WD My Book Duo Storage Appliance Offers Dropbox Integration

Storage solutions specialist WD, formerly known as Western Digital, introduced the My Book Duo, the latest member of its line of desktop storage solutions for home and office.

Utilizing two drives, hardware-level redundant array of independent disks (RAID) and USB 3.0, the storage appliance also comes with software that creates secure local, cloud and system-level backups for more robust data protection.

Software available on My Book Duo offers various forms of data protection with local, cloud and system-level backup through the company’s SmartWare Pro backup software and Acronis True Image software WD Edition.

The device is also designed with a user-serviceable enclosure and a USB hub on the back of the device which allows for connection of mobile phones, tablets and more for charging or data transfer, and to help reduce desktop clutter.

In addition to the performance benefits of hardware RAID, My Book Duo is engineered with enhanced security, featuring 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) hardware encryption and password protection.

The key size used for an AES cipher specifies the number of repetitions of transformation rounds that convert the input, called the plaintext, into the final output, known as the ciphertext—there are 14 cycles of repetition for 256-bit keys.

The USB 3.0 feature enables transfer speeds of up to 290M bps, and the device offers users the flexibility to take advantage of mirror mode (RAID 1) for higher data protection or use just a bunch of disks (JBOD) configuration to use the drives individually.

In mirror mode, the drives continuously maintains a second copy of all digital files for real-time data backup, with one drive used to store the user’s data while the second drive is used for a duplicate copy. In the event that one drive fails, all of the user’s data is still available from the other drive.

Rounding out the package are multiple data protection and access benefits to Dropbox account users, including accessing information saved in the cloud with Dropbox Web access.

In addition, Dropbox data can be securely backed up to the local hard drive and integrated cloud backup to Dropbox accounts with WD Smartware Pro to provide offsite storage of critical files.

“From creative pros and expert consumers to everyday content creators – people with large amounts of data will find My Book Duo the fast and reliable way to offload content from their computers, organize it in a single location and protect it with backups, passwords and encryption,” Jim Welsh, executive vice president of content solutions and worldwide sales at WD, said in a statement. “My Book Duo offers super-fast transfer speeds, massive capacity and integrated WD Red drives to provide the ultimate desktop storage solution for all your digital libraries.”

Available through the company’s website and select retailers in the U.S., the My Book Duo comes with a two-year limited regional warranty, with pricing for devices starting at $279.99 for the 4TB version, $349.99 for 6TB model, and $449.99 for the flagship 8TB unit.