Western Digital is expanding its portfolio of performance storage solutions with 8 TB capacity drives for NAS, video surveillance and desktop external applications. Launching throughout the first half of 2016, My Cloud personal storage devices (My Cloud, My Cloud Mirror, My Cloud EX2 Ultra), My Book external hard drives (My Book, My Book for Mac, My Book Duo and My Book Pro), WD Red, WD Red Pro and WD Purple hard drives will all be designed with the new high-capacity configuration.

Each storage solution offers HelioSeal helium-technology with the new 8 TB drives for maximum and efficient performance in the applications for which each model is designed.

Helium-filled hard drives have a number of advantages compared to traditional HDDs, but they are also more expensive to manufacture.

WD is not disclosing much int he way of technical details about its new hard drives, but indicates that they are based on different platforms that are tailored for their respective applications.

The increase to 8 TB or 16 TB (with two 8TB drives in RAID 0) capacity applies to the following WD products:

External Hard Drives

• My Book/My Book for Mac - An external hard drive solution that provides backup and storage with USB connectivity.
• My Book Duo/My Book Pro - Dual-drive external hard drive solutions which provide storage in RAID-0 and complete backup and storage with USB and/or Thunderbolt connectivity and up to 16 TB capacity.
• My Cloud/My Cloud Mirror - A personal storage device that plugs into your router at home.
• My Cloud EX2 Ultra - As part of the creative professional series of My Cloud products, the My Cloud EX2 Ultra provides high-performance two-bay network attached storage.

Internal Hard Drives

• WD Purple - Engineered for 24/7, always-on, high-definition surveillance security systems that use up to eight hard drives and up to 32 cameras
• WD Red - Optimized for personal, home and small business NAS (network attached storage) systems
• WD Red Pro - Optimized for small business and enterprise class NAS systems.

My Book and My Book for Mac 8 TB is currently available. Manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) for the My Book 8 TB (model #: WDBFJK0080HBK) and the My Book for Mac (model #: WDBYCC0080HBK) is $299.99 USD.

My Cloud, My Book Duo, My Book Pro, WD Red, WD Red Pro and WD Purple 8 TB configurations will be available during the first half of 2016.