Whenever we think of using cloud storage services, it is always the fee that we have to pay for it, yet we aren’t able to fully maximize its potential and face the risk of security issues. Therefore, you may start wondering if you could have full visibility on how and where your files are being stored, while being able to access them remotely. Being the expert in storage solutions, Western Digital has the solution to this with its My Cloud personal cloud storage, which storage options start from 2TB up to 4TB.
Western Digital My Cloud Hard Drive Video Review
Western Digital My Cloud Web Configuration Overview
A MyBook Harddrive with Internet Connectivity
If you are a storage junkie, you might already be using WD’s My Book Desktop harddrive, which is obviously missing the function to be able to connect to the Internet. With the My Cloud hard drive, you I’ll be able to have your files up in the cloud all the time as long as you have an internet connection.
The device sports a Gigabit LAN port which will allow great file transfer speeds over a wired connection, you will need to make sure that you have a router next to your desk if you want to have it in sight, because it doesn’t have built-in WiFi.
One plus point over the company’s My Book storage is the additional USB 3.0 port at the back of the device, which will allow you to connect and share additional external hard disks and flash drives over the network.
Apart from being a network connected storage, the device doesn’t do much things, there are some devices out there such as the Apple’s Time Capsule and Xiaomi’s Mi Router, which gives users the ability to double the usage of it by including router features. Knowing that WD is merely an expert in storage, we don’t really blame them for not implementing this but it is certainly a possible solution.
Great hardware that comes with easy to use software
Assuming that you’re buying a device like the My Cloud, you’d probably have some level of knowledge in setting up a device like this, because the My Cloud’s configuration is simply accessible via your web browser just like any network connected devices out there. If you think you still need some guidance, WD’s Setup Wizard is here to help you to set up the essential stuffs which you can download via WDMyCloud.com. After everything is done, you’ll see a storage drive popping up in Explorer on Windows and a network share in Finder on Mac.
Now, let’s dive into the web configuration and get our hands dirty. Of course, WD has kept its web configuration software fairly simple, once you’re logged in, you will be presented with a really cool looking dashboard that shows you the status and information of the hard drive, which is very informative and we get to know instantly if there’s an issue with the network or a firmware update is available for us.
User access and folder sharing can be configured easily with just a few clicks and button toggles for permissions, users will also be required to provide a valid e-mail address to create a WDCloud.com account for the hard drive’s cloud access.
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The hard drive does come with a few additional features as well, while most likely you could be using the device to store all your media files like music, pictures and videos, the hard drive is able to act as a DLNA or iTUnes Media Server to make sharing your contents over the network easier without your users going deep into your shared folders.
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You are also able to create safepoints of the device into a external USB storage or network share to avoid data loss should the device goes out of service, but you need to be very sure that you have a larger hard drive to be able to back all of your files in; Furthermore, the My Cloud does support Time Machine backup for your Mac so this should come in pretty handy given that ample amount of storage being given by WD.
While you are out and on the go, you are able to access the hard drive on both your PC and mobile devices, the WD My Cloud app can be downloaded from the WD support site while the mobile app is available for both Android and iOS devices, the software is merely a file transfer tool and you are able to generate a direct download URL for your files.
Last but not the least, we are really satisfied with the My Cloud’s simple and easy to use web configuration, it is going to work well for home users but for the enterprise users, you may not want to consider this as WD doesn’t offer remote management or an app to remotely manage the hard drive when you’re away from your local network.
Performance and Reliability
We can’t really take screenshots on this as there are no specific tools to test this, our WD My Cloud hard drive is connected to an Apple Airport Express router throughout the review period and running off a 100Mbps Ethernet connection, there are a total of 3 users connected wirelessly to the router and we are all accessing and uploading stuffs to the hard drive concurrently, we are happy to report that we haven’t face any performance issues on file transfers and surfing the web at the same time. Though we have to admit wireless transfers are really slow but our laptops doesn’t support the wider bandwidth 5GHz band, which the Airport Express supports by default.
The reliability of downloading and uploading files remotely to and from the hard drive depends a lot on your Internet connection, for our case in Malaysia, we are using a 5 Mbps fiber optic connection and have achieved optimal speeds most of the time. Of course, you may want to consider investing a higher internet connection speed if you have multiple users accessing the hard drive at the same time.
Verdict – A reliable product but has room for improvements
Western Digital has done well in where the company’s expertise should be, the WD My Cloud is an improved product of the popular and reliable My Book Desktop hard drive which offers users the convenience of accessing their files remotely rather than having it stay on your desk all the time. However, this product could be better if WD can add on router features so that we are able to fully replace our Wireless routers without adding more stuffs to the table, we hope to see that coming in the next version. The Western Digital My Cloud hard drive has storage options from 2TB up to 4TB, which starts at the price of RM499 up to RM799, it is pricey but for the sake of convenience, reliability and security on your files, this price tag is certainly worth burning a hole in your pockets.
The Good
+ Reliable performance
+ Easy to use web configuration
+ Remote access app available for Android and iOS smartphones
+ Compact design
+ Additional USB 3.0 port for sharing external harddrives
+ Time Machine, iTunes and DLNA server
The Bad
– No remote configuration management
– Price isn’t cheap for just an additional feature over the My Book
We rate the Western Digital My Cloud hard drive at 4.5 out of 5 stars.
