EMERGING STORAGE TRENDS

MOHAMMED OWAIS, SALES DIRECTOR, MIDDLE EAST, WESTERN DIGITAL, ON ENTERPRISE STORAGE TRENDS TO WATCH

Can you tell us more about your smart video solutions?

Western Digital’s WD Purple is the company’s product range of smart video HDDs and microSD cards. It has three main device ranges; WD Purple Pro HDD, WD Purple HDD and WD Purple microSD card.

camera storage, and its support for card health monitoring functionality allows for pre-emptive storage management

Why should enterprises pay more attention to storage security?

What are the trends to watch out for in enterprise storage this year?

With overall storage capacity expected to grow exponentially, we can clearly see why the industry not only needs more storage capacity but also more efficient storage technologies, and higher performing solutions to handle more data than ever before.

While capacity grows, IT budgets keep on shrinking. The modern data center is under constant pressure to deliver more capacity, more speed, and better results at continuing lower costs.

Poised to become a hub for futuristic, innovative and intelligent data the UAE is building upon an era in which Artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and data analytics are the steppingstones to a successful digital transformation.

These intensive activities mean technology needs to evolve to meet the demands of ambitious digital transformation developments and create strong security practices to keep information safe. This is where data infrastructure will play a crucial role in the UAE and beyond.

The 22TB WD Purple Pro CMR HDD with OptiNAND technology delivers big capacity to address the latest surveillance trends, in a purpose-built enterprise-class drive supporting video analytics servers, and AI and deeplearning systems. The drive features Western Digital’s exclusive AllFrame AI technology that supports AI streams for deep-learning analytics within the system while helping to reduce dropped frames. WD Purple Pro drives are optimized to handle up to 64 singlestream HD cameras as well as many of the latest smart cameras that transmit multiple streams. It offers high reliability with a MTBF of up to 2.5 million hours for advanced smart video solutions that operate in 24/7 environments.

The WD PurpleHDDs are engineered specifically for surveillance to help withstand the elevated heat fluctuations and equipment vibrations within NVR environments. An average desktop drive is built to run for only short intervals, not the harsh 24/7 always-on environment of a high-definition surveillance system. With WD Purple, you get reliable, surveillance-class storage that’s tested for compatibility in a wide range of security systems. Exclusive AllFrame technology helps reduce frame loss and improve overall video playback

The WD Purple microSD card is borne out of extensive analysis of three generations of industrial products to specifically address the surveillance market. With its high endurance and capacities up to 256GB, the WD Purple microSD card provides long lasting on-

With overall storage capacity expected to grow exponentially, we can clearly see why the industry not only needs more storage capacity but also more efficient storage technologies, and higher performing solutions to handle more data than ever before. The key for Western Digital is delivering products and capabilities that can scale to such a level and help its customers scale and innovate to new levels.

While capacity grows, IT budgets keep on shrinking. The modern data centre is under constant pressure to deliver more capacity, more speed, and better results at continuing lower costs. As the challenges for data centers grow, so do the opportunities and solutions that enable IT to deliver new services, extract data insights, and drive business success. At Western Digital, we provide a variety of products that meet those demands including WD Gold, UltraStar, and Red, with capacities ranging up to 22TB.

Can you tell us how WD is helping its customers drive their sustainability initiatives?

The new drives represent a culmination of innovations that make the capacity levels possible. Western Digital has been developing these technological advances for decades. Namely, they are ePMR, HelioSeal, OptiNAND, and UltraSMR — a new, denser form of SMR technology. It’s a powerful combination of technology and innovation that will allow cloud scale customers to increase capacities and performance, in addition to keeping TCO manageable. An 18% increase in capacity could lead to a substantial reduction in TCO and operating costs.