WD adds high-performance NAS solutions for expert, business users to My Cloud line

Issued by Evolution PR for Western Digital
Johannesburg, 03 Mar 2015

WD, a Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC) company and a world leader in connected storage solutions, today expanded its suite of network attached storage (NAS) solutions with four new products that address the increasing demands for content storage, management, protection and streaming among prosumers, creative professionals and small businesses.

The My Cloud Expert Series includes My Cloud EX2100 (two-bay) and My Cloud EX4100 (four-bay) high-performance NAS systems designed from the ground up for creative professionals and prosumers that need to reliably save, share, backup, stream and manage large amounts of digital data.

Powered by the latest version of the dual-core Marvell ARMADA processor, these two new additions to the Expert Series offer top-of-their-class read/write speeds for simultaneous, high-performance HD media streaming with up to 24TB of storage capacity 1.

The new My Cloud Business Series includes My Cloud DL2100 (two-bay) and My Cloud DL4100 (four-bay) high-performance NAS systems built to provide the reliability, security and scalability small business customers need. Powered by Intel Atom dual-core processors with up to 24TB 2 of storage capacity, the My Cloud Business Series runs on the acclaimed Linux-based WD My Cloud Operating Software (OS).

"As the market leader in the single-bay personal cloud category with our award winning My Cloud platform, as well as in the NAS Hard Disk Drive (HDD) category with our WD Red line, WD understands that customers need more power and more choice in NAS systems," said Jim Welsh, executive vice-president, WD Content Solutions Business and Worldwide Sales. "We are very excited about our new My Cloud Expert Series and My Cloud Business Series NAS products that offer the performance, ease of use, reliability and My Cloud OS that customers want from WD."

My Cloud Expert Series

For photographers, videographers, graphic designers and other creative professionals adapting to ever increasing file sizes, from RAW images and 4K video footage, the new My Cloud Expert Series products include the latest and fastest dual-core Marvell ARMADA 385 and 388 processors for high-performance media streaming, provide up to 24TB of storage and the ability to keep files safe, secure and accessible from anywhere. The robust data management and security features let customers select their preferred methods for managing, sharing and protecting their most important movies, photos, music and digital files.

The included WD Red drives can be configured using multiple Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) options (model dependent) including RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 JBOD and spanning modes. Customers can use their My Cloud Expert Series products to centralise and backup all of their computers and notebooks with WD SmartWare Pro software for PC users, and with the Apple Time Machine backup software for Mac users.

My Cloud Expert Series products can also serve as a digital entertainment hub, seamlessly streaming movies and music to any DLNA/UPnP certified multimedia device such as gaming consoles, smart TVs and WD TV Live media players. The Twonky, DLNA-certified media server and iTunes server make for simple streaming of large movie and music libraries.

Additionally, the integrated file server, FTP server, backup server and P2P download server provide advanced data serving options. Customers can also customise their My Cloud Expert series NAS, monitor system health, manage users and energy-saving features with the My Cloud dashboard, as well as use a suite of third-party apps, including aMule, Icecast, Transmission, DVBlink, SqueezeCenter and more.

My Cloud Business Series

The all new My Cloud Business Series solutions allow small businesses to centralise and protect their data in the workplace and provide employees with secure access to critical data from anywhere. Powered by the latest Intel Atom dual core processor, with RAM up to 2GB, and data storage capacity up to 24TB, small businesses have the performance and scalability to meet their business needs.

Secure access, protection and backup of data for small businesses is critical. Offering AES 256-bit volume encryption and multiple RAID options (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, JBOD and spanning modes), the My Cloud Business Series offers small businesses multiple options to secure and protect their data. Customers can also use their My Cloud Business Series products to backup all of their computers with WD SmartWare Pro software for PC users and Apple Time Machine support for Mac users. My Cloud Business Series products can also backup themselves, either to another My Cloud in a different location or to cloud services such as Amazon S3 and ElephantDrive. Users can also use the one-touch USB 3.0 copy button to automatically copy data from an external USB storage device onto the NAS.

The My Cloud Business Series products feature many business-ready capabilities, including iSCSI target and initiator, replication and file synchronisation, integrated FTP, WebDAV server, SSH Shell, and Microsoft Active Directory support. Additionally, there are enterprise-class redundancies such as dual power supply ports with fail over, dual Gigabit Ethernet and UPS support. The My Cloud Business Series also provides memory expansion up to 6GB, and scalable storage through dual NICs or USB.

My Cloud Business Series products are available in several capacity options. The My Cloud DL2100 (two-bay) is available diskless or with 4TB, 8TB or 12TB capacities. The My Cloud DL4100 (four-bay) is available diskless or with 8TB, 16TB or 24TB capacities. With Easy-Slide-Drive technology, My Cloud Business Series customers can easily install or hot-swap drives in seconds, without the need for a screwdriver, toolkit or trays.

Anywhere access

The award-winning WD My Cloud mobile app provides anywhere access to the entire My Cloud product family. With the WD My Cloud mobile app, users can easily view photos, stream video and share, save and manage files from anywhere on their iOS and Android devices. The mobile app makes file-sharing and collaborating simple, allowing customers to easily e-mail files, share files as a link and print and open files with third-party apps. The WD My Cloud mobile app also integrates major public cloud services so that customers can easily transfer files from their Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive public cloud accounts 3.

