Western Digital Completes Acquisition Of SanDisk, Creating A Global Leader In Storage Technology

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MANILA, Philippines - Western Digital® Corporation today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Western Digital Technologies, Inc. has completed the acquisition of SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK). The addition of SanDisk makes Western Digital Corporation a comprehensive storage solutions provider with global reach, and an extensive product and technology platform that includes deep expertise in both rotating magnetic storage and non-volatile memory (NVM).

The Company also indicated that the debt financing associated with this transaction has been consummated and that the previously obtained funds from this financing have been released from escrow to Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

"Today is a significant day in the history of Western Digital.  "We are delighted to welcome SanDisk into the Western Digital family. This transformational combination creates a media-agnostic leader in storage technology with a robust portfolio of products and solutions that will address a wide range of applications in almost all of the world's computing and mobile devices. We are excited to now begin focusing on the many opportunities before us, from leading innovation to bringing the best of what we can offer as a combined company to our customers. In addition, we will begin the work to fully realize the value of this combination through executing on our synergies, generating significant cash flow, as well as rapidly deleveraging our balance sheet, and creating significant long-term value for our shareholders." -  Steve Milligan, chief executive officer of Western Digital.

The integration process will begin immediately through the joint efforts of teams from both companies. As previously announced, Steve Milligan will continue to serve as chief executive officer of Western Digital, which will remain headquartered in Irvine, California. Sanjay Mehrotra, co-founder, president and chief executive officer of SanDisk, will serve as a member of the Western Digital Board of Directors, effective immediately.

"As a combined company, we will be best positioned to address the demands for data storage, which is growing exponentially every year," said Sanjay Mehrotra. "Growth and change go hand in hand, and we couldn't be happier to grow and change together with Western Digital. I look forward to contributing to realizing the potential of this combination as a member of the board."

Under the terms of the transaction, each outstanding share of SanDisk common stock was converted into the right to receive $67.50 per share in cash and 0.2387 shares of Western Digital common stock.

SanDisk shareholders looking for information with regard to the payment of the merger consideration should review the Public FAQ available in the Investor Relations section of our website at investor.wdc.com. 

About Western Digital 

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) is an industry-leading provider of storage technologies and solutions that enable people to create, leverage, experience and preserve data. The company addresses ever-changing market needs by providing a full portfolio of compelling, high-quality storage solutions with customer-focused innovation, high efficiency, flexibility and speed. Our products are marketed under the HGST, SanDisk and WD brands to OEMs, distributors, resellers, cloud infrastructure providers and consumers. For more information, please visit www.hgst.com, www.wd.com, and www.sandisk.com

Western Digital Expands its Hard Drives and External Storage Solutions to 8TB

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New Line of Storage Solutions Feature HelioSeal Technology for Optimal Performance, High Capacity and Added Reliability for NAS, Surveillance

and Personal Storage

Western Digital Corporation, a world leader in storage solutions, today announced the expansion of its award-winning portfolio of performance storage solutions with 8TB capacity drives for NAS, video surveillance and desktop external applications. Increasingly centralized, rich-content, which continues to grow in popularity among enterprises, small business and consumers alike, is driving demand for greater storage capacities. 

Launching throughout the first half of 2016, My Cloud® personal storage devices (My Cloud, My Cloud Mirror, My Cloud EX2 Ultra), My Book® external hard drives (My Book, My Book for Mac, My Book Duo and My Book Pro), WD Red®, WD Red Pro and WD Purple™ hard drives will all be designed with the new high-capacity configuration. Each storage solution offers purpose-driven engineering and HelioSeal™ helium-technology with the new 8TB drives for maximum and efficient performance in the applications for which each model is designed.

“We are committed to integrating high-performance, high-capacity and high-quality drives into all of our solutions,” said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing, Western Digital Corporation. “No matter what market or application, we have a solution - whether it’s for small businesses, channel partners, enterprises or end-users. Our goal is to deliver the best and most competitive solutions on the market.”

