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Western Digital (WDC) Unveils New Solutions for Data Centers

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Western Digital (WDC - Free Report) recently introduced higher efficiency NVMe SSDs and advanced shared storage architectures to help customers move from traditional storage interfaces.

Markedly, Ultrastar DC SN840 NVMe SSDs and RapidFlex NVMe-oF controllers are two separate solutions that come together to form the OpenFlex Data24 NVMe-oF Storage Platform.

The platform is a shared storage JBOF (Just a Bunch of Flash) enclosure that delivers NVMe capabilities to multiple hosts across a low-latency Ethernet fabric network. Moreover, it will help enterprises to enable their data centers to meet the ever-growing need for high-performance applications and intense workloads.

Ultrastar DC SN840 NVMe SSDs will begin to ship next month, while the OpenFlex Data24 NVMe-oF Storage Platform is expected to ship in a five-year limited warranty starting this Fall. RapidFlex NVMe-oF controllers are already available in the market.

The rapid digital transformation taking place across enterprise data centers is likely to boost demand for the company’s new solutions. This, in turn, is expected to drive Western Digital’s top-line growth in the coming quarters.

Western Digital Corporation Price and Consensus

Robust Features to Boost Adoption

The new performance Ultrastar DC SN840 NVMe SSD features a vertically integrated in-house NVMe controller, firmware and 96-layer 3D TLC NAND technology. The SSD also delivers performance of up to 780K/250K input/output operations per second (IOPS) and capacities up to 15.36 TB in a drop-in U.2 15 mm form factor.

Moreover, it comes with 1 and 3 DW/D endurance levels, TCG encryption and full power-loss protection. These features make it ideal for critical applications like cloud computing, SQL/NoSQL databases and data analytics, among others.

Meanwhile, OpenFlex Data24 NVMe-oF Storage Platform features up to 24 hot-swappable Ultrastar DC SN840 NVMe SSDs and shared storage capacity of up to 368 TB in a compact 2U form factor. The platform also integrates RapidFlex NVMe-oF controllers that deliver sub-500 nanosecond latency for projected performance over 13M IOPS/70GB/s when adding up to six network adapters to the platform.

Markedly, the platform will enable data center operators to scale-up capacity with ease and ensure the efficient utilization of disaggregated flash storage to achieve greater performance for highly-intensive workloads.

We believe that these solid features will drive the adoption of Western Digital’s latest offerings.

In Sep 2019, the company completed its acquisition of NVMe-oF ASIC and adapter products manufacturer –– Kazan Networks –– to strengthen its NVMe portfolio. The buyout enhanced Western Digital's advanced fabric-enabled architecture capabilities that in turn boosted the company’s OpenFlex composable disaggregated infrastructure (CDI) offerings.

These initiatives are expected to bolster the company’s data center revenues in the days ahead. In the fiscal third quarter, the company’s data center devices and solutions revenues increased 22% year over year and 2% sequentially to $1.523 billion, driven by strong traction for enterprise SSDs.

This momentum is likely to continue due to the global COVID-19 outbreak which has forced enterprises to accelerate their digital transformation process in order to meet the challenges of a changing business environment.

Additionally, the company is well poised to benefit from the growing adoption of NVMe solutions among OEMs, hyperscale and enterprise IT customers. Per a Research and Markets report, the global NVMe market is expected to hit $163.5 billion by 2025; at a CAGR of 29.7% between 2020 and 2025.

Competitive Scenario

Incremental adoption of Western Digital’s NVMe offerings is anticipated to strengthen the company’s competitive position against the likes of Micron (MU - Free Report) and Seagate (STX - Free Report) .

Recently, Micron introduced two new client SSDs that bring NVMe performance to client computing applications. The Micron 2300 SSD is designed for high-performance applications and features up to 3300 MB/s sequential read and 2700 MB/s sequential write speeds. The Micron 2210 variant can achieve up to 2200 MB/s sequential read and 1800 MB/s sequential write speeds.

In March, Seagate launched IronWolf 510 NVMe SSD designed to meet the needs of multi user network-attached storage (NAS) environments. The SSDs feature caching speeds of up to 3 GB/s for NVMe-compatible systems and comes in 240GB, 480GB, 960GB, and 1.92TB variants.

Zacks Rank & A Key Pick

Currently, Western Digital carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

A better-ranked stock in the broader computer and technology sector is Fortinet, Inc. (FTNT - Free Report) , which sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Long-term earnings growth rate for Fortinet is pegged at 14%.

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