WD has introduced My Book Duo, the newest member of its award-winning line of desktop storage solutions for home and office.

Utilising two drives, hardware-level RAID and USB 3.0, My Book Duo delivers massive capacity and file transfer speeds not available on single-drive solutions. Available in 4Tb , 6Tb and 8Tb capacities, My Book Duo also comes with free software that creates secure local, cloud and system-level backups for complete data protection.

“From creative pros and expert consumers to everyday content creators – people with large amounts of data will find My Book Duo the fast and reliable way to offload content from their computers, organise it in a single location and protect it with backups, passwords and encryption,” says Jim Welsh, executive vice-president of content solutions and worldwide sales at WD.

“My Book Duo offers super-fast transfer speeds, massive capacity and integrated WD Red drives to provide the ultimate desktop storage solution for all your digital libraries.”

My Book Duo’s dual-drive design offers superior performance with USB 3.0 connection to enable transfer speeds up to 290 MB/s. Optimised for small RAID environments, the integrated WD Red hard drives with true hardware RAID increase performance and reduce data bottlenecks.

Preconfigured in RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) 0 for maximum performance and capacity, My Book Duo offers users the flexibility to take advantage of mirror mode (RAID 1) for ultimate data protection or use JBOD configuration to use the drives individually. In mirror mode (RAID 1) the drives continuously maintains a second copy of all digital files for real-time data backup.

One drive is used to store the user’s data while the second drive is used for a duplicate copy. In the unlikely event that one drive fails, all of the user’s data is still available from the other drive.

Says Anamika Budree, WD branded sales manager – South Africa, “As digital data increases, so too does the requirement for reliability and redundancy. This challenge is not unique to international markets, with local users also requiring a solution that centralises data whilst providing security and redundancy, making the My Book Duo ideal for the South African market.

“The option of RAID functionality provides consumers, prosumers and even Small Office Home Office (SOHO) users with peace of mind, knowing that their data is safe and secure. Furthermore, the additional cloud and system level backup delivers even more protection, bolstering the security and availability of digital content.”

My Book Duo offers total data protection with local, cloud and system-level backup available through WD Smartware Pro backup software and Acronis true Image software. The automatic and continuous settings within WD Smartware Pro make file and folder backups quick and easy. My Book Duo offers multiple data protection and access benefits to Dropbox account users.

Dropbox data can be securely backed up to the local hard drive and integrated cloud backup to Dropbox accounts with WD Smartware Pro provides safe, offsite storage of critical files – creating an extra layer of protection. Additionally, with My Book Duo, users can then access information saved in the cloud with Dropbox Web access.

In addition to the performance benefits of hardware RAID, My Book Duo is engineered with optimum security in mind. My Book Duo has 256-bit AES hardware encryption and password protection to provide ultimate hardware and software security.

My Book Duo is designed with a convenient user-serviceable enclosure and a handy USB hub on the back of the device which allows for connection of mobile phones, tablets and more for charging or data transfer, or to help de-clutter the workstation area.

Additional features include:

* Interface – USB 3.0 (x2);
* Drives on board – WD Red NAS hard drives;
* Available capacities – 4Tb, 6Tb and 8Tb
* Data management – RAID 0, RAID 1, JBOD; independent CPU for RAID volume management;
* Security – Hardware RAID, Hardware Encryption, Password Protection;
* Compatibility – NTFS (default) + Reformat to HFS + J for Mac;
* Software – WD SmartWare Pro, Dropbox Cloud integration, Acronis True Image Software, WD Security, WD Drive Utilities; and
* Warranty – two-year, worldwide.