The increase to 8TB or 16TB (with two 8TB drives in RAID 0) capacity applies to the following WD products:

External Hard Drives

• My Book/My Book for Mac -– An external hard drive solution that provides complete backup and storage with USB connectivity.
• My Book Duo/My Book Pro – Dual-drive external hard drive solutions which provide ultra-fast storage in RAID-0 and complete backup and storage with USB and/or Thunderbolt connectivity and up to 16TB capacity.
• My Cloud/My Cloud Mirror – A personal storage device that plugs into your router at home to provide consumers with their very own private cloud.
• My Cloud EX2 Ultra – As part of the creative professional series of My Cloud products, the My Cloud EX2 Ultra provides high-performance two-bay network attached storage.

Internal Hard Drives

• WD Purple – Engineered for 24/7, always-on, high-definition surveillance security systems that use up to eight hard drives and up to 32 cameras
• WD Red – Optimized for personal, home and small business NAS (network attached storage) systems
• WD Red Pro – Optimized for small business and enterprise class NAS systems with high performance and reliability.

Availability and Pricing

My Book 8TB will be available in March at select retailers and distributors in the Philippines. Manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) for the My Book 8TB (model #: WDBFJK0080HBK) is Php 15,900.

My Cloud, My Book for Mac, My Book Duo, My Book Pro, WD Red and WD Purple 8TB configurations will be available during the first half of 2016. More information about the WD product line, 8TB capacity, and terms of the limited warranty may be found on the company website at www.wdc.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements, including statements relating to the approximate price and estimated availability later this year of the My Cloud, My Book for Mac, My Book Duo, My Book Pro, WD Red and WD Purple 8TB configurations and the growth of storage capacity needs. 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, risks that would impact the estimated availability of products and other risks detailed from time-to-time in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings and reports, including, but not limited to, our most recent annual report on Form 10-K 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.

About Western Digital

Founded in 1970, Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC), Irvine, Calif., is an industry-leading developer and manufacturer of storage solutions that enable people to create, manage, experience and preserve digital content. It is a long-time innovator in the storage industry. Western Digital Corporation is responding to changing market needs by providing a full portfolio of compelling, high-quality storage products with effective technology deployment, high efficiency, flexibility and speed. Its products are marketed under the HGST and WD brands to OEMs, distributors, resellers, cloud infrastructure providers and consumers. Financial and investor information is available on the company’s Investor Relations website at investor.wdc.com.

New My Book Pro is WD's fastest external solution

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New Thunderbolt Drive Offers up to 12 TB of Storage for Professional Content Creators 

WD, a Western Digital company, today introduced the My Book Pro storage device, providing professionals and enthusiasts who must efficiently manage large amounts of digital content with up to 435 MB/s transfer rates on WD’s fastest external storage solution yet. 

With capacity options including 6 TB, 8 TB, 10 TB and 12 TB, the power of two 7200 RPM WD drives with Intel’s Thunderbolt™ 2 technology and a hot-swappable hardware RAID controller, the My Book Pro device enables creative professionals and enthusiasts alike to focus on what they love doing by significantly cutting the time to transfer large videos, photos and audio files. 

“The My Book Pro device has been designed from the ground up for the creative professional workflow. We’ve been able to take the newest, highest capacity 6 TB 7200 RPM drives on the market and marry them with leading technologies to deliver a product you can leverage from the moment you connect it.” said Sven Rathjen, vice president of marketing for WD’s Content Solutions business. “It really is designed to perform under the most demanding environments.” 

Designed for professional content creators who need performance and capacity, My Book Pro storage combines the power of dual 20 Gb/s Thunderbolt 2 ports, USB 3.0 compatibility, the peace-of-mind of hardware RAID and the speed of two 7200 RPM WD drives to accelerate creative workflows. With the convenience of two front-access USB ports and the ability to daisy chain up to six Thunderbolt devices, users are able to charge and sync smartphones, tablets or cameras while simultaneously connecting 4K monitors or additional storage devices. 

At any point in time, one’s data could be at risk if not protected. Whether it’s a lost notebook or destructive virus, it’s critical to keep data safe and maintain a backup of important documents and valued content. With three customizable configuration options [RAID 0 (default), RAID 1 and JBOD] offered by the My Book Pro device for keeping content protected, data bottlenecks are reduced and throughput is improved with no impact to your computer’s CPU performance.

