Western Digital Showcases AI, Storage Innovations at Computex 2025
May 27, 2025
News
SAN JOSE, Calif., and TAIPEI – Western Digital disaggregated storage and software-defined storage (SDS) for CSPs, enterprises, and STaaS providers. From massive-capacity, reliable JBODs (Just a Bunch of Disks) to ultra-fast EBOF (Ethernet Bunch of Flash) NVMe-oF disaggregated storage solutions for AI, the company’s Platforms Business delivers HDD- and SSD-based solutions designed to power today’s demanding workloads.
Western Digital is announcing the expansion of the company’s Open Composable Compatibility Lab (OCCL); a new Ultrastar® Data102 ORv3 JBOD and an OpenFlex® Data24 4100 with single-port SSDs; as well as new SSD qualifications for its OpenFlex Data24 NVMe-oF storage platform.
Western Digital’s Open Composable Compatibility Lab (OCCL) in Colorado Springs is designed to accelerate industry-wide interoperability for fabric-attached devices and software-defined storage. Designed for CSPs and enterprise customers, the OCCL serves as a vendor-neutral proving ground to simulate real-world environments and workloads, providing critical insights into system compatibility, interoperability, energy efficiency, and performance optimization.
For modern NVMe-oF architectures, OCCL provides testing across disaggregated compute, storage, and networking. Key enhancements include:
- Solutions Architectures: OCCL 2.0 will generate detailed solutions architectures, offering guidance on deploying and managing composable disaggregated infrastructure effectively.
- Disaggregated Storage Best Practices: OCCL 2.0 will highlight best practices for disaggregated storage, helping organizations to maximize efficiency and scalability.
- Industry Expertise: OCCL 2.0 will continue to be a source of thought leadership, sharing strategic insights and innovations in the field of composable infrastructure.
- SSD Partner Benchmarking: OCCL 2.0 will include comprehensive results from benchmarking tools to evaluate the performance of SSD partners, ensuring optimal storage solutions.
OCCL 2.0 growing list of ecosystem participants includes: Arista Networks, Broadcom, DapuStor, Graid Technology Inc., Ingrasys, Intel, Kioxia, MinIO, NVIDIA, OSNexus, PEAK: AIO, Phison, Sandisk, ScaleFlux, ThinkParQ Gmbh/BeeGFS, and Xinnor.
At Computex, Western Digital is also introducing the new OpenFlex Data24 4100 EBOF to its Data24 4000 series, complementing the already available Data24 4200 dual-port SSD model. The Data24 4100 is designed for cloud-like environments where high availability is not a primary requirement. It uses single-port SSDs where performance is optimized via a single connection to each SSD, and redundancy is provided by mirroring the storage system. This new addition ensures that customers have access to the best options for optimizing their storage infrastructure. The Data24 4100 is expected to be available in CQ3 2025.
The new Ultrastar® Data102 3000 ORv3 JBOD is designed to meet the increasing data demands of cloud data centers. In alignment with the broader Open Compute Project (OCP) initiative, the Data102 3000 ORv3 is designed to meet the Open Rack v3 (ORv3) specification, which focuses on rack design and power supply regulation. Complying with Rack Geometry Option 1, this solution is designed to deliver improved power efficiency, better airflow, and enhanced system manageability over the prior generation design.
Additionally, the ORv3 version of the Ultrastar Data102 3000 leverages common building blocks from the 3000 series, such as controllers, enclosures, and Customer Replaceable Units (CRUs), and complies with FIPS 140-3 Level 3 and TAA standards, making it a robust and reliable choice for modern data centers. The Data102 3000 is expected to be available in CQ4 2025.
Western Digital’s Platforms business now offers customers enhanced flexibility and choice in building their storage infrastructure. By supporting a multi-SSD vendor strategy, Western Digital has currently qualified SSDs with leading providers such as DapuStor, Kioxia, Phison, Sandisk, and ScaleFlux, with additional vendors in the qualification process.
Western Digital’s OpenFlex Data 24 NVMe-oF data storage platform, RapidFlex NVMe-oF controllers, Ultrastar Data102 hybrid storage platform, and the Ultrastar Transporter were on display.
For more information, visit: www.westerndigital.com.
Tiera Oliver, Assistant Managing Editor for Embedded Computing Design, is responsible for web content edits, product news, and constructing stories. She develops content and constructs ECD podcasts, such as Embedded Insiders. Before working at ECD, Tiera graduated from Northern Arizona University, where she received her B.S. in journalism and political science and worked as a news reporter for the university’s student-led newspaper, The Lumberjack.
