--- description: E2 SSDs are poised to redefine high-capacity storage with up to 1PB per drive—bridging the gap between HDDs and high-performance flash. title: Petabyte-Class E2 SSDs Poised to Disrupt Warm Data Storage image: https://www.storagereview.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/StorageReview-Micron-E2-SSD-1.jpg --- [![Storage Review]()](https://storagereview.com/) --- [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/@storagereview) [X (Twitter)](https://twitter.twitter.com/storagereview) [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/storagereview/) [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/storagereview-com) [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/user/storagereview?sub_confirmation=1) [Email](mailto:info@storagereview.com) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/1y6VnznABhHeOSMOmbDTz0) [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/StorageReview/) [Discord](https://discord.gg/TwMHb4azdC) [RSS Feed](https://www.storagereview.com/rss.xml) [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@storagereview) [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/@storagereview) [X (Twitter)](https://twitter.com/storagereview) [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/storagereview/) [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/storagereview-com) [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/user/storagereview?sub_confirmation=1) [Email](mailto:info@storagereview.com) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/1y6VnznABhHeOSMOmbDTz0) [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/StorageReview/) [Discord](https://discord.gg/TwMHb4azdC) [RSS Feed](https://www.storagereview.com/rss.xml) [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@storagereview) [![StorageReview.com](https://www.storagereview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Storage-Review-2x.png)](https://www.storagereview.com) ≡ Menu - [Home](https://www.storagereview.com/) - [Storage Reviews](https://www.storagereview.com/review) - [Consumer Reviews](https://www.storagereview.com/consumer) - [Enterprise Reviews](https://www.storagereview.com/enterprise) - [Ubiquiti Reviews](https://www.storagereview.com/best/ubiquiti-reviews) - [SR Merch](https://store.storagereview.com) - [Leaderboards](https://www.storagereview.com/best) - [Best Storage Arrays](https://www.storagereview.com/best/storage-arrays) - [Best Enterprise SSDs](https://www.storagereview.com/best/enterprise-ssds) - [Best Servers](https://www.storagereview.com/best/servers) - [Best Desktops for Local AI](https://www.storagereview.com/best/desktops-local-ai) - [Best Laptops for Local AI](https://www.storagereview.com/best/laptops-local-ai) - [Best Local LLM Tools](https://www.storagereview.com/best/local-llm-tools) - [Agentic AI Hardware](https://www.storagereview.com/best/agentic-ai-hardware) - [Best SSDs & Hard Drives](https://www.storagereview.com/best_drives) - [Best Portable SSDs](https://www.storagereview.com/best/portable-ssds) - [Best Business Laptops](https://www.storagereview.com/best/business-laptops) - [Best Mobile Workstations](https://www.storagereview.com/best/mobile-workstations) - [Best Desktop Workstations](https://www.storagereview.com/best/desktop-workstations) - [Best Laptop Battery Life](https://www.storagereview.com/best/laptop-battery-life) - [Storage Reference Guide](https://www.storagereview.com/storage-reference-guide) - [About SR](https://www.storagereview.com/about-storagereview) - [StorageReview.com Sweepstakes Rules and Regulations](https://www.storagereview.com/storagereview-com-sweepstakes-rules-and-regulations) Search [Home](https://www.storagereview.com/) » [News](https://www.storagereview.com/news) » Petabyte-Class E2 SSDs Poised to Disrupt Warm Data Storage # Petabyte-Class E2 SSDs Poised to Disrupt Warm Data Storage by Andrew Waag on May 30, 2025 [Enterprise](https://www.storagereview.com/enterprise)  ◇  [SSD](https://www.storagereview.com/enterprise/ssd) Once reserved primarily for archival use, large-scale data lakes are now asked to support increasingly active workloads. New AI applications, analytics pipelines, and emerging digital services are driving up the “temperature” of previously considered cold data. The result is a growing middle ground, where data is accessed too frequently for HDDs to handle efficiently, but not hot enough to warrant the cost of performance SSDs. E2 is a new flash form factor to address this emerging “warm” storage tier. It is designed to bridge the gap between high-capacity hard drives and traditional enterprise SSDs, offering a more practical balance of performance, density, and cost. ![micron E2 SSD prototype](https://www.storagereview.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/StorageReview-Micron-E2-SSD-2-1024x416.jpg) The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) and the Open Compute Project (OCP), two communities comprising some of the largest users, manufacturers, and standard maintainers of data center equipment, including (but not limited to) Meta, Microsoft, Micron, Pure Storage, Samsung, and Sandisk, have already designed and begun prototyping the new SSD form factor. Made from the ground up for high-capacity deployments in 2U servers, these new drives will feature up to one petabyte of QLC storage per device. They will reuse the industry standard EDSFF connector, as previously seen on E1 and E3 devices. ![]() ## Physical Dimensions and Specifications In an upright configuration, the physical size of each drive will be 200 millimeters (\~7.9 inches) in