WD recently announced the expansion of its Red line of SATA hard drives specifically designed for home and small-office NAS (network attached storage) systems with one-to-five drive bays.
The hard drives are now available in a 2.5-inch form factor offering 1 TB and 750 GB capacities and a new 3.5-inch 4 TB capacity. Powered by NASware 2.0 technology, the drives have been compatibility-tested with top NAS system manufacturers and optimised for performance and reduced power consumption, WD said.
“WD defined the NAS drive category by leading the development of hard drives specifically built for small NAS environments,” said Matt Rutledge, Vice President of Client Storage, WD.
“The WD Red product line serves the unique environment of NAS and meets the growing demand for affordable, reliable, and compatible storage. Through dialogue with our NAS partners and customer advocacy for WD Red, we saw the need for additional capacity in the 3.5-inch form factor and delivered our new 4 TB offering.
“We also wanted to deliver a highly reliable and compatible 2.5-inch hard drive built specifically for small NAS. This small form factor enables our customers to use high capacity NAS hard drives with high performance, quiet operation and low power consumption in compact NAS enclosures. We also see an opportunity in smaller-footprint NAS systems, media players and other industrial applications. Our pride in our product and our vision is shared with our customers.”
Industry analysts see NAS continuing to represent one of the fastest-growing segments of the worldwide SOHO storage systems market. From both revenue and terabyte perspectives, NAS will continue to experience strong growth to 2015, driven by a major shift of storage deployments toward IP-connected systems, according to IDC’s 2013 Worldwide Personal and Entry-Level Storage Tracker.
WD said that its NASware 2.0 technology offers a better NAS experience, as it further improves drive reliability and protects customer data in the event of a power loss or disruption. The new Red hard drives also feature 3D Active Balance Plus, an enhanced balance control technology, which significantly improves overall drive performance and reliability.
WD offers free premium 24×7 dedicated phone support and a three-year limited warranty exclusively for Red customers.
