AI-driven data creation to spur next-wave cloud storage growth

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

  • Friday, 17th January 2025 Posted 4 months ago in by Phil Alsop

According to a recent, global Recon Analytics survey commissioned by Seagate Technology, business leaders from across 15 industry sectors and 10 countries expect that adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) applications will generate unprecedented volumes of data, driving a boom in demand for data storage, in particular cloud-based storage.

With hard drives delivering scalability relative to terabyte-per-dollar cost efficiencies, cloud service providers rely on hard drives to store mass quantities of data. Recently, analyst firm IDC estimated that 89% of data stored by leading cloud service providers is stored on hard drives2 . Now, according to this Recon Analytics study, nearly two-thirds of respondents (61%) from companies that use cloud as their leading storage medium expect their cloud-based storage to grow by more than 100% over the next 3 years.

“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 predominately use cloud storage say theircloud-based storage will increase by over 100% over the next 3 years.

Storageranks as the second most important component of AI infrastructure,with Security ranking #1.

In order of importance:Security, Storage, Data Management, Network Capacity, Compute, Regulations, LLM Viability, Energy

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.”

AI is now the leading security concern

Posted 3 days ago by Phil Alsop
AI surpasses ransomware as the top concern, as organizations navigate the double-edged sword of innovation and risk.

Workforce crisis sparks debate over HR & IT merger

Posted 3 days ago by Phil Alsop
New study of global tech leaders finds IT leaders believe combining functions could boost productivity and engagement.
Cyware survey identifies significant gaps in internal collaboration, tool integration, and automation — with only 13% confident their systems...
Seventy-seven per cent of engineering leaders identify building AI capabilities into applications to improve features and functionality as a...

Data streaming enables AI product innovation

Posted 1 week ago by Phil Alsop
In the largest global report on data streaming, 89% say DSPs make AI adoption easier.
73% are investing in AI-specific security tools with either new or existing budgets.
Public sector organizations recognize the potential of AI for enhancing decision making, improving service delivery and driving operational...

AI calls for cyber resilience rethink

Posted 1 week ago by Phil Alsop
Unveiled at the RSAC™ Conference, the 2025 LevelBlue Futures Report finds only 29% of executives are prepared for AI-powered threats, despite...