WD adds two-bay NAS to its acclaimed My Cloud personal cloud portfolio

My Cloud – EX2

WD, a Western Digital company and a world leader in connected storage solutions, has expanded its prosumer personal cloud solutions with My Cloud EX2, a high-performance two-bay network attached storage (NAS) system. The My Cloud EX2 and My Cloud EX4 products are designed from the ground up for creative professionals and prosumers that need to reliably save, share, back up, stream and manage large amounts of digital data.

“WD is committed to providing a comprehensive portfolio of personal cloud solutions as the need for digital data storage continues to dramatically increase,” says Jim Welsh, executive vice president and general manager of WD’s branded products and consumer electronics groups. “With the My Cloud EX series of products, consumers will be thrilled with the advanced features, high-performance and reliability that only WD can provide.”

Complete Data Control and Protection
Several data management and security features allow customers to select their preferred methods for managing and protecting their movies, photos, music and digital files. Drive management options include RAID 0, RAID 1; JBOD and spanning modes, while data protection options include RAID 1, USB, cloud or LAN/WAN backup. The My Cloud EX2 comes preconfigured in RAID 1 mode to protect data right from the start and is easily configurable into other data protection modes. Customers can use their My Cloud EX2 to centralise and back up all of their computers and notebooks with WD SmartWare Pro software for PC users, and with the Apple Time Machine backup software for Mac users.

High Capacity and Ultimate Reliability
My Cloud EX2 provides several capacity options for customers to choose from, including a diskless enclosure allowing users to build their own NAS with the drives of their choice, as well as populated systems in 4TB, 6TB or 8TB capacities. Additionally, customers can attach compatible USB 3.0 hard drives to the USB expansion ports on the My Cloud EX2 to instantly expand their storage capacity. The populated My Cloud EX2 features WD Red hard drives for ultimate reliability in the unique 24×7 NAS operating environment. WD Red drives are powered by NASware 2.0 technology, improving drive reliability and protecting customer data in the event of a power loss or disruption.

Says Anamika Budree, WD Branded Sales Manager – South Africa, “South African’s are too following the international trend of storing more and more digital content daily. The My Cloud EX2 provides the benefit of extended capacity that can be scaled as and when more disk space is required whilst harnessing the benefits of a ‘personal cloud’. The My Cloud EX2 enables you to access your content from any location and almost any device, making it perfect for users on the go. The result is a solution that is complemented by WD’s purpose built Red NAS drives, providing users with a total solution.’’

Anytime, Anywhere Access
The award-winning WD My Cloud mobile and desktop app provides anytime, anywhere access to the entire My Cloud product family. WD My Cloud mobile app users can easily view photos, stream video and share, save and manage files from anywhere on their iOS and Android devices. The mobile app makes file sharing and collaborating simple, allowing customers to easily email files, share files as a link, and print and open files with third party apps. The WD My Cloud mobile app integrates major public cloud services so that customers can easily transfer files from their Dropbox, SkyDrive and Google Drive public cloud accounts. With the WD My Cloud desktop app, navigating, controlling and sharing digital files from anywhere in the world is simple and intuitive.

Advanced Features
My Cloud EX2 includes advanced data serving options including an integrated file server, FTP server, backup server and a P2P download server. Additionally, users can download and run a host of third party apps, including aMule, Icecast, Joomla!, phpBB, phpMyAdmin, Transmission, SqueezeCenter, and more.
Users can also stream videos and photos to connected TVs, media players, gaming consoles and other DLNA/UPnP devices with the included Twonky 7.2 server, DLNA-certified 1.5 media server, and built-in iTunes server.

Price and Availability
My Cloud EX2 is currently available at select retailers and online at the wdstore.com. MSRP is R2923.00 for the diskless My Cloud EX2, R4699.00 for 4 TB, R5800.00 for 6 TB and R7638.00 for 8 TB. The WD My Cloud mobile app currently is available for download for free from the App Store and Google Play. My Cloud EX2 comes with a two year limited warranty.

Compatibility
My Cloud EX2 is compatible with Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, OS X Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion, Snow Leopard, as well as DLNA/UPnP enabled devices.