March 26, 2026

JetStor Delivers 80PB High-Density Archive for Government Agency Using WD’s Trusted High-Capacity Ultrastar Drives

Massive Fibre Channel deployment leverages WD Ultrastar 26TB drives and a zero-downtime POD blueprint built to deliver durable, cost-efficient storage at public-sector scale

JetStor announces the successful deployment of an 80PB long-horizon archive for a major government agency. Built in collaboration with WD, the infrastructure delivers deterministic access, fabric isolation, and secure data retention at massive scale.

Pittsburgh, PA – March 26, 2026 — JetStor today announced the successful deployment of an 80PB high-density archive for a government agency – one of its largest on-premises archive deployments of its kind in the public sector. Designed to meet rigorous security demands for long-term data retention, JetStor’s POD-based architecture was paired with WD Ultrastar® 26TB¹ enterprise-class hard drives to deliver a secure, high-density cost-efficient storage foundation built for long-term data retention at scale.

Public-sector IT teams face a distinct challenge at this scale: growing storage capacity economically without disrupting active production networks or retraining operations staff. JetStor addressed this by standardizing the entire deployment into repeatable POD building blocks—each anchored by WD Ultrastar DC HC590 26TB SAS 7200RPM drives—across 132 JetStor XS3324D 4U 24-bay systems and 3,200 drives total. The result is a dual Fibre Channel fabric architecture that supports seamless expansion while keeping infrastructure management straightforward and predictable from day one.

When a government agency reaches this scale, the architecture has to be predictable from day one and stay serviceable as it grows. We standardized the deployment into repeatable POD building blocks and paired them with WD 26TB Ultrastar drives to deliver an active archive that scales cleanly, stays isolated on Fibre Channel, and remains straightforward to operate.
said Gene Leyzarovich, Founder of JetStor.

Across both public and private sectors, the exponential growth of data is driving the need for storage solutions that deliver durability, predictable performance, and cost-efficient capacity at scale. JetStor’s POD blueprint demonstrates how WD’s Ultrastar drives enables organizations to build a resilient, scalable data foundation that supports long-term retention and access with confidence.
said Dan Christman, Senior Vice President of Product Management and Emerging Businesses at WD.

The Architecture

Delivering an 80PB archive with zero downtime requires rigorous planning and disciplined execution.

For the complete hardware breakdown, the dual A/B Fibre Channel fabric strategy, and the operational standards used to maintain predictable growth, read the full case study:

https://www.jetstor.com/solutions/80pb-high-density-archive-for-a-government-agency

Key Highlights

  • Massive Scale: 80PB of secure, high-density storage deployed to support long-term data retention and growth at a government agency.
  • Enterprise Collaboration: The solution consisted of 132 JetStor XS3324D 32G FC 4U 24bay systems and 3,200 WD Ultrastar 26TB SAS data center drives.
  • Zero Downtime: Dual-fabric blueprint designed for continuous, non-disruptive serviceability at scale.

About JetStor

JetStor has delivered high-performance storage solutions to over 4,000 customers for more than 30 years. The company delivers enterprise storage solutions for modern workloads across commercial and public-sector environments. From all-flash arrays to large-scale archives, JetStor focuses on performance, scalability, and operational reliability.

1One terabyte (TB) is equal to one trillion bytes and one petabyte (PB) is equal to one quadrillion bytes. Actual user capacity may be less due to operating environment.

Author:

Other articles

August 15, 2016
Smart Choices for Building, or Building Out, Networked-Attached Storage

JetStor NAS appliances offer high-performance, reliable storage solutions with flexible configurations, ideal for businesses seeking efficient data management.

More
Down arrow
February 13, 2023
NAB2023 Nyriad & JetStor Booth# N1029

JetStor showcased cutting-edge storage solutions at NAB 2023, featuring Nyriad's booth (N1029) for high-performance, data-intensive applications.

More
Down arrow