length, and 76mm tall (\~3 inches), with a thickness of only 9.5mm (\~0.4 inches). ![e2 ssd size spec]() The E2 height and connector alignment specifications are derived from the E3 standard, while the indicator LED placement follows the E1 SSDs. This size is ideal for dense storage servers, accommodating up to 40 E2 SSDs in a 2U node, which can translate to up to 40 PB in a single server. Drives communicate using the NVMe protocol over a generation 6 or higher PCIe 4-lane connection, and can use up to 80 watts of power per-SSD (although most drives are expected to run in the 20-30 watt range). This means a fully populated server could theoretically draw anywhere between 0.8 and 3.2 kilowatts just for storage! The thermal load resulting from a high-power configuration could present a significant challenge for traditional air-cooled designs, but such designs are unlikely. From a performance perspective, E2 is targeting 8-10 MB/s per terabyte. Performance will be substantially higher than that of HDDs, reaching up to 10,000 MB/s for a one-petabyte drive. However, capacity is the ultimate goal of the E2 standard, as demonstrated by its massive 64 NAND package site support. For the intended use cases, the performance of E2 needs to be “good enough,” or said another way, for this class of storage, there’s no reason to pay more per TB than is absolutely required. ## **E2 SSD Specifications** | Length | 200mm (\~7.9 in) | | --- | --- | | Height | 76mm (\~3 in) | | Width | 9.5mm (\~0.4 in) | | Connector | EDSFF (SFF-TA1002 connector and SFF-TA-1009 electrical pinout) 27.7mm alignment (from bottom of drive) | | NAND Packages | 64+ | | Protocol | NVMe | | Bandwidth | PCIe 6.0 (or higher) 4x (256 GT/s) | | Power Per Drive | \~80W | | Capacity | Up to 1 PB | | Official Specification Name | SFF-TA-1042 – Enterprise and Datacenter 2U Form Factor (E2) | | Revision 1.0 Expected Time | Summer 2025 | ## Manufacturer Motivations Micron is a significant contributor to the E2 standard development and is likely to utilize it as a new tool in its battle against hard drives. With this new form factor, Open Compute Project engineers and designers aim to bridge the gap between the “fast but costly” SSDs and the “slow but affordable” HDD storage tiers, thereby reducing the total cost of ownership due to factors such as power, cooling, and longevity. A competitive middle-of-the-road solid-state option for high-capacity storage systems would also help boost sales of NAND packages and lower-tier controllers. Pure Storage revealed a 300-terabyte E2 prototype on May 14 during the OCP Storage Tech Talk event. It features a large flash controller, six-piece DRAM caches, and numerous capacitors for safe buffer flushing in the event of unexpected power loss. Adopting the E2 standard would enable Pure to offer customers cost-effective “tier two” storage options, a solution desperately needed by organizations and businesses seeking to reduce costs while still reaping the benefits of SSDs. ## Looking Ahead: Will the Industry Be Ready for E2? The E2 form factor represents a practical, flash-based answer to the growing need for high-capacity “warm” storage. It won’t replace HDDs overnight, but the combination of petabyte-class capacity, sufficient performance, and dense 2U deployment makes it one of the more compelling recent developments in enterprise storage. That said, server platforms aren’t yet ready to support E2. Thermal, power, and physical integration challenges will take time to resolve, and we expect to see vendors debut new chassis designs optimized not just for the E2 form factor but also for the modern flash-based warm data lake use case. Still, with prototypes already emerging and backing from major players like Micron and Pure Storage, E2 is on the horizon. We’ll be watching closely as the spec finalizes and hardware vendors begin the real-world work of turning this ambitious standard into something deployable. ## References - [SFF-TA-1042 Specification Draft (Download)](https://members.snia.org/document/dl/55866) - [OCP Storage Tech Talk (May 14, 2025)](https://youtu.be/ppPGAngXX7c?si=3lGdPWMebJzawZUi) **Engage with StorageReview** [Newsletter](https://www.storagereview.com/storage_newsletter) |  [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/user/StorageReview "Opens in a new window") | Podcast  [iTunes](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/storagereview-com-storage-reviews/id1060681115 "Opens in a new window")/ [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/1y6VnznABhHeOSMOmbDTz0 "Opens in a new window") |  [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/storagereview/ "Opens in a new window") |  [Twitter](https://twitter.com/storagereview "Opens in a new window") |  [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@storagereview? "Opens in a new window") |  [RSS Feed](https://www.storagereview.com/rss.xml) ![]() ### Andrew Waag Andrew Waag is a Distributed Systems Administrator at Linde plc whose interests include server hardware, enterprise storage systems, and networking equipment. He is always looking for new things to do with his homelab and experimenting with virtualization and storage technologies. Previous post: [Broadcom 2025 Private Cloud Outlook: AI, Security, and Cost Drive Shift](https://www.storagereview.com/news/broadcom-2025-private-cloud-outlook-ai-security-and-cost-drive-shift) Next post: [Dell PowerEdge R7725xd First Look: Dell’s Fastest Storage Server Yet](https://www.storagereview.com/news/dell-poweredge-r7725xd-first-look-dells-fastest-storage-server-yet) Trusted Vendors Products and solutions from our affiliate partners: - [ ![Ubiquiti Logo](https://www.storagereview.