When Western Digital invited us to New York to see their new My Cloud Personal Storage Device, we were excited about it. It represented an entirely new way of thinking about personal cloud storage in device form. Unlike many Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices before it, this one was born and bred to be something that any individual in need of cloud storage could use. With a simplified, wizard driven, interface, and lightning fast plug and play setup, the My Cloud personal storage device represented a true substitute for the many cloud based storage services out there today like DropBox, Google Drive and Sky Drive. With a single purchase (versus a monthly fee), you could have up to 4TBs of storage tucked away safely in your home, free from security issues that are inherent with public cloud based storage solutions.
Although it seems almost too good to be true, there were some downsides, but mainly in hardware. Because of the single drive nature of the My Cloud, we were left wondering about redundancy and data security down the road. What if that single drive failed? Well, Western Digital has brought forth the product many of use have been waiting for and it’s called the WD My Cloud EX4.
The WD My Cloud EX4 takes Western Digital’s knowledge in designing and building their own enterprise and business level NAS devices, with the knowledge and expertise they developed in bringing the WD My Cloud to the market. With a robust hardware configuration utilizing up to four drive bays for up to RAID 10 (0/1/5 as well) storage capability and redundancy, plus the supremely easy to use WD My Cloud interface, they’ve taken what was once the domain of power users and enthusiasts, and have brought it to a less tech savvy, but equally as demanding group of users that need it for their tablets, smartphones, and ultrabooks while on the road. But with the beefed up hardware, the device can now be used in more mission critical environments where data integrity is essential. Even in the home as a vault for all your digital memories.
The WD My Cloud EX4 is available now and will come in three configurations: 16TB for $1149.99 US, 12TB for $949.99 US, 8TB for $799.99 US and a diskless version for DIY users for only $379.99 US. The pre-populated versions will come outfitted with the company’s NAS optimized WD RED series of drives but the entire line up will come with a 2 year limited warranty. So if you’re planning to DIY the diskless version, you’ll have some options including WD’s RE4s which come with a 5 year warranty a piece. More information is available in the press release below.
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IRVINE, Calif. – Nov. 12, 2013 – WD®, a Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC) company and a world leader in storage solutions for the connected life, today expanded its recently introduced My Cloud™ family of personal cloud solutions with My Cloud™ EX4, a high-performance four-bay network attached storage (NAS) solution for creative professionals, prosumers, workgroups and anyone looking for a reliable way to save, share, back up, stream and manage massive amounts of digital data.
“The reception for our recently introduced My Cloud personal cloud platform was extremely positive,” said Jim Welsh, executive vice president and general manager of WD’s branded products and consumer electronics groups. “Our single drive My Cloud system is the perfect solution for users that want an easy and private way to store all of their data at home and then share, save and manage it from anywhere in the world, on any device. Expanding our My Cloud platform to a four-bay system delivers the advanced features, customization capability and capacity that many of our customers are looking for.”
Featuring the category leading WD Red™ line of hard drives specifically designed for home and small office NAS systems, My Cloud EX4 customers enjoy ultimate reliability from the trusted name in storage. WD Red drives are powered by NASware™ 2.0 technology, which improves drive reliability and protects customer data in the event of a power loss or disruption. Additionally, WD Red hard drives feature 3D Active Balance Plus, an enhanced balance control technology that significantly improves overall drive performance and reliability.
My Cloud EX4 provides several capacity options, allowing customers to choose from a drive-less enclosure that allows customers to customize their capacity and add additional drives as their library of digital content grows, or an 8 TB, 12 TB or 16 TB model1 . With Easy-Slide-Drive technology, My Cloud EX4 allows customers to easily install or hot-swap drives in seconds, without the need for a screwdriver, toolkit or trays. Additionally, customers can attach compatible USB 3.0 hard drives to the USB expansion ports on the My Cloud EX4 to instantly expand their storage capacity.
Ultimate Data Protection
My Cloud EX4 arms users with multiple options to secure digital data from a potential loss by providing RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 or allowing users to select from spanning and JBOD modes for even more options to manage data. Customers can also use their My Cloud EX4 to back up all of their computers and devices with WD SmartWare™ Pro software for PC users. Mac users can utilize all the features of Apple® Time Machine® backup software to protect their data. The My Cloud EX4 can also backup itself, either to another My Cloud EX4 in a different location, or to cloud services such as Amazon S3 and ElephantDrive. To ensure 24/7 data protection and reliability the My Cloud EX4 includes redundant power supplies and Ethernet ports.
Advanced Streaming and Serving
My Cloud EX4 serves as a home’s digital entertainment hub, configurable for up to 16 TB of movies and music that can then be streamed to any DLNA®/UPnP® certified multimedia device such as gaming consoles, smart TVs and WD TV® Live™ media players. The Twonky 7.2, DLNA-certified 1.5 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 for My Cloud EX4 users.
Customers can also customize their NAS, monitor system health, manage users and energy saving features with the My Cloud EX4 dashboard, as well as use a suite of third party apps, including aMule, Icecast, Joomla!®, phpBB®, phpMyAdmin and SqueezeCenter.
Anywhere Access to My Cloud EX4
Available for iOS® and Android™ devices, the WD My Cloud mobile app allows users to view photos, stream video and share, save and manage files from anywhere on their smartphones or tablets. 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 My Cloud mobile app integrates major public cloud services so that customers can easily transfer files from their Dropbox™, SkyDrive® and Google Drive™ public cloud accounts2.
Price and Availability
My Cloud EX4 is currently available at select U.S. retailers and online at the wdstore.com. MSRP is $379.99 USD for the drive-less My Cloud EX4, $799.99 USD for 8 TB, $949.99 USD for 12 TB and $1,149.99 USD for 16 TB. The My Cloud mobile app currently is available for download from the App StoreSM and Google PlayTM. My Cloud EX4 comes with a two year limited warranty.
Compatibility
My Cloud EX4 is compatible with Windows® 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista®, Windows XP, OS X Mavericks™, Mountain Lion™, Lion®, Snow Leopard®, 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 atwww.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.
1 System is shipped in RAID 5 configuration, which leaves three quarters of the system capacity available for data storage. System is configurable to RAID 0, JBOD or spanned, which leaves all system capacity available for data storage. Up to 0.1TB may be reserved for non-user accessible storage.
2 Dropbox, SkyDrive or Google Drive account required. Cloud services may be changed, terminated or interrupted at any time and may vary by country.
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