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Western Digital Ships More Than 10 Million Helium-Filled HDDs

WDC | October 13, 2016

Western Digital Ships More Than 10 Million Helium-Filled HDDs

Need for Data Abundance Drives Unprecedented Adoption of HelioSeal Platform

Helping the world harness the power of data, Western Digital Corporation (“Western Digital”) (NASDAQ: WDC) today announced that it has shipped more than 10 million helium-filled hard disk drives (HDDs) since the company first introduced the HelioSeal platform four years ago. First shipped in 2013, Western Digital’s HelioSeal platform has consistently pushed the envelope in terms of capacity and total cost of ownership (TCO) benefits, becoming the highest density HDDs, best suited for massive scale-out workloads.

“Extreme capacity hard drives are increasingly a key value enabler for enterprise applications and Western Digital continues to be a technology and time-to-market leader in terms of delivering capacity-optimized enterprise HDDs,” said John Chen, vice president, TRENDFOCUS. “As cloud and traditional enterprise customers continue to develop applications that make use of all of their accessible data, high density drives will be a crucial component that enable cost-effective storage of that data at scale. Western Digital’s HelioSeal platform has proven to be a key differentiator that addresses high capacity needs.”

With roots tracing back to the first hard drive manufactured 60 years ago, Western Digital continues to lead the industry by delivering innovative and reliable storage solutions that help solve challenges faced by customers in the datacenter. The HelioSeal technology complements future magnetic recording technologies, and will enable even higher density HDDs expressly designed for enterprise applications and hyperscale workloads that require capacity to capture vast amounts of operational and historical data. Helium-based drives are also well suited for applications such as the Internet of Things (IoT), search and social media. Spanning three generations, the HelioSeal platform enables the highest density HDDs available today and delivers the highest HDD reliability ratings to reinforce its capabilities for use in cloud and enterprise workloads where availability and reliability are paramount concerns.

Underscoring the overall TCO benefits is the power efficiency of the HelioSeal platform. The 10 million helium hard drives, or approximately 76 exabytes (EB) of storage capacity, are a testament to energy efficiency at scale. As architects continue to design for hyperscale cloud applications, 76EB of data stored on 10TB helium-filled drives would save over 1 million kilowatt hours (KWh) of operating power¹ each day, about half the power required for 8TB air-filled drives. The energy saved in one day of operation from these drives would be enough to power about 35,000 U.S. homes for the same day, illustrating how the efficiency of the HelioSeal line can help data center architects meet eco-environmental goals and requirements.

“Western Digital is firmly committed to enabling an era where data is abundant and immediately accessible,” said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing, Western Digital. “The velocity at which Western Digital achieved this milestone underscores the avid need for data ubiquity across cloud and on-premise. Architects who design for hyperscale environments are sparking rapid innovation because they understand how data fluency across an organization informs smarter decisions. This is key to unlocking the power of data.”

Western Digital offers the HelioSeal platform on its enterprise-class products (under its HGST product brand as Ultrastar^® He10 and Ultrastar He8, and under its WD product brand as WD Gold), and its NAS and surveillance offerings (WD Red, WD Red Pro and WD Purple) in volume today. For more information on the HelioSeal platform, please visit: https://www.hgst.com/sites/default/files/resources/HGST-Helium-Technology-BR03.pdf

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements, including expectations of future delivery of capacity-optimized enterprise HDDs, the ability of HelioSeal technology to complement future magnetic recording technologies and enable higher density HDDs, and continued growth and adoption of high capacity drives, that are based on current expectations and involve numerous risks and uncertainties that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate. Risks that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate include among others: our product offerings may not be available when we expect or be able to complement future technologies to enable higher density HDDs, the actual need for higher capacity drives may not grow as expected or gain customer acceptance in the timeline we expect, and the other risks detailed from time-to-time in Western Digital’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings and reports. This news release contains information from third parties, which reflect their projections as of the date of issuance. All statements made in this news release are made only as of the date of this release. Western Digital undertakes no obligations to update the information in this release in the event facts or circumstances change after the date of this release.

About Western Digital Corporation

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) is an industry-leading provider of storage technologies and solutions that enable people to create, leverage, experience and preserve data. The company addresses ever-changing market needs by providing a full portfolio of compelling, high-quality storage solutions with customer-focused innovation, high efficiency, flexibility and speed. Our products are marketed under the HGST, SanDisk and WD brands to OEMs, distributors, resellers, cloud infrastructure providers and consumers.

One GB is equal to one billion bytes and one TB equals 1,000 GB (one trillion bytes). One PB is equal to 1,000 TB (one quadrillion bytes). Actual capacity will vary depending on operating environment and formatting. Usable capacity will vary from the raw capacity due to object storage methodologies and other factors. Product specifications subject to change without notice. Not all products are available in all regions of the world. Pictures shown may vary from actual products.

© 2016 Western Digital Corporation or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Western Digital, the Western Digital logo, Ultrastar, HelioSeal, WD Gold, WD Red, and WD Purple are registered trademarks or trademarks of Western Digital Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other trademarks, registered trademarks, and/or service marks, indicated or otherwise, are the property of their respective owners.

¹ Power calculations based on operating assumption of 60% idle and 40% r/w power requirements for the drives only.