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/2-1.webp) Ubiquiti](https://store.ui.com/us/en?a_aid=StorageReview "Opens in a new window") - [ ![Newegg Logo]() Newegg](https://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=g5terNMDhz0&offerid=1207190.18&subid=0&type=4 "Opens in a new window") - [ ![Amazon Logo](https://www.storagereview.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/amazon.webp) Amazon](https://amzn.to/4fLJUEW "Opens in a new window") Newsletter Subscribe to the StorageReview newsletter to stay up to date on the latest news and reviews. We promise no spam! 1 Leave this field empty if you’re human: ## Advertisement Content Categories [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/@storagereview) [X](https://twitter.com/storagereview) [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/storagereview/) [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/storagereview-com) [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/user/storagereview?sub_confirmation=1) [Email](mailto:info@storagereview.com) [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/1y6VnznABhHeOSMOmbDTz0) [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/StorageReview/) [Discord](https://discord.gg/TwMHb4azdC) [RSS](https://www.storagereview.com/rss.xml) [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@storagereview) Copyright © 1998-2025 Flying Pig Ventures, LLC Cincinnati, Ohio. All rights reserved. Manage your privacy To provide the best experiences, we and our partners use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us and our partners to process personal data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site and show (non-) personalized ads. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions. Click below to consent to the above or make granular choices. Your choices will be applied to this site only. You can change your settings at any time, including withdrawing your consent, by using the toggles on the Cookie Policy, or by clicking on the manage consent button at the bottom of the screen. Functional Functional Always active The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network. Preferences Preferences The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user. Statistics Statistics The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you. Marketing Marketing The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes. Statistics Marketing Features Always active Always active - Manage options - Manage services - Manage {vendor\_count} vendors - [Read more about these purposes](https://cookiedatabase.org/tcf/purposes/) Accept Deny Manage options Save preferences Manage options - {title} - {title} - {title} Manage your privacy To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions. Functional Functional Always active The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network. Preferences Preferences The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user. Statistics Statistics The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you. Marketing Marketing The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes. Statistics Marketing Features Always active Always active - Manage options - Manage services - Manage {vendor\_count} vendors - [Read more about these purposes](https://cookiedatabase.org/tcf/purposes/) Accept Deny Manage options Save preferences Manage options - {title} - {title} - {title} Manage consent Manage consent ```json {"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/news\/e2-ssd-form-factor","url":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/news\/e2-ssd-form-factor","name":"Petabyte-Class E2 SSDs Poised to Disrupt Warm Data Storage - StorageReview.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/news\/e2-ssd-form-factor#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/news\/e2-ssd-form-factor#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/StorageReview-Micron-E2-SSD-1.jpg","datePublished":"2025-05-30T14:07:01+00:00","description":"E2 SSDs are poised to redefine high-capacity storage with up to 1PB per drive—bridging the gap between HDDs and high-performance flash.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/news\/e2-ssd-form-factor#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/news\/e2-ssd-form-factor"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/news\/e2-ssd-form-factor#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/StorageReview-Micron-E2-SSD-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/StorageReview-Micron-E2-SSD-1.jpg","width":1500,"height":1104},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/news\/e2-ssd-form-factor#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Petabyte-Class E2 SSDs Poised to Disrupt Warm Data Storage"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/","name":"StorageReview.com","description":"StorageReview.com is a leading provider of news and reviews throughout the entire IT stack - from the datacenter to the edge, and all points in between.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/#organization","name":"StorageReview.com","url":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Storage-Reviews-2-2.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Storage-Reviews-2-2.png","width":344,"height":61,"caption":"StorageReview.com"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.storagereview.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/storagereview","http:\/\/youtube.com\/user\/storagereview"]}]} ```