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Removal of line about poor hard disk encryption

An anonymous edit by 76.126.50.95 removed a line in the hard disk section stating that WD's external drives had poor disk encryption. The note on the removal was that it was "slanderous", "impertinent", and "unreliable." I reviewed the cited source and the paper it relied on, and I found the statement to be basically accurate. I clarified it to indicate that this applied specifically to data protection, not to the quality of the drive itself, and that it applied to external drives. I also added two additional sources backing up the citation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Macoukji (talk • contribs) 05:24, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

COI edit requests

{{request edit}}

Hi! I work for a communications firm that represents Western Digital, and I have some requests for updating this article. I've broken them out by section:

Lead

  1. This is purely FYI: I updated the logo file to a more current logo provided to me by Western Digital for this purpose.
  2. In infobox:
    1. Update "Industry" from "Computer data storage" to "Data technology" (At this point, Western Digital's products encompass more than strictly storage offerings.)
       Done —Compassionate727 (T·C) 01:09, 11 August 2018 (UTC)
    2. Under "Products", delete "hybrid drives", which are a legacy product. Capitalize the first letter of "solid-state drives" for formatting consistency. Add [[NAND flash memory]]<br/>Mobile storage<br/>[[Network-attached storage]]<br/>[[Direct-attached storage]]<br/>Personal cloud <br/>[[JBOD]] and JBOF<br/>Storage servers<br/>All-flash and hybrid arrays<br/>Data center systems<br/>[[Cloud storage]] services
       Partly done: removed hybrid drives as requested. I haven't added the others; can't find the relevant style guide off the top of my head, but infobox parameters shouldn't be an exhaustive list but rather a summary. Are there a 2-3 products that are more important than the others, or perhaps broader categories for those products that I could use instead? —Compassionate727 (T·C) 01:09, 11 August 2018 (UTC)
    3. Update "Number of employees" from 67,629 (2017)[1] to 72,000 (2018)[2]
       Done —Compassionate727 (T·C) 01:09, 11 August 2018 (UTC)
    4. Update | subsid = to | brands =. Technically, these companies no longer operate independently, so it's inaccurate to call them subsidiaries. Add <br/>G-Technology <br/>Upthere <br/>WD to the list.
       Not done for multiple reasons, including the objection I raised above. Thinking aloud, if all of the brands are listed in the article (and they should be if they're in an infobox), a full list isn't necessary; again, perhaps the more important ones, if that's an applicable measure. Also noting from Wikipedia articles that G-Technology is described as a brand of HGST, which is described in both of the aforemention as a subsidary. SanDisk states it is also a subsidary, and Tegile Systems implies as much. Obviously Wikipedia isn't RS, so I'll need to look at all of this more closely. Tomorrow, presumably, when I'm back on ADD medications. Admittedly if you can provide sources describing these as brands rather than subsidaries, that would help. Updating all may be warranted, depending on what we can find. —Compassionate727 (T·C) 01:09, 11 August 2018 (UTC)
  3. Throughout the article, the company is referred to as "Western Digital", "Western Digital Corporation", "WD", and "WDC". I recommend that all these mentions be updated to simply "Western Digital" for consistency's sake, and that and often abbreviated as WDC be deleted from the first sentence of the lead. Happy to make a sandbox mockup with each mention highlighted if it's helpful.
    Will make an effort to standardize to "Western Digital" as I implement other parts of this request tomorrow, make sure to let me know if I miss some. I don't think removing the acronyms and alternative names from the lead would be appropriate, though, even if we never use them. They're helpful people making searches based on reading they've done elsewhere. —Compassionate727 (T·C) 01:09, 11 August 2018 (UTC)
     Done, I think, let me know if I missed or clobbered anything. —Compassionate727 (T·C) 22:04, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
  4. On a related note, I've made an effort to standardize terminology to "hard disk drive" (for first mention) or HDD (subsequently), rather than the more ambiguous "hard drive". "Solid-state drive" (for first mention) and SSD (for subsequent mentions) already appears to be standardized in the article.
    Again, will attempt to standardize as I go along, let me know if I miss something. —Compassionate727 (T·C) 01:09, 11 August 2018 (UTC)
  5. In first paragraph of lead, replace
    an American computer data storage company and one of the largest computer hard disk drive manufacturers in the world, along with its main competitor Seagate Technology.[3]
    with
    based in the U.S. and one of the largest data storage companies in the world. It designs, manufactures and sells a broad portfolio of data technology products, including storage devices, data center systems and cloud storage services.
    to reflect the company's current focus.
    Most of this looks alright, but I take issue with "broad portfolio" as somewhat peacock-ish. Is this important to the idea being communicated? Can it be omitted? I think "…and sells data technology products, including storage devices…" reads alright. If the idea that is sells lots of products is really important, I think "numerous" would read better than "a broad portfolio": more concise and less like something you'd read in an advertisement. If you have other suggestions, I'm always willing to at least listen. —Compassionate727 (T·C) 01:09, 11 August 2018 (UTC)
  6. Update speciality in second paragraph of lead to specialty.
     Done —Compassionate727 (T·C) 01:09, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

