On Tuesday, Seagate introduced the FireCuda Forge, a hybrid storage system that pairs a high-capacity HDD with a user-supplied SSD for faster data access.
The drive is available in 8-TB ($699) and 20-TB ($899) configurations, but the SSD is not included; customers must provide an M.2 2280 NVMe drive with PCIe Gen3 or later and a maximum capacity of 1 TB.
The system delivers combined read speeds of 2,500 MB/s and write speeds of 2,000 MB/s, and the enclosure supports USB4, Windows 11, and macOS 26 and later.
Storage prices have risen sharply in 2026, with SSDs costing two to three times their historic lows and mechanical drives also becoming more expensive, making the hybrid approach more financially attractive.
The concept recalls early-2010s hybrid solutions such as Apple's Fusion Drive, which tiered data between a small SSD and a larger HDD, but those systems fell out of favor as SSD prices dropped.
The Alkemi intelligent storage platform manages the combined pool from the enclosure, learning usage patterns to keep frequently accessed files on the SSD while the HDD provides bulk storage.
No details have been released on how Alkemi handles drive failure or initial data allocation, leaving some uncertainty about the system's resilience.