Western Digital Corp.’s ‘What’s Next Western Digital Event’ in San Francisco detailed its mission to unlock the potential of data by harnessing the ability to use it.
At the event, Western Digital also unveiled breakthrough HDD and Flash innovations inspired by the ways individuals and businesses use data to create what’s next in a series of keynotes delivered by company leaders.
David Goeckeler, CEO of Western Digital, stated in his opening remarks that as the only company in the world to run industry-leading HDD and Flash technology franchises, Western Digital is well positioned to address a rapidly expanding market driven by modern computing. The growth of the cloud, the explosion of connected intelligent devices, and the ever-increasing amount of digital information created with these devices on a daily basis around the world all necessitate an increase in 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.”
Rob Soderbery, EVP and GM of Western Digital’s Flash Business Unit, joined onstage by partners such as AMD and Microsoft to reiterate the company’s commitment to deliver 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.”
Ashley Gorakhpurwalla, EVP and GM of the HDD Business, highlighted the trend toward disaggregated data centers as cloud customers seek to improve utilization and reduce energy consumption. He demonstrated Western Digital’s commitment to being a partner to cloud customers by delivering the innovations they require to achieve their goals in a conversation with Dropbox.
“As the areal density leader in the HDD industry, innovation in storage technology 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.”
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.
