WD expands NAS offerings

• New capacities, plus WD Red Pro drives for medium to large businesses
• More features with the latest generation of NASware technology

WD, a Western Digital company, has announced the expansion of its WD Red line of SATA hard drives for home and small office NAS (network attached storage) systems.
 
The company has released 5TB (terabyte) and first-to-market 6TB capacities, and introduced WD Red Pro hard drives that it said address the medium to large business NAS market.
 
Compatibility-tested with top NAS system manufacturers and optimised for power and performance, WD Red 3.5-inch hard drives are now shipping in 1TB to 6TB capacities; and the new WD Red Pro 3.5-inch hard drives are available in 2 TB to 4 TB capacities, it said in a statement.
 
“With the expansion and evolution of the WD Red family, WD once again is providing its loyal customers with increased capacity up to 6TB; improved bay count support with up to eight 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
 
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, WD said.
 
With the release of 5TB and 6TB models, the WD Red line of hard drives now has 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 24x7 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.
 
WD Red Pro

Claiming it was ideal for medium to large business environments, WD said 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 5TB and 6TB additions for high capacity consumer storage.
  
WD 6TB hard drives will integrate seamlessly with WD My Cloud, WD My Cloud EX2, WD My Cloud EX4, WD 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 here.
 
Availability and pricing
 
Available now at select retailers and distributed by Amble Action Sdn Bhd, Eternal Asia (M) Sdn Bhd and Achieva Technology Sdn Bhd in Malaysia, WD Red and WD Red Pro drives have three- and five-year limited regional warranties, respectively.
 
Manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) for WD Red 5 TB (model #: WD50EFRX) is RM819, and RM989 for the 6TB version (model #: WD60EFRX).
 
Pricing for WD Red Pro 2 TB (model #: WD2001FFSX) is RM529, RM659 for 3TB (model #: WD3001FFSX) and RM859 for 4TB (model #: WD4001FFSX).
 
Related Stories:
 
WD Se hard drives for ‘scale-out’ data centre use
 
Western Digital presents future of hard drives in cloud era
 
Western Digital puts great store in Malaysian market
 
 
For more technology news and the latest updates, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Like us on Facebook.