Pricing and Availability

The My Book Pro storage device is protected by a 3-year limited warranty and is available at select retailers and distributed by EA Global Supply Chains Solutions, Inc. and Iontech, Inc. in the Philippines. Manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) is PhP 31, 490 for the 6 TB, PhP 40, 490 for the 8 TB, PhP 47, 990 for the 10 TB and PhP 53, 990 for the 12 TB.

WD makes Cloud Storage more personal (and private)

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New My Cloud OS 3 Puts Control of Content into the Hands of Consumers with Greater Photo Sharing, Backup and Synchronization

MANILA, Philippines – Western Digital company, and a worldwide leader in storage solutions, today introduced significant enhancements to WD’s family of My Cloud personal storage devices, including a new, redesigned My Cloud OS 3 operating system, Software Developer Kit (SDK) enabling enhanced app integration and a dual-drive My Cloud Mirror personal cloud storage offering increased memory and faster processing performance than previous generations.

WD’s My Cloud OS 3 features an intuitive user interface delivering a rich content-sharing experience, and back-up and sync capabilities that elevate the personal cloud NAS offering while retaining the privacy and control unique to personal cloud devices physically located in the home or office.

“We know our personal cloud customers place the highest value on their personal content and enjoy the peace of mind from backing up PCs, smart phones and tablets to and centralizing content on their My Cloud systems,” said Jim Welsh, executive vice president and general manager of Content Solutions business at WD. “They tell us they are confident in the privacy, control and anywhere access we provide them with the My Cloud OS. Now, with My Cloud OS 3, we’ve made users’ management of their digital lives easier than ever before.”

My Cloud OS 3 features new photo and video capabilities. MyCloud.com provides users global access to their My Cloud via an intuitive web browser-based user interface and enables file collaboration, comprehensive access management and a photos and videos gallery view.

My Cloud OS 3’s new WD Sync™ feature syncs data across multiple PCs and notebooks, ensuring that important files are up to date and available to users from almost any device. The new OS also allows users to set up automatic camera-roll backup of photos from smartphones and tablets and offers a new transfer tool that enables users to easily and quickly move their files to My Cloud devices. The OS also includes Chromebook and Chromecast support.

As part of the My Cloud OS 3 launch, WD has introduced My Cloud Device SDK and My Cloud API enabling developers to build new extensions, features and capabilities within the My Cloud ecosystem of personal cloud storage devices. The My Cloud Device SDK, based on the Docker™ open platform technology, ensures developers can easily access and collaborate to create customized experiences. Partners already developing extensions and new features based on the new SDK include Plex and Milestone.

In addition to new software upgrades, WD has also introduced a new version of My Cloud Mirror personal cloud storage devices, featuring two hard drives set to Mirror Mode (RAID 1), ensuring content is stored on one drive and automatically duplicated to a second drive. My Cloud Mirror personal cloud storage includes the new features announced for My Cloud OS 3 and an improved processor and 512 MB RAM for faster file transfers and application support.

Pricing and Availability

WD My Cloud OS 3 will be available at the end of the month as a free download on current My Cloud personal cloud storage devices. My Cloud devices supporting the new OS 3 include: My Cloud, My Cloud Mirror, My Cloud Expert Series EX2/EX4, My Cloud Expert Series EX2100/EX4100 and My Cloud Business Series DL2100/DL4100. Customers can also download the new WD My Cloud mobile apps, which are now available on the iTunes and Google Play stores. All WD My Cloud devices are available today at select retailers and distributors. Access to My Cloud Device SDK and My Cloud API will be available to interested developers late October.

My Cloud Mirror will have a Manufactured Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of 4 TB Php 15,990, 6 TB Php 20,990, 8 TB Php 25,990 and will be available at select retailers and distributors later in October.

Technology: WD and milestone partner to provide video surveillance solutions for business and consumers

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Milestone Arcus Video Surveillance Software Available with My Cloud Business Series Systems

Western Digital (WD) ,  a worldwide leader in storage solutions, and Milestone Systems, the security industry leader in video management software, announced today a partnership to deliver video surveillance solutions to businesses and consumers. 

Milestone Arcus™ Surveillance software will be available on WD’s My Cloud® Business Series1 network-attached storage (NAS) systems beginning this month; and is expected to be available on other My Cloud systems, such as the My Cloud Expert Series, in the future.

