The digital universe in India is on the upswing. According to a report published by IDC, the digital market in India is expected to double in size in every two years and further increase nine folds between 2013 and 2020- from 326 exabytes to 2.8 zeta bytes. This burgeoning growth is further fuelled by current government’s Digital India and smart cities’ initiatives aimed to lead a massive expansion of Internet of Things (IoT) in the entire country. Another strong forecast reveals that by 2020, Internet of Things (IoT) will represent almost 10 percent of the data generated in India. As IoT promises to offer an “intelligent life”; data capturing, reliable data storage, and effective data analytics have become more important than ever. Today, India’s media and entertainment industry understands the role of Digital Technology well as for them digital content seems to play the role of a king. Hence, protecting and archiving the digital data and content with the right data storage solution has become one of the most crucial requirements. Likewise, the proliferation of consumer electronics, computing devices, social media and cloud related infrastructure over time is driving rapid growth in the creation, sharing and retention of high definition video, high resolution image, email and huge data files. In addition, increasing demand for easy data access and distribution, facilitated by network accessibility, big data analytics and higher bandwidth, have been powering a dramatic increase in the need for data storage at both local level and off-site, network-accessed or “cloud” levels. Owing to these factors, media industry is on a chase to trace a storage solution that can accommodate digital content growth and store the content economically without compromising with quality and security.

The Growth
Western Digital Technologies, headquartered in California, USA is one of the largest computer hard disk drive and solid state drives manufacturer, which enables its customers to store, collect, access, and use a vast and growing body of digital information. The company is well positioned to capitalize on important long-term growth trends in the rapidly changing storage industry and avoids taking short cuts for addressing storage complexities and instead focuses on growth, innovation and value creation for its customers, employees and shareholders through strong execution with targeted investments in data center infrastructure, mobility and the cloud. Khwaja Saifuddin (“Saif”), Senior Director- South Asia, Middle East and Africa, WD says, “With the significant increase in data storage demand, enterprises and cloud infrastructure players have adopted tiered storage architectures to improve storage performance and manage the costs of this growth. Tiered storage architecture optimizes data storage to the most appropriate storage device, driving increasing demand for high capacity and high performance HDDs and solid-state storage”.
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST) and WD are two independent subsidiaries of Western Digital Corporation. With the recent acquisition of HGST, Western Digital Corporation has achieved strong financial performance for fiscal 2014 and successfully built relationships with customers looking for storage solutions. “Through HGST and WD, we sell our products to OEMs, distributors, resellers, cloud infrastructure players, and consumers”, says Saif.
ShahRukh Khan, an eminent actor of Bollywood and owner of Red Chillies Entertainment acknowledged WD for its storage products that supported the shooting of his film “Happy New Year” and provided purpose-built internal and external drives, on which all of the production was stored and edited, thus offering high capacity, fast performance and reliability. Khan said “I think one of the prerequisites for being able to make a film like this is to have storage which is trustworthy and provides huge amounts of terabytes. Thank you WD for partnering with us.” The initiative taken by WD helped Red Chillies Entertainment to meticulously save and backup nearly 120 TB of data on three separate devices. “All of the drives performed commendably in varied climatic and temperature fluctuations, from the heat of Dubai to the humidity in Mumbai and withstanding even chilly nights on many occasions”, says Saif. He further adds, “The tie-up with Red Chillies was a unique opportunity for us as even though most production houses have shifted to a digital format, this is probably the first time they have acknowledged the crucial role that storage products play in the production and post-production process.”

Meeting the Burgeoning Requirements of Digital Content Storage
With the change in consumers’ lifestyles, the emphasis is not just given on buying any storage product, but on a product that can support their changing lifestyle in terms of increased capacity, contemporary look and mobility. On a mission to allow consumers save, access and share digital content easily, WD has rolled out a wide range of astute storage solutions. Staying abreast of various trends and the ways in which various people create and consume data, WD has developed “My Cloud” family of personal cloud storage devices, which allow users to keep their data secure and provide data access while on the move. Additionally, for consumers who want to navigate towards a wireless world, WD with the help of “My passport Wireless”- which is a Wi-Fi™ enabled storage drive, allows consumers to save, access and share stored content wirelessly with any Smartphone, tablet, computer or other device.

Surveillance is a Growing Reality
Surveillance has become a growing reality. We walk into an elevator and get greeted by a poster that says “Smile! You are on Camera”. Today, surveillance is not just used to monitor crime, vandalism and terrorism, but it is now being deployed for improving operational processes while monitoring the footages of store lines, employee activities, analysing customer behaviour in the stores thereby improving their in-store behaviour. “People often understand the importance and role of surveillance cameras in a surveillance process. Today saving the footage is important to to help track discrepancies. However storing footages in unfitting storage devices can defeat the purpose of effective surveillance”, says Saif. Determining the significance of surveillance in customer-based working environment, WD offers Purple Surveillance Storage Solution, which has been designed in such a way that it can sustain high temperature and become attuned with a wide range of security systems. “These drives are designed to replace those standard desktop drives which are not designed for the harsh 24/7 always-on, high-definition surveillance environment”, says Saif. With exclusive IntelliSeek technology, WD Purple drives calculate the optimum seek speeds which lowers power consumption, noise and vibration that can damage and cause desktop drives to wear out more quickly and easily.

Boosting Reliability and Storage Efficiency
Today, SMBs and small offices/home offices (SOHOs) in India are more progressively becoming aware of technology and its repercussions in strengthening their business and as well gaining competitive advantage. In addition, abundance of data and necessity to boost reliability and storage efficiency have made Network-Attached Storage an indomitable force that serves as an efficient and cost effective way to centrally store, manage and access data conveniently and on the go. Owing to this growing demand of Network-Attached storage, WD has developed its own NAS portfolio that comprises of WDRedTM, WD Red ProTM, WD ReTMdrives, and WD Re PlusTM drives. WD Red is specifically designed and tested for SOHOs, 1 to 8 bay NAS systems and PCS with RAID. They are available in 2.5’’ and 3.5” form factors and can offer up to 6 TB capacities in a single drive. “Furthermore, our NAS drives are designed with innovative technology that reduce power consumption and lowers the operating temperature. This significantly improves the overall drive performance and reliability”, adds Saif.
The company has recently launched My Cloud™ EX2 and My Cloud™ EX4 devices in India to address data accessibility and security needs. “My Cloud EX2 (two-bay) and My Cloud EX4 (four-bay) systems belong to the My Cloud family of personal cloud solutions and offer advanced NAS features with up to 12 TB and 24 TB capacities, respectively”, explains Saif.

“Power of Choice”
WD understands the pulse of the customers so well that it gives its customers the power to choose the right product for their needs. The company offers more than a one-size-fits-all storage solution and always stands strong by its consumers, thus allowing them to avail top-notch after sales service and warranty support across India. WD strongly believes that a user should be able to get a replacement product with the same ease as he gets when he purchases a product. In this regard, the company provides ‘WD Express’, a door-to-door replacement service that ensures easy replacement of its products. With a vision to provide endless value to its customers and secure its competitive position, the company has invested considerable amount in research and development, manufacturing infrastructure and capital equipment of head and magnetic media components. Further, the company is keen to create value using data and contribute to the promising future of Storage Solutions Market.