Image credit: Mohammed Owais, Supplied

Western Digital, a leader in hard disk drives (HDDs), recently showcased powerful solutions for enterprise-class surveillance systems, hyperscalers, and cloud providers at this year’s Intersec, the leading global business event for the world’s safety and security industry value chain.

The Byteline talks to Mohammed Owais, Sales Director for Middle East, Turkey, Africa & India for HDD at Western Digital, to discuss how the manufacturer’s latest product and technology innovations are raising the bar for capacity, performance and efficiency for modern cameras and AI-enabled recording systems.

Tell us about the inspiration and vision about how you got started

Western Digital’s journey into the video surveillance industry was driven by the rapid evolution of smart cities and the increasing demand for data-driven security solutions.

Recognizing the growing reliance on high-quality video data to enhance public safety, business operations, and infrastructure management, Western Digital set out to develop purpose-built storage solutions that could meet the unique challenges of video surveillance. The vision was to provide robust, reliable, and intelligent storage that enables smarter, safer, and more connected environments.

Western Digital’s WD Purple range was born from this vision, offering tailored solutions that support AI-driven insights, 24/7 operation, and seamless scalability to empower security professionals and smart city planners.

The company is at the cutting-edge of B2B solutions. Tell us more about the new developments and "Edge to Cloud"

Western Digital is pioneering solutions that bridge the gap between edge devices and cloud storage, enabling seamless data flow across the entire surveillance ecosystem. The rise of AI-enabled surveillance and IoT technologies has driven the need for storage solutions that can efficiently capture, process, and analyze data at the edge while ensuring secure long-term storage in the cloud.

The WD Purple Pro line is designed to support AI-driven workloads at the edge, enabling real-time analytics and rapid decision-making, while cloud integration ensures scalable, centralized data management. Developments in 5G connectivity, embedded AI chips, and high-capacity drives are driving the transition from traditional storage to intelligent, distributed architectures that empower smart city applications, retail analytics, and industrial automation.

How have events such as Intersec helped promote and realize your vision

Industry events like Intersec have played a critical role in amplifying Western Digital’s vision for intelligent storage solutions in the security and surveillance sector. These events provide a platform to showcase cutting-edge innovations, engage with key stakeholders, and better understand emerging industry trends. They facilitate collaboration with security professionals, integrators, and technology partners to demonstrate the unique capabilities of WD Purple and WD Purple Pro storage solutions and how they address evolving challenges such as AI-driven analytics, cybersecurity, and regulatory compliance. Intersec has been instrumental in positioning Western Digital as a thought leader in surveillance storage and fostering partnerships that drive innovation in smart video applications in the region.

Security is obviously front and center with Micro SD cards and advanced storage platforms. How do you hope the future regulations and global rules will shape up to enhance this?

As data privacy and cybersecurity become increasingly critical in surveillance systems, Western Digital continues to focus on reliable storage solutions that are aligned with emerging security standards and incorporating features such as hardware-level encryption, secure boot processes, and advanced data lifecycle management to meet compliance requirements across different geographies and industries.

Can you explain more about the AI data cycle topic?

Western Digital’s six-stage AI Data Cycle framework defines the optimal storage mix for AI workloads at scale. It refers to the continuous process in which AI systems generate, analyze, and utilize data to improve their accuracy and efficiency. This framework will help customers plan and develop advanced storage infrastructures to maximize their AI investments, improve efficiency, and reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) of their AI workflows.  

Raw data collection: Surveillance systems capture massive volumes of video footage that must be securely stored and processed.

Data preparation & ingestion: Before AI models can analyze video data, it needs to be cleaned, organized, and ingested into processing systems.

AI model training: This stage involves using high-performance storage to support the computationally intensive process of training AI models to recognize patterns, detect anomalies, and perform advanced analytics.

Inference & deployment: Once trained, AI models are deployed to make real-time decisions at the edge or in the cloud. Storage solutions must provide low latency and high availability to ensure seamless operations.

New content generation: Insights derived from AI models generate additional data that is fed back into the system, creating a self-perpetuating cycle of improvement.

Western Digital’s storage solutions, such as WD Purple, are designed to address each stage of the AI data cycle by providing the performance, endurance, and capacity required to support continuous AI-driven surveillance applications.

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