History

  1. In 2010s subsection of History section, replace both mentions of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies with HGST, which is the correct name.
     Done —Compassionate727 (T·C) 21:48, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
  2. Also in the 2010s subsection of the History section, in the fourth paragraph, certain should be added before 3.5-inch hard drives for the desktop and consumer electronics markets. Also of note: Both refs for that sentence—[4][5]—are dead links. Here are a new, external source to replace the first and an updated URL for the second: [6][7]
     Done, although I would personally prefer the word "some" to "certain", if you don't object. —Compassionate727 (T·C) 21:48, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
  3. Jumping down to the "Parallel ATA hard disk drives" subsection of the Products section: I'd recommend deleting that subsection entirely and moving its sole sentence, Western Digital was the last manufacturer of parallel ATA hard disk drives for laptops (2.5-inch form factor) and desktop PCs (3.5-inch form factor), by producing them until December 2013.[8], up to the appropriate chronological location in the History section.
    Would you mind if I refactored this sentence a bit, both to better flow in the context of where I'm placing it, and to bring it closer to the meaning of the source (which, for example, does not say that WD was the last producer of PATA)? —Compassionate727 (T·C) 21:48, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
  4. Adding recent news to the very end of the section: Western Digital announced in October 2017 that it will begin using microwave-assisted magnetic recording (MAMR) instead of heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) in order to increase HDD capacities over the next decade.[9] The next month, the company announced that it will transition consumption of over a billion processor cores per year to RISC-V, an open and scalable computing architecture of which the company is a founding member. The company claims that the transition will occur over the course of two years.[10]
     Partly done: the first half was fine as presented. The second half does not match the source, which says 1 billion over two years (not 2 billion total) and does not (that I see) describe WD as a "founding member" of the technology. I'll refactor it accordingly unless you can provide sources. —Compassionate727 (T·C) 21:48, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

Acquisitions

Recommend this as a new section or subsection of History:

Acquisition date Company Product types Price Refs
March 8, 2012 HGST HDD, SSD $3.9×10^9 [11]
September 12, 2013 STEC SSD $340,000,000 [12]
October 17, 2013 Virident SSD, system and software $685,000,000 [13][14]
March 16, 2015 Amplidata Software — [15]
May 12, 2016 SanDisk SSD, system and software, NAND flash, embedded $1.6×10^10 [16]
August 28, 2017 Upthere Flash, persistent, cloud services — [17]
September 2017 Tegile Flash, persistent, cloud services — [18]
 Done with perhaps a little bit of reluctance. —Compassionate727 (T·C) 21:52, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

Locations

I recommend removing this section entirely per WP:NOTDIRECTORY. It's also quite out of date and contains no sources.

 Done —Compassionate727 (T·C) 01:12, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

Products

 Comment
Subsections under the Products heading contain text which is insufficiently paraphrased from the source material. FYI.  spintendo  16:27, 23 June 2018 (UTC)
@Spintendo: Thanks for flagging! I've tweaked a few things, can't believe I hadn't caught one instance in particular. Mary Gaulke (talk) 00:17, 25 June 2018 (UTC)


