SecurityMEA speaks with Khwaja Saifuddin, Senior Director – Sales, MEA & SE Asia about their diverse product portfolio and new announcements made at Intersec this year.
How long has Western Digital been participating at Intersec and what motivated you to participate this year?
Western Digital has taken part in Intersec for around 6 years – it has been a success every time and that is why we participated this year as well. The event provided us with the opportunity to see how the industry is changing/shaping through the years in terms of technology innovation. This year we have a number of interesting things to share with our partners and Intersec provided us with an ideal platform to not only showcase our product line but also hold discussions with our partners and understand which product can ideally fit their needs.
How was your participation at the event this year?
Recognizing the ever-increasing value of surveillance across this region, we showcased at Intersec with a standalone presence to enlighten our consumers on the latest storage solutions and technologies. Seeing the phenomenal demand for our WD Purple drives, we showcased our wide range of purpose-built WD Purple hard drives at Intersec 2018. In addition to this, we wanted to build on our existing strategic partnerships with the region’s leading industry players and were able to have meaningful discussions at the event with both partners as well as end-users.
What would you say were the highlights of your participation at Intersec this year?
The most exciting part of our participation this year is presenting WD, SanDisk and HGST (Hitachi Global Storage Technologies) on one platform. Also, this is the first time that we are showcasing WD’s HGST-branded range of enterprise hard drives in this region since acquiring the company around 6 years ago.
Apart from WD’s HGST-branded range, which other products did you showcase during the show? Please share the details.
We are showcasing our WD Purple a purpose-built line of 3.5-inch, high-capacity hard drives for surveillance applications. Designed specifically for video surveillance units, WD Purple hard drives excel in new and existing home and small business security environments. Shipping today, WD Purple hard drives are available in capacities from 1 TB up to 12TB. WD optimized the WD Purple line of hard drives for surveillance applications to improve high-definition video playback, and operate in 24×7 workloads of surveillance environments.
The 10TB Surveillance Hard Disk Drive offers exclusive AllFrame technology to bring you premium reliability and peace-of-mind when installing your home or small to medium business security system. With increased capacity and proven leading-edge technology, the WD Purple 10 TB HDD is optimized for 24×7 video surveillance systems and up to 64 high-definition (HD) cameras in home and small business security environments.
With the integration of SanDisk and HGST into the Western Digital brand, how are you positioning such diverse offerings in the market?
We address market requirements in terms of where our end-users will ultimately use our product. For instance, in surveillance if the storage requirement is for use in DVR then we offer our Purple range but for use in a command center our Gold Class products are the ideal choice. Further, we offer SSD solutions if the surveillance application is in drones, buses, etc. In this way we have dedicated products addressing specific needs rather than a one-solution-serves-all kind of offering. For us, it is more about judging the customer needs and providing them with the right product to address their needs perfectly and hence we position products as per application rather than brand.