Milestone Arcus is a video surveillance platform designed to be embedded in hardware devices, such as compatible WD My Cloud NAS systems, to deliver customized, market-ready solutions. Integration of Milestone Arcus Surveillance software into My Cloud OS enables users to transform their versatile My Cloud Business Series NAS systems into networked video recording systems for their offices or homes. By simply downloading the Milestone Arcus Surveillance software through the My Cloud App Store, users can install up to 16 cameras, with the first two camera licenses free on My Cloud Business Series products. Additional camera licenses will be available at selected WD authorized distributors.

"Technology advances are enabling video surveillance to be broadly accessible to businesses and individuals across the globe,” said Sven Rathjen, vice president of marketing for WD’s Content Solutions business. “Together, WD and Milestone are focused on making video surveillance easy with a solution they can quickly set up and rely on for years. This is one of many applications available on My Cloud NAS systems, including home automation, media streaming and backup solutions.” 

“Milestone is proud to partner with WD to offer a video surveillance solution for My Cloud NAS systems,” said Lars Nordenlund, vice president of Incubation and Ventures at Milestone Systems. “WD customers can now take advantage of the simple setup with automatic camera discovery, intuitive interface, remote viewing, mobile access and other monitoring features in Milestone Arcus software.”

WD’s My Cloud Business Series NAS systems are available through select distribution partners and resellers in Philippines. 

WD expands ITS PERFORMANCE LEVEL desktop HARD drives to 6 tb capacity

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WD Black Hard Drives Offer Inspiring Performance for Gamers, Enthusiasts and Creative Professionals 

WD, a Western Digital  company and a world leader in hard drives, today announced the expansion of its award-winning WD Black™ line of performance hard drives up to 6 TB capacity. Shipping now, the 3.5-inch, 7200 RPM drive is the perfect solution for gamers and professionals in need of high-performance desktop systems and workstations. 

WD Black hard drives combine 7200 RPM spin speed, 128 MB cache, dual stage actuator technology, SATA 6 gigabits per second (Gb/s) interface, and an integrated dual processor to deliver ultimate performance in a maximum-capacity drive. The WD Black 6 TB is up to 29% faster than the previous WD Black 4 TB version in maximum data rate throughput and 10% faster in PCMark Vantage.

“Combining maximum system performance with generous capacity, the expansion of WD Black to 6 TB allows gamers, enthusiasts and creatives to push the boundaries of personalization without compromise,” said Cindi Grace, senior vice president of WD storage technology group. “In choosing WD Black hard drives, WD desktop customers get the best possible mix of capacity, performance and reliability to handle intense desktop computing with ease.” 

WD Black 6 TB hard drives feature the following:

Increased Reliability –StableTrac™ Technology (2 TB and larger models) secures the motor shaft inside of the hard drive to increase reliability and help reduce impact due to system-induced vibrations from other components. By stabilizing the platters inside, the WD Black drive results in more accurate tracking in a particular sector during read and write operations, optimizing performance and reliability.

Increased DRAM cache – The Dynamic Cache Technology improves caching algorithms in real time to allocate and optimize cache between reads and writes. This movement of cache for read data helps to reduce congestion and increase overall performance.

Efficient dual processing – A dual-core processor offers twice the processing capability as a single-core processor to maximize drive performance for faster read and write speeds.

Industry-leading 5-year limited warranty – Compared to standard hard drives, the WD Black drive endures more strenuous and aggressive internal testing over a longer period of time, resulting in it being backed by an industry leading 5-year limited warranty.

Price and Availability

Available now through selected retailers and resellers and are distributed by Iontech, Inc. and Ubertech Technologies, Inc. in Philippines, WD Black drive is covered by a five-year limited warranty. Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for the WD Black 5 TB drive (model # WD5001FZWX) is Php 13, 900 and the WD Black 6 TB drive (model # WD6001FZWX) is Php 16, 000. More information about WD Black desktop hard drives, including terms of the limited warranty, may be found on the company website at http://www.wd.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=760. 

About WD

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 website at www.wd.com.

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC), Irvine, Calif., 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 website (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.