  1. Add new subsection:
    ===Data center products===
    Western Digital’s data center products include enterprise HDD and SSD, data center software and system solutions.[19] The enterprise-class products are designed for high-performance, high-capacity applications. This group includes the Ultrastar product line.[20] In October 2017, Western Digital shipped the world’s first 14 TB HDD, the helium-filled HGST Ultrastar Hs14.[21][22]
  2. "Hard drives" subsection:
    1. Rename to "Devices" for accuracy.
       Done: But decided "Storage Devices" was more specific and still accurate Hubcapp (talk) 07:11, 4 August 2020 (UTC)
    2. Add to the beginning of the section and rewrite the sentence introducing the bulleted list as follows (the refs for the final sentence can be retained):
      Western Digital’s client device offerings include HDDs and SSDs for computing devices (e.g. PCs, security surveillance systems, gaming consoles and set-top boxes); NAND-flash embedded storage products for mobile devices, notebook PCs and other portable and IoT devices; and NAND flash memory wafers.[23][24] Western Digital’s embedded storage devices include the iNAND product line and custom embedded products.[25] Western Digital also provides microSD and SD card products to OEMs only for automotive and industrial applications.[26]
      Certain Western Digital client devices product names are based on colors that signify the characteristics of the drive:
       Done: But omitted the industry-specific language of "client device" Hubcapp (talk) 07:11, 4 August 2020 (UTC)
    3. In the bulleted list, replace average with the more precise everyday. Add "WD" before each color for specificity. Update the description of Green drives as follows: WD Green drives are energy efficient and are currently only available as an SSD; the WD Green HDD offerings have been discontinued[27][28][29]
       Done: Went ahead and added "WD" to the start of each color name, seems harmless. Also this is good information on the Green drives. Hubcapp (talk) 07:11, 4 August 2020 (UTC)
    4. I'd suggest moving the single sentence from the "Issues" section into this subsection.
  3. "Software" subsection:
    1. Delete first sentence, Western Digital (WD) distributes the following utilities for use with its hard drives., which is unsourced and confusing.
    2. Delete WD Smartware paragraph, which is unsourced and out of date.
    3. Add to end of section:
      In September 2015, Western Digital released My Cloud OS 3, a platform that enables connected HDDs (including network-attached storage) to sync automatically between PCs and mobile devices.[30] The company’s NASware 3.0 allows NAS environments to have data protection, integration and optimized performance.[31]
      WD Discovery software lets users back up photos, videos and other documents from cloud storage services (e.g. Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive) and social networks (e.g. Facebook and Instagram).[32][33]
  4. Completely overhauling unsourced "Consumer products" subsection:
    ===Consumer products===
    Western Digital sells consumer data technology products under the WD, SanDisk, and G-Technology product brands, as well as cloud storage services under the Upthere brand. The WD brand includes the My Passport, My Book, My Cloud and WD Elements product families.[23] While traditionally these products have used HDDs, Western Digital has started to offer SSD versions, such as the My Passport SSD, its first portable SSD.[34]
    Under the SanDisk brand, Western Digital offers mobile storage products, cards and readers, USB flash drives, SSDs and MP3 players. Most of Western Digital’s consumer flash memory products are offered through SanDisk.[23] The SanDisk iXpand product family, including the iXpand Flash Drive and iXpand Base, is made specifically for use with the Apple iPhone and iPad.[35][36][37] The 400GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card is the world’s highest capacity card in its category. It is designed primarily for use in Android smartphones that include an expansion slot.[38][39]
    Under the G-Technology brand, Western Digital offers HDD, SSD, platforms and systems products designed specifically for creative professionals.[40][41] The G-Technology brand has partnerships with Apple,[42] Atomos,[43][44] and Intel.[45]
    Through Western Digital’s acquisition of Upthere, the company offers personal cloud storage through the Upthere Home app and UpOS operating system.[46][47]
    Former offerings include Western Digital Media Center and over-the-top set-top boxes.[48]
 Partly done: Most of this verbiage has made it into the article, but with a focus on separating Western Digital's Cloud & Non-Cloud products. Hubcapp (talk) 10:32, 4 August 2020 (UTC)

Corporate affairs

Recommend this as a new section, with the existing "Lawsuits" section as a subsection, and two new subsections:

===Western Digital Capital===

Western Digital Capital is Western Digital's investment arm.[49][50] It has contributed funding for data technology companies such as Elastifile and Avere Systems.[51][52][53]

===Community engagement===

In 2017, Western Digital partnered with UN Global Pulse to issue the Data for Climate Action Challenge, a contest to spread awareness of climate change and how to slow it down. The challenge offered access to unique data shared with the participants as part of data philanthropy.[54][55]

See also

Los Angeles in the Portal template should be replaced with San Francisco Bay Area, since the company is based in San Jose.

