INTRODUCTION

   With the first 12TB drives already available in the market by pretty much all the major players (including Seagate, WD and HGST) and 14TB models already on the way and scheduled for release by the end of the year (if all goes well that is) it's a safe bet that mechanical drives aren't going anywhere for many years to come. This of course is great news for professionals and even consumers in need of plenty of storage capacity for backup purposes (personally i hope that 20TB models are not that far away since currently we use over 80TB in the lab alone) but at the same time this also means that SSDs are nowhere near to closing the price/capacity gap they've had with HDDs since day one. Roughly three weeks ago we looked at the brand new consumer oriented IronWolf 12TB HDD for NAS model by Seagate so today we'll be checking out its enterprise grade brother the IronWolf Pro 12TB model.

   Founded in 1979, Seagate is the leading provider of hard drives and storage solutions. From the videos, music and documents we share with friends and family on social networks, to servers that form the backbone of enterprise data centers and cloud-based computing, to desktop and notebook computers that fuel our personal productivity, Seagate products help more people store, share and protect their valuable digital content. Seagate offers the industry’s broadest portfolio of hard disk drives, solid-state drives and solid-state hybrid drives. In addition, the company offers an extensive line of retail storage products for consumers and small businesses, along with data-recovery services for any brand of hard drive and digital media type. Seagate employs more than 50,000 people around the world.

   As we speak the IronWolf Pro line of hard disk drives by Seagate includes models in 2/4/6/8/10/12TB capacities and just like the regular IronWolf line it's also optimized for use with network attached storage devices (this time however with up to 16 bays instead of just 8), desktop servers and private cloud storage. Also just like the regular IronWolf model the IronWolf Pro 12TB also features Seagate's AgileArray technology (includes dual-plane balancing, RAID optimization and advanced power management), Rotational Vibration (RV) mitigation (several RV sensors help maintain high performance in multi-drive NAS enclosures) and Error Recovery Control. The IronWolf Pro 12TB drive also features a total of 8 platters (1.5TB each) which spin at 7200RPM, has a total of 256MB cache (2/4TB models have 128MB) and comes with the typical SATA III 6Gb/s interface. Last but certainly not least the IronWolf 12TB HDD for NAS features a maximum sustained data transfer speed of 250Mb/s, is rated for a workload rate of up to 300TB per year (multi-user technology), has an MTBF (mean time between failures) of 1.2 million hours and is covered by a 5 year limited warranty.