WD redesigns world's no. 1 selling portable hard drive

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New My Passport Drives Now Feature Up to 3 TB Capacity and Easier Backup Software 

WD, a Western Digital company, and world leader in storage solutions, today introduced the new, redesigned My Passport Ultra portable hard drives and My Passport for Mac drives. With the My Passport line now in its 7th generation, the My Passport Ultra and My Passport for Mac portable hard drives are now available in capacities up to 3 TB and in four stylish colors - Classic Black, Brilliant White, Wild Berry and Noble Blue. 

“With more photos being taken than ever before, it’s critical to have a high capacity, reliable external storage solution that you can carry everywhere,” said Tony Tate, general manager and vice president of Content Storage Solutions at WD. “The latest generation My Passport drives deliver an easier automatic back-up experience, hardware-based encryption for security and higher capacities than ever before.”

My Passport Ultra portable drives come in 3 TB, 2 TB, 1 TB and 500 GB capacities and feature 256-bit AES hardware encryption – delivering a high level of security with no impact to write-speed or CPU activity. If your My Passport Ultra falls into the wrong hands, the 256-bit AES hardware encryption protects users’ files, folders, photos, videos and music with a password known only to them. USB 3.0 compatibility provides fast data transfer rates of up to 5 gigabits per second, while being backwardly compatible with USB 2.0. My Passport for Mac portable drives are available in capacities of 3 TB, 2 TB, 1 TB and also feature 256-bit AES hardware encryption with USB 3.0 connectivity.

My Passport Ultra’s built-in WD Backup software is a simple-to-use application with focus on reducing frustration when setting up a backup plan to preserve data. Since 31% of devices have had malware at some point, having your data safely backed up onto a secondary device like a My Passport drive is critical to preserving precious data.

Pricing and Availability

My Passport Ultra and My Passport for Mac portable drives will be available in August through selected retailers and resellers and are distributed by Iontech, Inc. and EA Global Supply Chains Solutions, Inc. MSRP for both My Passport Ultra and My Passport for Mac is Php 3, 890 for 1 TB, Php 6, 490 for 2 TB, Php 8, 990 for the latest 3 TB offering. MSRP for My Passport Ultra 500 GB is Php 2,990. Both products will offer a 3-year limited warranty. Terms and conditions of WD’s limited warranty may be found at support.wdc.com/warranty. .

WD adds high performance network attached storage (NAS) solutions for expert and business users to My Cloud line

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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

WD, a Western Digital  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, back up, 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 24 TB of storage capacity. 

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 24 TBof 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 24 TB 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 RAID options (model dependent) including RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 JBOD and spanning modes. Customers can use their My Cloud Expert Series products to centralize and back up 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 customize 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 centralize 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 24 TB, 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 back up 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 synchronization, 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 4 TB, 8 TB or 12 TB capacities. The My Cloud DL4100 (four-bay) is available diskless or with 8 TB, 16 TB or 24 TB 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 email 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 accounts3.

Pricing and Availability

My Cloud Expert Series and My Cloud Business Series products will be available in June through selected retailers and resellers and are distributed by Iontech, Inc. in the Philippines. 

MSRP for the My Cloud Expert Series EX2100 is Php 13, 999 for diskless unit, Php 24, 099 for 4 TB, Php 32, 399 for 8 TB and Php 41, 699 for 12 TB. MSRP for the My Cloud Expert Series EX4100 is Php 22, 699 for the diskless unit, Php 42, 599 for 8 TB, Php 59, 999 for the 16 TB and Php 81, 999 for the 24 TB.

While the MSRP for the My Cloud Business Series DL2100 is Php 19, 999 for the diskless unit, Php 29, 999 for 4 TB, Php 36, 599 for 8 TB and Php 48, 699 for 12 TB. MSRP for the My Cloud Business Series DL4100 is Php 29, 999 for the diskless unit, Php 47, 999 for the 8 TB, Php 65, 999 for the 16 TB and Php 85, 999 for the 24 TB.

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

Warranty

The My Cloud Expert Series and Business Series products come with a 3-year limited warranty for the populated products and a 2-year limited warranty for the diskless products. Terms and conditions of WD’s limited warranty may be found at support.wdc.com/warranty. 

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. 

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.

WD drives solutions and rewards with enhanced myWD Channel Partner Program

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WD, a Western Digital company, and a world leader in storage solutions, today revealed its enhanced myWD Partner Program, an award-winning loyalty channel program for MSPs, VARs, and system integrators with new features such as product solution centers, industry-focused marketing assets and on-demand product training. 

