It drives everything we do and forms the foundation of our values and cultural blueprint, shaping how we lead, build, and deliver. 

We foster a culture of engineering leadership by empowering our global teams with advanced tools, ongoing skill development, and the freedom to pursue ambitious ideas. Our development and engineering ecosystem spans seven innovation hubs worldwide, supported by over 275 PhDs and a portfolio of more than 4,500 patents, including dozens that have originated from our India team.  Quality is treated as a core value—building trust and enabling sustainable growth.

Collaboration is central to our innovation model, with initiatives like She Invents encouraging diversity in thought by mentoring women in tech to develop and patent their innovations. This culture empowers Western Digital to not just keep up with change, but to lead it—delivering smarter solutions, faster execution, and long-term value for its customers.  

Our commitment to ethics, sustainability, and sound governance reinforces everything we build, making innovation both responsible and impactful.

DQ: What major trends in storage infrastructure is Western Digital tracking—especially in the context of India’s digital and AI-led growth?

Owais Mohammed: Western Digital is actively tracking key trends that are reshaping storage infrastructure, particularly in digitally accelerating markets like India. One major focus is the rise of AI-driven workloads, which demand storage solutions that can handle vast, fast-moving and big datasets while enabling efficient access and analytics. 

Another critical area is sustainability. With energy efficiency becoming a strategic priority, especially in India's growing data center landscape, Western Digital is investing in storage technologies that lower power usage and environmental impact, aligning with global ESG goals.

The shift toward disaggregated storage architectures is also gaining momentum, allowing organizations to separate compute and storage for greater scalability, flexibility, and cost-efficiency. Western Digital is helping enable this transition with open, future-ready solutions.

Across all these fronts, the company is committed to supporting India’s AI-led growth with storage innovations that are efficient, scalable, and sustainable.