 Done —Compassionate727 (T·C) 22:09, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

References

Extended content

References

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference 10-K was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Quarterly Fact Sheet - Q3 FY18" (PDF). Western Digital. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  3. ^ Disk Drive Industry Update: Volume 76, Needham Company, June 14, 2011
  4. ^ "February 28, 2012-WD Reaches Agreement with Toshiba Corporation to Divest Certain 3.5-Inch HDD Assets". Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  5. ^ "May 15, 2012-WD® Completes Divestiture of Assets to Toshiba Corporation". Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  6. ^ Ngo, Dong (28 February 2012). "Toshiba to acquire Western Digital's 3.5-inch HDD manufacturing equipment". CNET. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  7. ^ "May 15, 2012-WD® Completes Divestiture of Assets to Toshiba Corporation" (Press release). Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  8. ^ "Western Digital to Stop Shipping PATA Hard Drives". TechPowerUp. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  9. ^ T S, Ganesh (12 October 2017). "HDDs Western Digital Stuns Storage Industry with MAMR Breakthrough for Next-Gen HDDs". AnandTech. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  10. ^ Preimesberger, Chris (29 November 2017). "How WD Plans to Lead Major Changeover to RISC-V Processing". eWeek. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  11. ^ Ribeiro, John (8 March 2012). "Western Digital Closes Hitachi GST Acquisition, to Operate Separate Subsidiaries". PCWorld. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  12. ^ Vättö, Kristian (24 June 2013). "Western Digital Acquires STEC". AnandTech. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  13. ^ Alawadhi, Neha (9 September 2013). "Western Digital buys flash memory maker Virident, focus now on Fusion-io". Reuters. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  14. ^ Dignan, Larry (9 September 2013). "Western Digital buys Virident Systems for $685 million, bolsters enterprise efforts". ZDNet. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  15. ^ Harris, Robin (3 March 2015). "WD's HGST buys Amplidata". ZDNet. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  16. ^ Deagon, Brian (13 May 2016). "Western Digital Starts New Era As SanDisk Acquisition Completed". Investor's Business Daily. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  17. ^ Kastrenakes, Jacob (28 August 2017). "Western Digital buys Upthere to build better cloud storage features". The Verge. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  18. ^ "Western Digital buys up Tegile Systems to add to its Data Center Systems business". V3. 30 August 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  19. ^ Dignan, Larry (15 November 2016). "Western Digital's data center unit adds to scale-out storage portfolio". ZDNet. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  20. ^ Wong, Wylie (12 October 2017). "Western Digital Aims Largest Hard Drive Ever at World's Largest Data Centers". Data Center Knowledge. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  21. ^ Lilly, Paul (3 October 2017). "Western Digital's mega-capacity 14TB helium-filled hard drive is now shipping". PC Gamer. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  22. ^ Whitwam, Ryan (4 October 2017). "Western Digital Launches World's First 14TB Hard Drive". ExtremeTech. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  23. ^ a b c "Products". Western Digital. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  24. ^ Mellor, Chris (28 April 2018). "High-cap enterprise hard drives stream dosh into Western Digital". The Register. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  25. ^ Kingsley-Hughes, Adrian (5 December 2017). "Western Digital paves the way for next-gen 'Big Data/Fast Data' smartphones". ZDNet. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  26. ^ Locklear, Mallory (5 October 2017). "SanDisk's 'Industrial' SD cards can withstand extreme temperatures". Engadget. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  27. ^ "WD Green PC SSD". Western Digital. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  28. ^ Tallis, Billy (11 October 2016). "Western Digital Introduces WD Blue And WD Green SSDs". AnandTech. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  29. ^ Shilov, Anton (21 September 2015). "Western Digital to abandon 'Green' brand in favour of 'Blue' HDDs". Kit Guru. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  30. ^ Fingas, Jon (2 September 2015). "WD's latest cloud tech gives you a reason to forget Dropbox". Engadget. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  31. ^ Armstrong, Adam (7 July 2017). "WD Red 10TB Review". Storage Review. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  32. ^ Smith, Lyle (18 August 2017). "WD My Passport Ultra Review (4TB)". Storage Review. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  33. ^ Shilov, Anton (29 June 2017). "Western Digital Launches New My Passport Ultra HDDs: New Enclosure, Up to 4 TB". AnandTech. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  34. ^ Gartenberg, Chaim (6 April 2017). "Western Digital announces its first portable SSD". The Verge. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  35. ^ Heater, Brian (25 April 2016). "Hands on with SanDisk's iPhone storage-expanding flash drive". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  36. ^ Fuller, Leanne (11 July 2017). "Sandisk iXpand flash drive fits iPhone lightning charge port". WPSD Local 6. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  37. ^ Smith, Lyle (31 August 2017). "WD Announces SanDisk iXpand Base For iPhone & 400GB microSD Card". Storage Review. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  38. ^ Mellor, Chris (31 August 2017). "SanDisk's little microSD card sucks up 400GB". The Register. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  39. ^ Etherington, Darrell (31 August 2017). "SanDisk's 400GB microSD card is an Android phone's best friend". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  40. ^ Ottke, Adam (8 September 2015). "G-Technology's New Enclosures and Adapters Offer Increased Flexibility and Support for All Creative Workflows". Fstoppers. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  41. ^ Broussard, Mitchel (11 April 2017). "Western Digital Reveals 'G-Drive USB-C' With High-Capacity Storage and MacBook Charging Capabilities". MacRumors. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  42. ^ "G-Technology - Storage - Mac Accessories". Apple. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  43. ^ Mindrum, Tucker (6 September 2016). "G-TECHNOLOGY And Atomos Collaborate On Suite Of Products". Storage Review. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  44. ^ Frazer, Bryant (6 September 2016). "G-Technology Announces 4K Disk-Caddy Workflow for Atomos". Studio Daily. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  45. ^ "G-Technology Ships the Industry's Highest-Capacity, Two-Drive, Raid 0, Thunderbolt Storage Solution". Business Wire (Press release). HGST. 16 April 2012. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  46. ^ Miller, Matthew (29 July 2016). "Upthere launches cloud service with a goal to replace your local storage". ZDNet. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  47. ^ Spadafora, Anthony (31 August 2017). "Western Digital buys cloud storage company Upthere". BetaNews. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  48. ^ O'Neill, Jim (11 June 2010). "Western Digital's OTT box adds functionality, looks like a winner". FierceCable. Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  49. ^ "Company Overview of Western Digital Capita". Bloomberg. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  50. ^ McGrath, Dylan (30 August 2017). "Western Digital Buys Flash Array Vendor Tegile". EE Times. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  51. ^ Mellor, Chris (6 September 2017). "File software-flinger Elastifile stretches funding further to $65m". The Register. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  52. ^ Sawers, Paul (21 March 2017). "Hybrid cloud storage company Avere Systems raises $14 million from Google, Western Digital, others". VentureBeat. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  53. ^ Clarke, Peter (11 September 2017). "Western Digital backs processor-in-memory startup". eeNews Analog. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  54. ^ "Enter the UN's Data for Climate Action Challenge and save the world". Ars Technica. 9 March 2017. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  55. ^ Preimesberger, Chris (14 March 2017). "WD, UN Use Big Data Competition to Fight Climate Change". eWeek. Retrieved 3 June 2018.