As a result of more than a year of survey and ongoing feedback from WD’s valued myWD partners, the new and improved site offers new features that lead to a seamless user experience for myWD partners providing relevant and easy-to-access information at their fingertips. The new features include. 

· Solution selling centers on growing markets such as Surveillance, NAS, and Datacenter; 

· industry focused marketing assets;

· on-demand online product training through WD University, and

· a points system, where members earn rewards based on purchases of WD products from authorized distributors.

“Since the launch of myWD in 2012, the program has grown to over 25,000 partners worldwide spanning across 190 countries and 17 languages,” said Jamie Vo, vice president of WD’s worldwide marketing. “With the re-launch of myWD, WD is proving its commitment to invest in the channel by presenting our valued partners opportunities to build their business in the growing storage applications of NAS, surveillance and datacenters.” 

The myWD Partner Program provides channel partners with the resources and benefits they need to drive their business. PSSC Labs has used WD® drives in its solutions for many years, and two years ago, it joined the myWD Partner Program. “WD stands behind us just the way we stand behind our customers,” explains Alex Lesser, co-owner and vice president of PSSC Labs. “Not only do they offer very good, high-quality, high-performance drives for our solutions, but if there is a problem, they tackle it head-on just like we do.”

Resellers and solution providers worldwide can join the myWD partner program by visiting the website at http://www.mywd.com. 

WD adds the Four New My Cloud NAS Solutions for expert and business users with the My Cloud line

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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

WD, a Western Digital 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, back up, 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 24 TB of storage capacity.

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 24 TB 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 24 TB 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 RAID options (model dependent) including RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 JBOD and spanning modes. Customers can use their My Cloud Expert Series products to centralize and back up 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 customize 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 centralize 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 24 TB, 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 back up 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 synchronization, 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 4 TB, 8 TB or 12 TB capacities. The My Cloud DL4100 (four-bay) is available diskless or with 8 TB, 16 TB or 24 TB 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 email 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.

Pricing and Availability

My Cloud Expert Series and My Cloud Business Series products will be available in June through selected retailers and resellers and are distributed by Iontech, Inc. in the Philippines. 

MSRP for the My Cloud Expert Series EX2100 is Php 13, 999 for diskless unit, Php 24, 099 for 4 TB, Php 32, 399 for 8 TB and Php 41, 699 for 12 TB. MSRP for the My Cloud Expert Series EX4100 is Php 22, 699 for the diskless unit, Php 42, 599 for 8 TB, Php 59, 999 for the 16 TB and Php 81, 999 for the 24 TB.

While the MSRP for the My Cloud Business Series DL2100 is Php 19, 999 for the diskless unit, Php 29, 999 for 4 TB, Php 36, 599 for 8 TB and Php 48, 699 for 12 TB. MSRP for the My Cloud Business Series DL4100 is Php 29, 999 for the diskless unit, Php 47, 999 for the 8 TB, Php 65, 999 for the 16 TB and Php 85, 999 for the 24 TB.

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

Warranty

The My Cloud Expert Series and Business Series products come with a 3-year limited warranty for the populated products and a 2-year limited warranty for the diskless products. Terms and conditions of WD’s limited warranty may be found at support.wdc.com/warranty. 

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. 

About WD

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, Calif. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.wd.com.

Western Digital Corp., Irvine, Calif., 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 website (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. 

New WD Purple NV 3.5-inch Drives Equipped for NVR Surveillance-system Environments

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WD SCALES UP SURVEILLANCE-CLASS HARD DRIVE LINE

Western Digital, the company and storage industry leader, today introduced WD Purple NV, a purpose-built line of 3.5-inch, high-capacity 4 TB and 6 TB hard drives for the greater demands of scalable network video recorder (NVR) surveillance systems. 

Compared with standard WD Purple drives, the new member of the WD’s surveillance video recording family of drives, WD Purple NV, is designed for larger-scale network surveillance systems utilizing higher hard drive bay counts and greater numbers of attached cameras, which demand increased storage capacity and durability. The new drives’ high capacities also enable long video retention periods for analysis and reference. WD Purple NV is also designed to withstand the demands of always-on digital NVR recording environments. It offers low power consumption and many advanced performance features typically reserved for higher end surveillance storage.

