According to recent research, the global hard disk drive (HDD) market is expected to grow to $58.8 billion by 2030. The growing use of smartphones, AI, and the adoption of smart and connected technology are the main growth drivers. While the HDD market growth seems impressive, its growth is not environmentally sustainable. In fact, just manufacturing 1TB of HDD results in 20 kg of carbon emissions.

Fortunately, Storj extends the use of hard drives by transforming unused hard drive space into a globally distributed cloud network. This blog examines how Storj is impacting the used hardware market, and examines the carbon waste traditional hyperscalers create by eliminating hard drives before they reach end of life.

Cloud hyperscalers are becoming increasingly wasteful.

Hyperscalers keep hardware servers for approximately four years. Most drives are taken offline after 3-5 years, both because the risks of drive failure increases over time and because most drives go out of warranty. After four years, these cloud companies upgrade their hardware because their support contracts with the hardware vendors are up. Another factor is growing customer demand for the newest disks. This unsustainable approach typically means selling off  their used hardware, while increasing the demand to manufacture new hardware.

Some efforts have been made to extend the lifespan of servers with Amazon Web Service operating with a five year life span, Microsoft averaging around four years, and Meta aiming for around five years for servers. While this is a step in the right direction for sustainability, there is still the carbon intensive mining and manufacturing of hardware.

Used hardware is in demand.

According to recent market research, the used hardware market is significantly growing with projections showing a CAGR of 7.86%. This growth is driven by factors like increasing demand for cost-effective IT solutions (i.e. buying used HDDs in bulk), cloud computing adoption, and rising concerns about sustainability.

Additional drivers for used IT equipment demand include:

• Cost savings: Businesses curtail expenses by opting for refurbished or second-hand devices, particularly for large-scale infrastructure like servers and networking hardware.
• Technological adequacy: If slightly used hardware meets the technological requirements for a business’s operations, it becomes an attractive option. Also, not all businesses need cutting-edge technology for their basic needs.
• Environmental sustainability: Organizations focused on sustainability and reducing carbon impact often prefer used hardware as a more sustainable approach.

If the hardware technology is still adequate, cheaper, and more sustainable than buying new hardware, users will look to purchasing more used hardware.

Surprise reason used hardware prices are rising.

Beyond the market drivers listed above, Storj is aware of a new reason that used hard drive prices are increasing—the distributed cloud.

Storj operates a global storage network, the distributed cloud, that uses spare capacity in running hard drives (both new and refurbished). The distributed cloud is more durable and secure than legacy cloud storage as it creates redundancy without replication. This means that used hardware that hyperscalers get rid of can be utilized for storage without risking data loss. If new hardware does not need to be produced at the current rate in order to support data growth, that can be a big carbon savings from the mining and manufacturing of new hardware.

Watch this short educational video on the carbon costs of legacy cloud services.

According to statistics from the NRDC and IBM, most servers operate at only 12-

18% of capacity, 14 implying that there is a huge reservoir of already manufactured

and powered, but severely underutilized, storage capacity. It is worth noting that

it takes almost no additional electricity to run a drive at 80% capacity versus 20%

capacity. Storj puts that underutilized storage capacity to work through its distributed global network which is growing rapidly.

Use hardware pricing too high for your needs?

It will be interesting to observe what future trends will unfold within the used hardware market. One thing for certain is how the Storj distributed cloud is sustainable by design and reduces carbon emissions by leveraging unused HDD space and refurbished hard drives.

Instead of buying used hardware to support your business, you can try out sustainable, secure, and affordable storage on the distributed cloud. Learn more at storj.io.