The first 8TB hard drives in existence were sent out to early-bird buyers today, data storage company Seagate confirmed. The drives have the largest storage space of any single hard-disk drive on the market.

The need for a more efficient hard drive corresponds with the rising amount of data being created, shared and stored. The goal of the 8TB drive is to provide these necessities while also keeping consumer costs low. Seagate has been upgrading its hard drives gradually over the years using a technology known as shingled magnetic recording. This technique pushes drive tracks closer together, maximizing the amount of space available on a drive.

The drive is currently in a trial period and is only being delivered to a select few, but it will be able to be available to the masses over the next few months.

"As our world becomes more mobile, the number of devices we use to create and consume data is driving an explosive growth in unstructured data. This places increased pressure on cloud builders to look for innovative ways to build cost-effective, high capacity storage for both private and cloud-based data centers," Seagate's Vice President of Marketing Scott Horn said in a statement.