Speak about the merits of WD’s data center platforms and drives in the business-centric market

Western Digital creates environments for data to thrive. As a leader in data infrastructure, the company is driving the innovation needed to help customers capture, preserve, access, and transform an ever-increasing diversity of data. Everywhere data lives, from advanced data centers to mobile sensors to personal devices, our industry-leading solutions deliver the possibilities of data. Western Digital data-centric solutions are comprised of the Western Digital, SanDisk, and WD brands.

Innovation has always fuelled and nurtured growth at Western Digital. It is as important now, as any time in our history. Western Digital has long been at the forefront of game-changing innovations. From the invention of the first hard drive to recent advancements in 3D NAND our journey of innovation continues to inspire those who dare to think big about the possibilities of data.

Khwaja Saifuddin, Senior Sales Director, Middle East, WD

Western Digital participates in multiple collaborations with external organizations to provide Western Digital access to resources and knowledge that can be applied to improving current products and developing new technologies or products, and generate value from the data stored on our devices. It is the efforts and the direction of our esteemed global management that drive our competitive edge and continued success in the market.

What sorts of concentration and association WD has with SMEs and large enterprises? Briefly explain the product line you have for them

Robust storage solutions are needed for the rising needs of businesses and consumers. Western Digital offers a portfolio of products, covering a range of market segments, created to enable customers to derive valuable insights and intelligence from data.

WD Ultrastar for businesses: An enterprise-grade drive, designed for cloud service providers, telcos, and system integrators. The Ultrastar Edge servers are easy to transport, deploy and scale in the field, at co-location (colo) facilities, factories, or in remote data centers. It delivers blazing speed and capacity for real-time analytics, AI, deep learning, ML training and inference, and video transcoding at the edge.

WD Gold NVMe SSDs: It improves system responsiveness and boosts productivity while lowering overall TCO. Enterprise teams can work with confidence knowing they have power loss protection and the ability to stop anyone from accessing sensitive data by eliminating it with fast and effective secure erase technology. It is available in a range of capacities to meet a business’ specific needs. WD Gold NVMe SSDs can work alone or perfectly complement WD Gold HDDs and other HDDs to handle tough workloads with endurance businesses can trust.

Give us an insight into the features of WD’s newest SSDs released to the market

If we’re looking at SSD’s that support SMBs, then we must talk about NAS – network-attached storage – as it’s one of the most widely used methods for accessing, sharing, and protecting data alongside the cloud. NAS solutions help SMBs solve for latency and remote shared access to data or applications across the network.

Leveraging our strength and leadership in a flash, we recently announced our new WD Red SN700 NVMe SSD, a high-endurance, a fast-caching solution that accelerates NAS performance for SMB customers.

This powerful new drive is engineered to support 24/7 NAS environments and always-on applications with the ultimate in reliability and endurance. Its fast system responsiveness and I/O performance are perfect for multi-user, multi-application environments, letting SMBs tame their toughest projects from virtualization to collaborative editing to intensive database storage.

Given the need for robust systems that are efficient and intuitive to manage, and in many cases, they need some sort of infrastructure on-premises. A NAS solution can benefit SMBs of all sizes, providing the performance, capacity, and reliability they need.

Are you planning to present products or solutions at the GITEX Technology Week? If so, which are they?

At GITEX, we are keeping a pulse on current data trends with a showcase of products to meet the needs of today’s businesses. As a leader in data infrastructure, Western Digital is driving the innovation needed to help customers capture, preserve, access and transform an ever-increasing diversity of data. Everywhere data lives, from advanced data centers to mobile sensors to personal devices, our industry-leading solutions deliver the possibilities of data. At GITEX, you will find Western Digital data-centric solutions, comprised of the Western Digital, SanDisk, and WD brands. Each brand offers a range of capacities to meet a business’s specific needs.

How do you evaluate WD’s business prospects for the next two years, in terms of expansion, growth, tie-ups, etc.?

As the market leader, we know we have a responsibility to our consumers to stay ahead of the competition. And we do this through strategic collaborations, innovations, and actively listening to our customers.

Whether in your pocket, home, car, or the cloud, it’s likely Western Digital is with you every step of the way. It’s a responsibility we don’t take lightly. That’s why we are always at the cusp of innovation, pushing the boundaries of technology to make what you thought was once impossible, possible.

Western Digital understands that the next few years will be an exciting time for smart technology providers in the middle east. The market is growing, and consumers are excited for what’s coming next, but a lack of knowledge around smart technology infrastructure threatens this progress and the gains that will go with it.

As various technologies continue to evolve so will the data storage needs and how to get the best value from it. Western Digital is prepared to support the growing digital needs of companies and consumers with specialized storage solutions to create optimum value from IoT data, which must be considered when building out the wider data infrastructure.

“Our microSD cards are now at the center of many consumer devices, and we’re excited to not only raise the bar with the launch of the world’s fastest microSD card, but to also offer a family of 256GB microSD cards that give consumers the flexibility they need to capture life at its fullest,” said Dinesh Bahal, vice president of SanDisk product marketing, Western Digital. “As a leading global storage provider with one of the most trusted flash brands, we take pride in transforming the way consumers capture, store and share their content.”

Whether taking pictures, shooting 4K UHD or Full HD video, or storing high-fidelity music, the new 256GB cards give consumers the freedom to capture and carry a massive amount of content on their devices without concern about storage limitations.

“At DJI we focus on creating easy-to-use drone technology for consumers to capture everyday exploration and photography, and our customers need quick and reliable access to their high quality aerial footage,” said Eli Morgan Harris, strategic partnerships, DJI. “With the new 256GB SanDisk microSD UHS-I cards, they now have greater flexibility to capture their content on high-performance storage and the peace of mind knowing they can continue shooting when it matters most.”

The 256GB SanDisk Extreme microSDXC UHS-I card delivers unmatched transfer speeds of up to 100MB/s, allowing users to save time transferring large files, as well as write speeds of up to 90MB/s** for rapid capture of photos. Users can record an estimated 14 hours of 4K UHD video1 on the 256GB card, making it ideal for high-performance drones, action cameras, and 4K-capable smartphones, among other devices.

The 256GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card, Premium Edition, is ideal for Android-based smartphone and tablet users who don’t want to worry about running out of space on their devices. The new card is capable of storing more than 24 hours of Full HD video1, and also features premium transfer speeds of up to 95MB/s**. At this speed people can move files quickly – up to 1,200 photos in just one minute2.

Built to perform in harsh conditions, the new cards3 are also waterproof, temperature-proof, shock proof, and X-ray proof. Additionally, the SanDisk microSD card line up is compatible with the SanDisk® Memory Zone app for Android, giving users an easy way to manage and back up content on their device. The app is available for free through the Google Play Store4.

The new suite of cards is the latest breakthrough offering to join the SanDisk portfolio of mobile memory solutions. The first to introduce 128GB and 200GB microSDXC, and 512GB SDXC high-capacity cards, SanDisk continues to pioneer technology that keeps up with consumers’ evolving storage needs.

The 256GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card, Premium Edition, will be available worldwide in August 2016 with a U.S. MSRP of $149.99. The 256GB SanDisk Extreme microSDXC UHS-I card will be available worldwide in calendar Q4 2016 with a U.S. MSRP of $199.99.