Due to my COI, I won't be editing the article directly. Thank you for any help or feedback you can share! Mary Gaulke (talk) 18:32, 19 June 2018 (UTC)

@MaryGaulke: Well, this has sat here far too long. I wanted to let you know I have seen this request and intend to review it in the next couple days. There's a chance I'll completely forget about this by tomorrow, so if I haven't done it in a couple days, please remind me. —Compassionate727 (T·C) 01:16, 9 August 2018 (UTC)
@Compassionate727: I seriously appreciate it, thank you! Mary Gaulke (talk) 03:52, 9 August 2018 (UTC)
@Compassionate727: Just a nudge. Thanks again for raising your hand to take a look at this. Mary Gaulke (talk) 00:12, 11 August 2018 (UTC)
@MaryGaulke: Thanks for the nudge, I was distracted by a puppet. I'll take a look at some of this tonight; the rest I hope to get around to tomorrow. —Compassionate727 (T·C) 00:33, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

@MaryGaulke: I have made assorted improvements to the article, but it still needs much work. — Frayæ (Talk/Spjall) 20:53, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

I think that's about all I will be doing for the moment. The article is greatly improved, with much of the unsourced and promotional content stripped out by Jytdog. Not a great deal of the edits proposed above were suitable, but some of the areas needing improvement have been dealt with. — Frayæ (Talk/Spjall) 21:42, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

Expansion of explanation of current product offerings

There could probably be more information given on the real physical differences between each marketed "color", as well as incorporating their SSD offerings branded under the Western Digital Brand. Currently there's only information on why the "Purple" brand started being offered, but Gold vs Black vs Red; Green vs Blue would be probably useful information as well. Hubcapp (talk) 05:18, 4 August 2020 (UTC)

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