Western Digitals presence at Intersec 2023 reflected its commitment to the region; Mohammed Owais, the Middle Easts director of sales for the digital storage solution provider, spoke to Health, Safety and Security Review Middle East on the regions potential, demand, and challenges
"We've, as Western Digital, been present in this region for two decades. Even if I take WD, or San Disk, both the companies have been ever present here for approximately two decades. Our commitment, when people talk about other emerging markets, lies with the Middle East. We have had belief in the region for over 20 years as a corporation. When it comes to Intersec specifically, we've participated since the second year," explained Owais.
"I can very humbly brag that approximately 40% of the world's data is stored on our devices. Whether it's cloud computing, data analytics, AI, machine learning, or unique data, you need storage. We're always trying to innovate and offer more storage capacity, whether it's on Flash drives or mechanical hard drives, at a lower TCO to the customer."
On the region's unique propositions and demands around data storage, the region's director of sales elaborated, "People are becoming more aware of the importance of data. Entire corporations are moving towards digitisation of their data as they get more and more online. That's a real opportunity. Obviously, that's going to become even more important as smart city infrastructure, machine learning capabilities, and AI capacity continues to grow. It's only going to grow exponentially.
"The Fourth Industrial Revolution is all about being connected. There are three pillars: hardware, software, and connection. When you converge all these without data, you can't get anywhere. You can't take advantage of the Fourth Industrial Revolution's potential.
"You need to store your data somewhere, right? That's where we come in to play. We are continuously innovating, trying to get more and more capacity from our HDDs or flash so that people can store more at a lower cost of ownership, get more gigabites per dollar and process data. At the end of the day, whether it's machine learning, AI, or anything else, data plays a pivotal role."
Discussing the constant innovation required to maintain Western Digital's stake in the market, Owais explained, "This year we've launched our 22 terabyte drive. We are promotiong our capacity, which has all the WD data analytics and our cell frame technology."
