Distributor Drive Control Corporation (DCC) is extending its range of purpose-built Network Attached Storage (NAS) drives with the inclusion of the new higher capacity WD Red drives, as well as medium to large enterprise-class WD Red Pro drives.
WD Red drives, specially designed for use in one to eight bay NAS systems, are now available in Tb and 6Tb capacity in addition to the previous 1Tb to 4Tb offering.

The brand new WD Red Pro drives are designed specifically for use in eight to 16 bay NAS enclosures and are available in 2Tb to 4Tb capacities.

“NAS is seeing rapid growth as all users, from home and small business through to large enterprise, require ever more capacity as well as secure, fast, centralised storage. However, for the home or small business user, affordable, high capacity purpose-built NAS drives have previously been hard to come by. For the medium to large enterprise user, the options have been limited and often expensive.

“By incorporating the cost effective new WD Red and Red Pro drives into our stable of offerings, we are assisting the channel to address two gaps in the market with products designed specifically to meet these needs, backed by the quality of a leading global hard drive brand,” says Fayaaz Seedat, WD product specialist at DCC.

WD Red and Red Pro drives are compatibility-tested with top NAS system manufacturers and optimised for power and performance. They include the latest NASware 3.0 technology, designed to improve reliability and system performance, reduce downtime and simplify the integration process. NASware 3.0 also enables WD Red drives to now support up to eight bay NAS systems, where previous versions supported up to five.

In addition, WD Red drives feature 3D Active Balance Plus, an enhanced balance control technology that significantly improves overall drive performance and reliability. WD Red Pro drives are ideal for medium to large business environments, with an enhanced design that offers reliable, high performance storage powered by NASware 3.0.

“The addition of these products to our line up enables us to provide our channel with the latest in superior hard disk drive technology. This enables them to provide the very best solutions to their customers and reach new markets with a full portfolio of NAS storage products for consumer, small business and medium to large enterprise NAS solutions,” Seedat concludes.

The new WD Red products are available immediately from selected resellers. Recommended retail pricing as follows:
* WD Red 5Tb – R3 181.00 inclusive of VAT;
* WD Red 6Tb – R3 940.00 inclusive of VAT; and
* WD Red Pro starting from R2 022.00 for the 2Tb. Prices are inclusive of VAT.