Western Digital Details Mission to Unlock the Potential of Data

Company Unveils New Flash and HDD Offerings Inspired by All of the Ways People Use Data

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–What’s Next Western Digital Event – At its What’s Next Western Digital event held today at The Ritz-Carlton San Francisco, Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) detailed its mission to unlock the potential of data by harnessing the possibility to use it. In a series of keynotes delivered by company leaders, Western Digital also unveiled breakthrough HDD and Flash innovations inspired by the ways individuals and businesses use data to create what’s next.

In his opening remarks, David Goeckeler, CEO of Western Digital, commented on the rapidly expanding market that stems from modern computing. The growth of the cloud, the explosion of connected intelligent devices, and the ever-expanding amount of digital information created with these devices each day around the world, all demand more and more storage capacity.

“Everything we do starts with the belief in human potential as it intersects digital innovation and in turn, creates possibility,” said Goeckeler. “Inspired by the many ways in which our customers use data and empowered by our strong go-to-market engine, we uniquely address the broad storage needs of our diverse customers, at any scale — from the smallest intelligent devices to the largest public clouds.”

Joined onstage by partners including AMD, Intel and Microsoft, Rob Soderbery, EVP and GM of the Flash Business Unit at Western Digital, reinforced the company’s commitment to deliver the purpose-built solutions that power the most important and exciting digital applications in the world today.

“Innovating into the future starts with the right tools. We know that when people are given the tools to push boundaries, they are unstoppable,” said Soderbery. “From autonomous cars, artificial intelligence and augmented reality to computing, streaming and gaming, our flash products help to fuel our customers’ potential and allow them to perform at their best.”

EVP and GM of the HDD Business Unit, Ashley Gorakhpurwalla, addressed the changing economics of the data center and introduced the industry’s first 22TB¹ CMR and 26TB UltraSMR HDDs, built upon the foundation of a series of significant innovations cultivated over decades. In conversation with Dropbox, he illustrated Western Digital’s commitment to be a partner to cloud customers by delivering the innovations they need to achieve their goals.

“As the areal density leader in the HDD industry, intentional innovation that delivers TCO for our customers is our greatest responsibility,” said Gorakhpurwalla. “We know that data is our customers’ most valuable asset, and we bring together the brightest minds to develop solutions for today’s exponential rate of data creation to enable deeper connections, new breakthroughs and smarter decisions.”

New Product Innovations

Building on the expertise cultivated over 50 years of creating industry-leading technologies, Western Digital also introduced new flash and HDD products for cloud, client and consumer customers.

• The Cloud: Western Digital unleashed powerful new data storage solutions for cloud customers, including the industry’s first 22TB CMR and 26TB UltraSMR HDDs, and a new family of high-capacity PCIe^® Gen4 NVMe™ SSDs to help them design tiered-storage solutions more efficiently, and generate more value out of their infrastructure to help their customers’ data thrive.
• The Way We Work Now: The new PCIe Gen4 Western Digital PC SN740 NVMe SSD addresses the unique needs of the hybrid workforce and elevates the computing experience with sequential read speeds up to 5,150MB/s² in a thin, light, low-power design.
• Creativity: Western Digital introduced the new SanDisk^® Professional PRO-BLADE™ Modular SSD Ecosystem. Designed to meet the demands of capturing, transferring and preserving increasingly higher resolution content, the PRO-BLADE solutions enable professionals to save hours on transfers, save money for equivalent capacity, and reduce the volume and weight of their gear.
• Gaming: Western Digital unveiled two additions to its award-winning WD_BLACK™ gaming portfolio. Designed with performance and style in mind, the new WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe SSD and WD_BLACK P40 Game Drive SSD, offer gamers more options to elevate their gaming experience so they can play at their best.

Blog: What’s Next: Western Digital Unveils Its Mission to Unlock the Potential of Data

About Western Digital

Western Digital is on a mission to unlock the potential of data by harnessing the possibility to use it. With Flash and HDD franchises, underpinned by advancements in memory technologies, we create breakthrough innovations and powerful data storage solutions that enable the world to actualize its aspirations. Core to our values, we recognize the urgency to combat climate change and have committed to ambitious carbon reduction goals approved by the Science Based Targets initiative. Learn more about Western Digital and the Western Digital^®, SanDisk^® and WD^® brands at www.westerndigital.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements, including statements regarding expectations for the development, applications and performance of the company’s products and expectations for demand and market trends. There are a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate including, among others: future responses to and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic; volatility in global economic conditions; impact of business and market conditions; impact of competitive products and pricing; our development and introduction of products based on new technologies and expansion into new data storage markets; risks associated with cost saving initiatives, restructurings, acquisitions, divestitures, mergers, joint ventures and our strategic relationships; difficulties or delays in manufacturing or other supply chain disruptions; hiring and retention of key employees; our substantial level of debt and other financial obligations; changes to our relationships with key customers; disruptions in operations from cyberattacks or other system security risks; actions by competitors; risks associated with compliance with changing legal and regulatory requirements and the outcome of legal proceedings; and other risks and uncertainties listed in the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the company’s most recently filed periodic report, to which your attention is directed. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof, and the company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

©2022 Western Digital Corporation or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Western Digital, the Western Digital design, the Western Digital logo, SanDisk, the SanDisk logo, SanDisk Professional, the SanDisk Professional Logo, PRO-BLADE, WD, and WD_BLACK are registered trademarks or trademarks of Western Digital Corporation or its affiliates in the US and/or other countries. The NVMe word mark is a trademark of NVM Express, Inc. PCIe^® is a registered trademark and/or service mark of PCI-SIG in the United States and/or other countries. All other marks are the property of their respective owners. Product specifications subject to change without notice. Pictures shown may vary from actual products. Not all products will be available in all regions of the world.

¹ One terabyte (TB) is equal to one trillion bytes. Actual user capacity may be less due to depending on operating environment.

² 1 MB/s = 1 million bytes per second. Based on internal testing; performance may vary depending upon host device, usage conditions, drive capacity, and other factors.

Contacts

Western Digital Contacts:
Robin Schultz

Western Digital Public Relations

1-408-573-5043

robin.schultz@wdc.com

T. Peter Andrew

Western Digital Investor Relations

1-949-672-9655

peter.andrew@wdc.com