IT Hardware & Networking Channel Checks: The Signal in the Stack (Storage/OEM Ed

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IT Hardware & Networking Channel Checks: The Signal in the Stack (Storage/OEM Ed

Technology | IT Hardware & Networking

June 21, 2026

Amit Daryanani IT Hardware & Networking Channel

415-800-0185

amit.daryanani@evercoreisi.com Checks: The Signal in the Stack

Irvin Liu (Storage/OEM Edition)

415-800-0183 ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW: We conducted several expert checks over

irvin.liu@evercoreisi.com

the last week, focusing on our coverage in the IT Hardware space

Hannah Liu

(specifically storage players and OEMs). Key points are as follows: 1) 212-812-2905

hannah.liu@evercoreISI.com Supply, Not Demand, is The Binding Constraint: Across the entire

Victor Santiago AI chain, supply, not demand, is the binding constraint to growth. HDDs

212-653-9014 are essentially sold out for CY26 with visibility into CY28. SanDisk has

Victor.Santiago@evercoreISI.com signed five LTAs for up to five years, and Dell is extending to 2-3-year

Caden Dahl supplier agreements. 2) Renewed Interest in HDD is AI-Driven and

212-653-9034 Durable: AI training data lakes of petabyte-to-exabyte unstructured

Caden.Dahl@evercoreisi.com data "hit almost exclusively hard drives," turning once-dormant, costly

data into a strategic asset. Customers are also rationalizing over-

provisioned flash, recognizing SSD can be as low as ~10% of a storage

box while HDDs store the bulk of the data. 3) Hybrid Architectures

Favor Diversified Suppliers (DELL/HPE): With SSDs >5x the cost of

HDDs and customers rationalizing flash to as low as ~10% of a storage

box, demand is consolidating toward full-line vendors that carry both

media. Larger suppliers also benefit from an integrated single platform

spanning server, networking, storage and software-plus-services

(buildup in storage demand is expected to follow for DELL). 4)