Seagate is the only HDD manufacturer approved by U.S. Government procurement to mark qualified HDDs as “Designed in U.S.A.” Upon receipt of a customer order, bare drives are configured, tested, labeled and packaged on U.S. soil.

Custom orders for "Designed in U.S.A." hard drives can be placed beginning December 1, 2016. Orders take approximately 8 weeks to fulfill.

In order to address requirements for storage that are compliant with the Trade Agreements Act, Seagate Government Solutions (SGS) with the assistance of Seagate Technology has initiated a “Designed in U.S.A.” program. Government requirements in this area are evolving with numerous agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Commerce, Department of the Treasury, Department of Defense, and others having secure supply chain requirements. This is a complex ecosystem with various areas of concern including cybersecurity, infrastructure security, supply chain security, and country of origin. There are also evolving regulations and standards such as:

  • Executive and legislative initiatives (E.O. 16363)
  • Defense acquisition regulations
  • NIST cybersecurity framework and guidelines
  • Open Group Trusted Technology Forum
  • Trade Agreements Act

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a final determination on August 15, 2013, that certain Seagate HDDs, including self-encrypting drive (SED) HDDs, are substantially transformed in the U.S. and for purposes of U.S. Government procurement are products of the United States. The ruling specifically states that products with the following characteristics meet the criteria for U.S. products:

  1. For these market segments: Business Critical, Mission Critical, Desktop Storage
  2. That have 80% of USA-based R&D content
  3. With firmware that is programmed in the U.S. and of U.S. origin
  4. That follow the process of HDDs arriving into the U.S. as non-functional with no active firmware

Seagate meets the Trade Agreements Act requirements for the GSA schedule. This ruling protects the qualified Seagate HDDs from any GSA audits and provides insurance for the evolving government policies and guidelines.