Fast hard drives are not always Enterprise drives, just as high capacity drives can be Enterprise drives under the right circumstances.

What makes a drive an Enterprise drive?

What some people forget is that much of what defines this premium label goes beyond the drive itself.

Enterprise table stakes

Of course Enterprise drives must have reliability, performance and the ability to work long hours in difficult environments.  These traits are not added after-the-fact; enterprise drives are born that way.

Some vendors apply their Enterprise label somewhat loosely. Be sure and thoroughly test a drive in your envrironment before deploying any drive for enterprise purposes.

Beyond table stakes

Enterprise drives also require Enterprise-class support.  That means system-level testing by the drive vendor in real-world scenarios. It means robust firmware revision controls. It means rapid resolution of any drive issues that do come up, safely deployed within customers’ solutions.

Enterprise customers know this and expect it.  Chris Mellor at The Register recently reported on the impact of unmet customer expectations.

Seagate has about 60% market share in the SAS & FC drive market.  Because most of this business transpires quietly with a half-dozen very large customers, it doesn’t get much press.  That’s OK.  There’s a great feeling that comes from satisfying customers with a quality solution that more than makes up for it.