“The global video surveillance market is expanding with the increased accessibility to easy-to-use systems for small businesses and municipalities,” said Matt Rutledge, senior vice president of HDD marketing at WD. “WD optimized the WD Purple NV line of hard drives for NVR digital surveillance systems to improve high-definition video playback for high-camera-count applications. NVR surveillance systems can produce incredible amounts of data which makes the WD Purple NV hard drives a perfect solution for NVR systems needing high quality recording and playback and high capacity storage.” 

Features

WD Purple NV hard drives are equipped with an array of exclusive WD technologies, including:

AllFrame - When combined with ATA streaming support, AllFrame™ technology helps to reduce video footage loss with a proprietary cache policy management technology to help improve data flow and playback. WD Purple includes exclusive firmware upgrades that protect against video pixilation and interruptions within a surveillance system.

Premium Protection - Designed with tarnish-resistant components, WD Purple NV offers premium protection in harsh environments where surveillance systems can be installed.

Support for High-Camera-Count Systems - WD Purple NV hard drives are optimized to support systems utilizing high numbers of high-definition surveillance cameras, giving you the flexibility to upgrade and expand your security system in the future. Higher storage capacities also allow you to store the surveillance footage for a longer period of time, especially in situations when every second counts. 

Availability

WD Purple NV 6 TB surveillance hard drives are shipping immediately to customers for qualification and are covered by a three-year limited warranty. WD Purple NV 4 TB hard drives will be available for qualification later this quarter. Both the 6 TB and 4 TB capacities will be shipping in volume within the quarter. More information about WD’s surveillance hard drives and limited warranty terms can be found on the company website at http://products.wd.com/wdpurple. 

WD Mounts First Gamers Cup for Press

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WD, the world’s leading provider of excellent computer storage solutions, hosts its first ever gaming tournament for the Philippine tech press on March 6, 2015 at Imperium e-Sports Bar and Video Game Lounge in Metrowalk Commercial Complex, Pasig City.

Dubbed as “WD Gamers Cup: WD X Imperium Media LAN Party”, this gaming event marks the exquisite collaboration of WD with Metro Manila’s most popular and chicest Internet bar, Imperium. The LAN party features the country’s most celebrated gaming and technology bloggers and technology media members as gaming competitors, giving them interactive and first-hand experience of the overall reliability of one of WD’s top-of-the-line hard drive lines, WD Green.

“WD Gamers Cup, in collaboration with Imperium e-Sports Bar and Video Lounge, is a perfect platform to not only engage and celebrate the country’s top technology influencers in a friendly Counter Strike match, but to also inform them the outstanding features of WD Green,” says Charlotte Koa, WD Philippines country sales manager. 

The Many Wonders of WD Green Drive

From WD’s Power of Choice line, WD Green hard drive takes pride in its eco-friendly and power-saving attributes. Increased power consumption is being prevented with its GreenPower Technology, as it manages heat which allows the hard drive to operate cooler with increased overall reliability. This unique technology of WD Green also decreases noise and vibration levels as well as hard drive failure, allowing you to work with your computer in a more hassle-free manner. Also, its advanced 4K HDD formatting makes WD Green a stronger solution compared to its rivals in the market.

Although famous for its power-saving and eco-friendly features, WD Green also works best as a complementary drive to solid state drives (SSDs) as it solves storage limitations through the Smart Repsonse Technology. It also delivers the ultimate experience for gamers who want a steady balance of capacity and speed. 

“WD Green once combined with SSD though the Intel rapid storage technology, can achieve the speed of SSD then take advantage of the additional capacity from HDD. It’s like Hybrid Drives,” explained by Albert Chung, Senior Product Marketing Manager for WD APAC. “WD Green as a second drive can be alternative for the WD Black- which is popular for its system performance. SSD can provide the needed speed of the gamers, yet with WD Green Drive, the capacity of the desktop storage could increase.”

WD Green- an eco-friendly, high performance storage device that is highly recommended for primary use in Desktop and All-in-One PCs, could also be a supplementary storage for backing up files and archiving.

