PRESS RELEASE
WD further strengthens and extends its UK distribution footprint
WD®, a Western Digital company, has appointed CMS Distribution Ltd (CMS) as a new distribution partner for the UK. With this agreement, WD further strengthens and extends its UK footprint by specifically catering to the rising demand for network attached storage (NAS) solutions from the rapidly growing Small-to-Medium Business (SMB) storage market. CMS will focus on the supply and support of WD's SMB product family, which includes the WD SentinelTM DX4000.
WD Sentinel DX4000 is a complete network storage solution designed specifically to meet the demands of today's SMBs. WD Sentinel DX4000 includes Microsoft® Windows®Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials operating system software and the Intel® D525 Dual Core Atom CPU. The WD Sentinel DX4000 is centralised shared storage, featuring automatic server-based backup and restore for up to 25 devices (PC and Mac®) in the network and includes additional iSCSI SAN support. It offers complete data protection with built-in hardware and software redundancy for all of the connected devices in the network. With capacities from 4 TB up to 16 TB, WD Sentinel DX4000 lets small business owners expand small office server storage capacity as their business and storage demands grow. In addition, the WD Sentinel DX4000 small office storage server acts as the "on-premise cloud storage" for the SMB and is underpinned by WD GuardianTM Services providing extended warranty cover and advance parts replacement.
CMS brings their considerable expertise of integration and support of NAS solutions, using WD products, to UK customers. CMS has an extensive reseller network of some 2,000 active storage and infrastructure channel partners.
CMS, the UK's leading supplier of sub $10k NAS solutions, offers the broadest range of SMB storage technologies, which include: Replication, De-Duplication, Backup, Unified Storage and Data Tiering to their customers. CMS is also a true solution provider, building specific NAS systems based on OEM agreements with various chassis providers and will be integrating the WD RedTM NAS specific hard drives into their systems.
"The UK's NAS storage market, while rapidly growing, is still underserved. This presents immense long-term growth opportunities to WD," explained Sukh Dhillon, Senior Sales Manager UK for SMB. "CMS Distribution has been appointed to help drive WD based solutions into the UK."
"Partnering with WD on their SMB-focussed WD Sentinel NAS portfolio further bolsters our already established position as the leading UK NAS distributor," said Nick Preston, Commercial Director CMS Distribution Ltd. "We are delighted to be working with a storage market-leading manufacturer in WD and are excited about the strength such a brand brings to our portfolio. The WD Sentinel range of products offers cutting-edge technology and their relationship with industry leaders such as Intel and Microsoft provides an excellent new platform and margin opportunity to our network of resellers. We are looking forward to forming a long-lasting relationship in such a key category for the newly-formed CMS Distribution Group."
About CMS Distribution Limited
CMS Distribution is a value added distributor of business and consumer data storage products and solutions in the UK and Ireland. Real value added service is an essential component of success over the past 25 years. CMS Distribution's entire proposition centres on the reseller customer, and this ethos forms the foundation of its drive to build long lasting and successful relationships. For more information, please visit www.cmsdistribution.com.
About WD
WD, a Western Digital company, is a long-time innovator and storage industry leader. As a storage technology pacesetter, the company produces reliable, high-performance hard disk drives and solid state drives. These drives are deployed by OEMs and integrators in desktop and mobile computers, enterprise computing systems, embedded systems and consumer electronics applications, as well as by the company in providing its own storage products. WD's leading storage devices and systems, networking products, media players and software solutions empower people around the world to easily save, store, protect, share and experience their content on multiple devices. WD was established in 1970 and is headquartered in Irvine, California. For more information, please visit the company's website at www.wd.com.
Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC), Irvine, Calif., is a global provider of products and services that empower people to create, manage, experience and preserve digital content. Its companies design and manufacture storage devices, networking equipment and home entertainment products under the WD, HGST and G-Technology brands. Visit the Investor section of the company's website (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.
