WD Intros 2-Bay Prosumer Personal Cloud Storage

On Tuesday Western Digital launched My Cloud EX2, a 2-bay network attached storage (NAS) system designed for the "prosumer" and creative professionals that need to save, share, back up, stream and manage huge amounts of data on one device. The new NAS joins the 4-bay My Cloud EX4, which was launched back in November 2013.

According to the company, the new NAS features an integrated file server, FTP server, backup server and a P2P download server. Users can also download and run a number of third party apps including aMule, Icecast, Joomla!, phpBB, phpMyAdmin, Transmission, SqueezeCenter, and more. Desktop and laptop backups are performed using WD SmartWare Pro software on the PC, or Apple Time Machine with Mac.

"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," states the company's announcement.

As for drive management options, users are provided with RAID 0, RAID 1, JBOD and spanning modes, while data protection options include RAID 1, USB, cloud or LAN/WAN backup. However, the My Cloud EX2 comes preconfigured in RAID 1 mode to protect data from the start.

In addition to the NAS, the company also provides the WD My Cloud mobile and desktop app that allows users to save, manage and even stream files from anywhere on their Android or iOS device. Users can also easily transfer files from their Dropbox, SkyDrive and Google Drive public cloud accounts to the new NAS. Files can be shared, linked and emailed with third party apps.

"WD is committed to providing a comprehensive portfolio of personal cloud solutions as the need for digital data storage continues to dramatically increase," said Jim Welsh, executive vice president, WD Branded Products and worldwide sales. "With the My Cloud EX series of products, customers will be thrilled with the advanced features, high-performance and reliability that only WD can provide."

Customers have the option of purchasing the NAS without hard drives, or purchasing the NAS with WD Red hard drives installed in both bays. Pricing is $199.99 USD for the diskless My Cloud EX2, $369.99 USD for 4 TB, $469.99 USD for 6 TB and $569.99 USD for 8 TB.

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