Best-in-class power management, reduced heat output, and next-generation technologies such as IntelliSeek, WD Green offers a perfect balance of performance and power.

A Perfect Techie Collaboration

The gamers cup organized by WD, with the collaborating efforts of Imperium Internet bar, has hyped up the local tech and gaming scene. WD has awarded 5 WD Green hard drive units to the winning team, plus a cool party to the tech press. Although the event is primarily aimed at WD’s brand awareness, the exciting event has also inevitably changed the e-gaming landscape in the Philippines, according to Raphael Gancayco, president of Imperium e-Sports Bar and Video Game Lounge. 

“The WD Gamers Cup has given its participants a glimpse of what it is like to compete in a global e-Sports tournament scenario. This event has made e-Sports even more popular in the Philippines. The goal of Imperium e-Sports Bar has always been to elevate the level of professionalism of e-Sports in the country, and I believe WD is doing just that with this amazing gaming tournament and party,” says Gancayco, who is an international professional e-sports gamer himself. 

He also shares how WD Green has empowered his business. “We at Imperium e-Sports Bar personally love the features of WD Green hard drive. We run high-powered PCs and we take advantage of the reduced power consumption without sacrificing performance that only WD Green can deliver. The enormous storage capacity allows us to have ready access to graphic intensive games and allow us to produce more content in the future,” says Gancayco. 

WD Demonstrates World’s Fastest 4 TB Hybrid Drive at Storage Visions 2015

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Prototype Drive Demo on commercially available motherboards show leading performance on both benchmark scores and gaming experience

WD, a Western Digital company and world leader in storage solutions, demonstrated the world’s fastest 4 TB hybrid drive at the SATA-IO booth (#205) at Storage Visions 2015 last January 4 and 5 in Las Vegas, NV. WD’s prototype drive utilized the SATA Express PCI-e interface, 4 TB 3.5-inch hybrid hard drive, and up to 128 GB solid state drive to deliver compelling performance and GB-per-dollar solutions for desktop and gaming applications. 

The two WD SATA Express interface demonstrations at Storage Visions 2015 included commercially available motherboards from WD partners ASRock and Gigabyte. These systems demonstrated cabled SATA Express PCI-e interconnect flexibility and configuration options for single-volume caching and RAID.

Heavy desktop usage scenarios will benefit from larger cache sizes (64 GB will be demonstrated) by enabling retention of key hot data across multiple applications, which improves overall performance. In WD’s labs, WD’s SATA Express 4 TB drive with 64 GB cache achieved a PCMark8 benchmark score of 4459, demonstrating near-SSD performance at an optimized GB-per-dollar value.

PCMark8 benchmark data collected on Asus Z97-A platform, core i5 3.4GHz, 16GB DRAM

GB/$ calculations based on Dec14 retail price sampling 

“WD is committed to working with the industry to push the boundaries of what you might expect from a traditional hard drive,” said Matt Rutledge, senior vice president, Storage Technology, WD. “By moving to PCI Express, the industry marries the world’s most popular storage bus with the world’s most popular computer bus. This union provides a solid growth path to innovate new capability, while preserving the ability to plug legacy SATA drives into new SATA Express based computers.”

“WD’s culture is one of strong collaboration with industry partners in a rapidly changing environment,” said Gary Meister, senior vice president of engineering, WD. “We see the industry moving toward simplification of the overall PC subsystem to a single storage bus based around the PCIe protocol. In this demo, we placed a hard drive, flash NAND and SATAe technology into one package, freeing up one slot in the system and simplifying how our customers could create and maintain such an advanced storage solution. When our customers ask us to move to the next storage bus, we will have done all the necessary work to be ready to support the move.”

“ASRock is delighted to show speeds of almost 10 Gbit-per-second when RAID striped off of two WD prototype drives,” said James Lee, vice president of ASRock sales and marketing of ASRock. “ASRock is on the forefront of creating new systems and architectures that break through classical bottlenecks.”

“Gigabyte demonstration will show how a WD prototype SATAe drive enables world class gaming experience,” said Jackson Hsu, product planning division manager of Gigabyte. “Included in our demonstration is work we have done with WD to make the combination of a hard disk drive and a flash subsystem look like a single volume to the end user. This allows the power of having separate devices in a system along with the convenience of having only a single drive to manage.”