AI boom to fuel cloud storage demand, says Seagate survey

Sixty-one per cent of respondents expect their organization’s cloud-based storage – underpinned by hard drives – will increase by more than 100% by 2028

A recent global survey by Recon Analytics, commissioned by Seagate Technology, reveals that business leaders across 15 industries and 10 countries foresee a surge in data volumes driven by the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) applications. This data boom is expected to significantly increase demand for storage solutions, particularly cloud-based storage.

Cloud service providers increasingly depend on hard drives due to their cost-efficient scalability measured in terabyte-per-dollar metrics. According to analyst firm IDC, approximately 89% of data stored by top cloud service providers resides on hard drives.

The Recon Analytics study further highlights that nearly 61% of companies relying on cloud as their primary storage medium anticipate their cloud storage requirements to more than double over the next three years, underscoring the critical role of scalable and efficient storage technologies in supporting AI-driven advancements.

“The survey results generally point to a coming surge in demand for data storage, with hard drives emerging as the clear winner,” remarked Roger Entner, founder and lead analyst of Recon Analytics. “When you consider that the business leaders we surveyed intend to store more and more of this AI-driven data in the cloud, it appears that cloud services are well-positioned to ride a second growth wave.”

Key Findings:

·       72% surveyed say they use AI today.

·       61% of respondents who predominantly use cloud storage say their cloud-based storage will increase by over 100% over the next 3 years.

·       Storage ranks as the second most important component of AI infrastructure, with Security ranking No. 1.

·       Of those businesses who’ve adopted AI technology, 90% believe longer data retention improves the quality of AI outcomes.

·       88% of respondents who use AI today believe adoption of Trustworthy AI requires an increased need to store more data for longer periods of time.

Survey results substantiate a trend toward organizations retaining data for longer periods of time to ensure data integrity needed to optimally train AI models. In order for AI innovation and adoption to continue, AI results and outcomes need to become increasingly accurate.

“Trustworthy AI is really the key to enabling mainstream adoption of AI,” said BS Teh, Chief Commercial Officer of Seagate. “With the vast majority of survey respondents saying they need to store data for longer periods of time to improve quality outcomes of AI, we’re focused on areal density innovation needed to increase storage capacity for each platter in our HAMR-based hard drives. We have a clear pathway to more than double per-platter storage capacity over the next few years.”