Availability

The My Cloud Expert Series and My Cloud Business Series products will be available through selected WD channel partners, including retailers in store and online, e-tailers, distributors, authorised resellers and at the wdstore.com.

The My Cloud Business Series is currently available online at wdstore.com and the My Cloud Expert Series and My Cloud Business Series will be available with our channel partners in March.

Warranty

The My Cloud Expert Series and Business Series products come with a three-year limited warranty for the populated products and a two-year limited warranty for the diskless products. Terms and conditions of WD's limited warranty may be found at support.wdc.com/warranty.

Pricing

My Cloud EX2100 Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP)
MSRP for My Cloud EX2100 NAS is R4 999 for the diskless unit, R7 999 for 4TB, R10 999 for 8TB and R13 999 for 12TB.

My Cloud EX4100 MSRP
MSRP for My Cloud EX4100 NAS is R6 999 for the diskless unit, R13 999 for 8TB, R20 999 for 16TB and R29 999 for 24TB.

My Cloud DL2100 MSRP
MSRP for My Cloud DL2100 NAS is R6 999 for the diskless unit, R9 999 for 4TB, R11 999 for 8TB and R16 999 for 12TB.

My Cloud DL4100 MSRP
MSRP for My Cloud DL4100 NAS is R9 999 for the diskless unit, R16 999 for 8TB, R21 999 for 16TB and R28 999 for 24TB.

The WD My Cloud mobile app currently is available for download for free from the App Store and Google Play.

Compatibility

My Cloud Expert Series and My Cloud Business Series are compatible with Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS X Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion, as well as DLNA/UPnP-enabled devices.

WD, a Western Digital company, is a long-time innovator and storage industry leader. As a storage technology pacesetter, the company produces reliable, high-performance hard disk drives and solid state drives. These drives are deployed by OEMs and integrators in desktop and mobile computers, enterprise computing systems, embedded systems and consumer electronics applications, as well as by the company in providing its own storage products. WD's leading storage devices and systems, networking products, media players and software solutions empower people around the world to easily save, store, protect, share and experience their content on multiple devices. WD was established in 1970 and is headquartered in Irvine, California. For more information, please visit the company's Web site at www.wd.com.

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC), Irvine, California, is a global provider of products and services that empower people to create, manage, experience and preserve digital content. Its companies design and manufacture storage devices, networking equipment and home entertainment products under the WD, HGST and G-Technology brands. Visit the Investor section of the company's Web site (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.

This news release contains forward-looking statements, including statements relating to the estimated availability in March of the My Cloud Expert Series and Business Series products. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements, including but not limited to the failure by certain suppliers to develop and manufacture components, technology or production equipment for our products, global economic conditions and or other risks detailed from time-to-time in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings and reports, including, but not limited to, our most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q to which your attention is directed. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak as of the date hereof, and WD undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

1 My Cloud DL2100 and My Cloud EX2100 systems are shipped in RAID 1 configuration, which leaves 50% of the system capacity available for data storage. My Cloud DL4100 and My Cloud EX4100 systems are shipped in RAID 5 or RAID 1 configurations depending on number of hard drives, which leaves three-quarters in a four-hard-drive system and 50% in a two-hard-drive system of the system capacity available for data storage. Systems are configurable to RAID 0, JBOD or spanned, which leaves all system capacity available for data storage. Up to 0.1TB may be reserved for non-user accessible storage.

2 My Cloud DL2100 and My Cloud EX2100 systems are shipped in RAID 1 configuration, which leaves 50% of the system capacity available for data storage. My Cloud DL4100 and My Cloud EX4100 systems are shipped in RAID 5 or RAID 1 configurations depending on number of hard drives, which leaves three quarters in a four-hard-drive system and 50% in a two-hard-drive system of the system capacity available for data storage. Systems are configurable to RAID 0, JBOD or spanned, which leaves all system capacity available for data storage. Up to 0.1TB may be reserved for non-user accessible storage.

3 Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive account required. Cloud services may be changed, terminated or interrupted at any time and may vary by country.

External storage devices are part of a user's data backup ecosystem. WD recommends users maintain multiple copies of their most important data on different online and offline platforms.

Apps, services, and other features are subject to change based on your location, software version, device model, and third party service providers.

As used for storage capacity, one terabyte (TB) = one trillion bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment.

Western Digital, WD, My Cloud, WD Red, WDTV and the WD logo are registered trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries; WD My Cloud, and WD SmartWare are trademarks of Western Digital Technologies in the US and other countries; Windows and Windows Vista are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Mac, OS X Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Lion, Snow Leopard and Time Machine are trademarks of Apple, registered in the US and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple; IOS is a trademark or registered trademark of Cisco in the US and other countries and is used under licence by Apple. Android, Google Play and Google Drive are trademarks of Google. Dropbox is a trademark of Dropbox. All other brand and product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective companies.

Western Digital product photos: http://www.wdbrand.com
Review samples of My Cloud may be requested by visiting http://www.wdc.com/en/company/pressroom/eval_request.asp

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WD adds high-performance NAS solutions for expert, business users to My Cloud line

Designed for creative professionals, prosumers and small businesses, the four new My Cloud NAS solutions round out a full portfolio of powerful NAS products built with the My Cloud OS and WD Red Drives.