Model: Western Digital My Cloud EX2 4TB Personal Cloud Storage
Manufacturer: Western Digital
Provided By: Western Digital
As one of the biggest names in the storage industry, Western Digital doesn't need much of an introduction. Founded in 1970, the company got its start by manufacturing calculator chips. As time went on, Western Digital expanded into the PC market, adding floppy and hard disc controllers to its product lineup. It wasn't until 1988 that it introduced its "Centaur" series of hard drives. Since then, the company has grown to become the world's second largest manufacturer of hard drives. Western Digital currently offers a wide range of internal and external hard drives as well as a growing number of multimedia devices, SSDs and network storage solutions.
This past fall, Western Digital launched its new My Cloud family of personal cloud solutions. The first in this series was simply named the My Cloud. This easy to use, single bay NAS device gave consumers the ability to keep media and files safe at home on their own physical drive and then access them over the Internet. The My Cloud could also be used to backup a user's computers and digital files and serve as a home's digital entertainment hub to stream audio and videos. Building on the success of the My Cloud, WD soon introduced a four-bay version named the My Cloud EX4. Aimed at creative professionals and prosumers, the EX4 provided greater capacities, advanced backup and serving options and third party apps for users looking to customize their NAS.
To fill the gap between the My Cloud and My Cloud EX4, Western Digital has now introduced the My Cloud EX2. Designed for the home or small office, this high-performance, two-bay NAS is available as a diskless enclosure or a populated system that is ready to go out of the box. The EX2 is equipped with a 1.2 GHZ ARM processor, 512MB of DDR3 RAM, a gigabit Ethernet port and two USB 3.0 expansion ports. Like the My Cloud EX4, it provides integrated file, FTP and backup servers as well as multiple data protection options including RAID, USB, cloud and LAN/WAN backup. The EX2 also offers a full suite of advanced features to power your home or office and can be further customized using third party apps like Joomla, WordPress, IceCast and more.
Needless to say, this is only a taste of what WD's new two-bay personal cloud solution has to offer. To give you an idea of what to expect, we'll take a look at the EX2's features and then put it through its paces to see how it performs. Does WD's new My Cloud NAS have what it takes? Keep reading as we find out.
