HPE-branded Western Digital Ultrastar DC HC550 18TB SATA 6Gb/s LFF

The HPE-branded Western Digital Ultrastar DC HC550 18TB SATA 6Gb/s Large Form Factor drive (Manufacturer Part Number: MB018000JWFWB) is an-configured, high-capacity enterprise hard disk drive engineered specifically for demanding datacenter and hyperscale storage environments. Built on Western Digital's ninth-generation HelioSeal platform, the HC550 hermetically seals nine platters and eighteen read/write heads within a helium-filled enclosure, dramatically reducing internal turbulence, lowering power consumption, and enabling the high areal density necessary to achieve 18TB in a standard 3.5-inch form factor. The drive connects via the industry-standard SATA 6Gb/s interface and is rated for continuous 24/7 operation with a workload rating of 550TB per year, making it well-suited for environments that require sustained, high-throughput sequential and mixed I/O.

The Ultrastar DC HC550 incorporates Western Digital's OptiNAND technology integration path and utilizes conventional magnetic recording (CMR) with triple-stage actuator (TSA) technology to improve positional accuracy of the read/write heads, enhancing both performance consistency and data integrity under heavy workloads. The drive delivers a sustained data transfer rate of up to 269MB/s, supported by a 512MB DRAM cache buffer that accelerates both read and write operations. Rotational vibration (RV) sensors are embedded to compensate for multi-drive chassis vibration, a critical feature in dense rack-mount JBOD and SAN enclosures. The drive also supports enhanced RAFF (Rotational Acceleration Feed Forward) technology and features media cache optimization for improved mixed workload handling.

As an HPE variant, the MB018000JWFWB is factory-configured and validated for compatibility with HPE ProLiant server and storage platforms, ensuring seamless integration into HPE-qualified storage arrays, JBOD enclosures, and direct-attached storage solutions. This makes the drive a practical choice for enterprise IT teams standardizing on HPE infrastructure who require validated, high-capacity bulk storage. Available through Omnixon Global, the drive serves buyers across the UAE, GCC, EMEA, and APAC regions seeking reliable, enterprise-grade mass storage capacity for AI data lakes, backup repositories, object storage clusters, and content archiving platforms.

Ideal for

• Hyperscale and enterprise object storage deployments requiring high-density, high-capacity SATA drives in multi-petabyte clusters
• AI and machine learning data lake storage, providing cost-efficient bulk capacity for large unstructured training datasets and model repositories
• Backup, recovery, and long-term data retention systems where sustained sequential write throughput and workload endurance are critical
• NAS and scale-out file storage platforms in media and entertainment environments handling large video asset libraries and content workflows
• HPE ProLiant and HPE MSA storage array expansion in enterprise datacenters requiring HPE-validated HDD compatibility
• Cold and warm-tier storage in tiered storage architectures within cloud service provider and colocation datacenter environments

Technical specifications

Available from Omnixon Global. Submit an RFQ and our team will confirm configuration and availability for your order.