HP-Seagate Tandem Unveils Hybrid Disk DriveHP-Seagate Tandem Unveils Hybrid Disk Drive

Hewlett-Packard and Seagate Technology LLC on Monday are unveiling a hard-disk drive with speedy Fibre Channel connectivity and performance with higher-capacity and lower-cost disk-drive mechanisms. This hybrid technology is called Fibre Attached Technology Adapted, and HP plans to ship these drives in its StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array storage systems.

One analyst says the new drives will fit between existing media for most customers, as both serial ATA and tape drives continue to play roles. "It's great from an operational perspective, because the new drives will plug into existing Fibre Channel-based SANs," says Nancy Marrone-Hurley, an analyst at storage research firm Enterprise Storage Group. "Customers change nothing and use existing storage controllers."