NAS comes to small office

Western Digital has announced the expansion of its WD Red line of SATA hard drives for home and small office NAS (network attached storage) systems.

It has released 5 TB and first-to-market 6 TB capacity units for NAS-specific storage, along with WD Red Pro hard drives that address the medium to large business NAS market. WD Red 3.5-inch hard drives are now shipping in 1 TB to 6 TB capacities: and the new WD Red Pro 3.5-inch hard drives are available in 2 TB to 4 TB capacities.

With the expansion and evolution of the WD Red family, WD once again is providing its loyal customers with increased capacity up to 6 TB: improved bay count support with up to 8 bays: increased product breadth with WD Red Pro: and more features with the latest generation of NASware technology,” said Matt Rutledge, senior vice president and general manager, WD Storage Technology.

WD Red

A storage industry innovation first introduced in 2012, WD Red hard drives address the unique environment of NAS and the growing demand for affordable, reliable and compatible storage that reduces customer total cost of ownership. With the release of 5 TB and 6 TB models, the WD Red line of hard drives is now further enriched with greater storage capacity and increased performance with NASware 3.0, an enhanced version of WD’s original NASware technology, designed to improve reliability and system performance, reduce customer downtime and to simplify the integration process.

WD Red hard drives also feature 3D Active Balance Plus, an enhanced balance control technology, which significantly improves overall drive performance and reliability. Exclusive for WD Red customers, WD offers free premium 24×7 dedicated support. By increasing NASware 3.0 capability, the WD Red 1-6 TB capacity drives are capable of supporting up to eight bay NAS systems with no negative impact to performance.

Says Kalvin Subbadu, Sales Manager – WD Components, WD South Africa, “As we see the exponential increase of data in consumer and Small Office Home Office (SOHO) environments, the need for additional storage becomes a pressing issue. The introduction of our new 5TB and 6TB capacities will support up to 8 bays is ‚Äòsuper charging’ users’ ability to store even more data than ever. This is particularly relevant to the South African market where broadband costs and availability is perpetually improving, ultimately resulting in an increase of digital data downloads.

WD Red Pro

Ideal for medium to large business environments, the new WD Red Pro line of NAS hard drives supports eight to 16 bay NAS systems. The enhanced design offers reliable, high performance storage powered by NASware 3.0. By introducing the WD Red Pro, WD now has a full portfolio NAS storage solution with the WD Red family (WD Red and WD Red Pro) for both consumer and business NAS solutions.

WD Green

The WD Green line of cool and quiet hard drives is also seeing capacity expansion with 5 TB and 6 TB additions for high capacity consumer storage.

High capacity WD 6 TB hard drives will integrate seamlessly with WD’s My Cloud, My Cloud EX2, My Cloud EX4, My Cloud Mirror personal cloud storage as well as My Book and My Book Duo external drive solutions and are compatible to work with a wide array of WD OEM NAS partners. An updated list of WD Red-qualified products and manufacturers is available on the WD website at http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=810.

Availability and Pricing

Available from Pinnacle Africa, Drive Control Corporation and Sahara Computers in August 2014, the WD Red and WD Red Pro have three- and five-year limited regional warranties, respectively. Manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) for WD Red 5 TB (model #: WD50EFRX) is R2999.00, and R3699.00 for 6 TB (model #: WD60EFRX). Pricing for WD Red Pro 2 TB (model #: WD2001FFSX) is R1999.00, R2299.00 for 3 TB (model #: WD3001FFSX) and R3099.00 for 4 TB (model #: WD4001FFSX). All pricing is inclusive of Vat and is subject to current the Rate of Exchange (ROE). More information about WD Red hard drives including terms of the limited warranty may be found on the company website at http://www.wdc.com/en/products/internal/nas/.

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