In recent years, cloud-based storage solutions have been gaining ground over physical media. However, devices such as network-attached hard drives (popularly known as NAS) are experiencing great momentum: prices have moderated, they are very easy to set up and use, and they promise a compromise between network flexibility and security. to have your most precious files stored locally.
WD has a long history as a manufacturer of these types of products and the My Cloud Home series is the jewel in the crown. We have had the opportunity to test the WD My Cloud Home and My Cloud Home Duo for a few weeks and these are our impressions.
As the name “Home” indicates, these are devices designed for the home and that any member of the family can take advantage of, thanks to the possibility of creating profiles. Thus, everyone can have their space within a personal, secure and private cloud.
These products are designed to be large stores of content (videos, audio, photos, files of all kinds…) that we can also easily distribute and share with other devices through our network. We can set up automatic copies of the files we have on our computers and the photos and videos we take with our phones, as well as create photo albums and folders where we can classify our best memories. Everything will be sent and stored safely in our local storage, without having to do anything else and working as our own private cloud.
In addition, it incorporates powerful search functions by date, time or keyword, something essential when we are in a hurry to find something in our “digital storage room”.
As you can see in the video and in the images that accompany these lines, the two devices have the same design, with modern aesthetics, remarkable construction quality and a very careful aesthetic, far from the boring and nondescript black tones of much of the competition.
From a technical point of view, we are dealing with storage solutions based on high-quality hard drives, designed to be always connected. To control everything, a 1.4 GHz quad-core processor signed by Realtek is integrated together with 1 Gbyte of RAM, more than enough to move the proprietary operating system and work with large file transfers without problems or stops.
Before we continue, a brief look at the technical specifications:
Specifications: WD My Cloud Home:
- One USB 3.2 Type-A port.
- Gigabit LAN connector (1,000 megabits per second).
- Feeding.
- Capacity: 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, 6TB, 8TB.
- Supports one storage drive.
- Compatible with Windows 10, macOS 11 and higher.
- Measurements: 140mm x 53mm x 175.5mm.
Specifications: WD My Cloud Home Duo:
- Two USB 3.2 Type-A ports.
- Gigabit LAN connector (1,000 megabits per second).
- Feeding.
- Capacity: 4TB, 6TB, 8TB, 12TB, 16TB, and 20TB
- It supports two storage units, it can work in mirroring mode (RAID 1) to keep our photos, videos and files protected with a layer of redundancy.
- It also allows you to disable redundancy to increase available storage capacity.
- Compatible with Windows 10, macOS 11 and higher.
- Measurements: 160mm x 100mm x 180mm.
The installation process is very simple and practically identical on Windows or Mac systems or even a mobile device (in fact, it can be configured and used without the need for a PC). Once connected to the electrical network, just plug the Ethernet cable into the router and access the address provided via browser. After a few minutes, we will have the device installed and working as another storage unit.
One of the most interesting aspects of this proposal is how easy it is to integrate with what we already use in our day to day. It supports Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Chromecast, Box.com, Windows Backup, Time Machine, and much more. In addition, it supports customizations thanks to the IFTTT service.
The toll of the extreme ease of use and configuration of this device is precisely what distances it from the NAS more oriented to professional use, intended for another type of public and which have a much steeper learning curve than the proposal at hand. . In any case, and to go further, WD itself has options within the Expert Series range.
In terms of performance, WD’s offerings are within expectations. As it happens with any device of this type, the final transfer rate that you will obtain at home will depend to a large extent on your configuration and a direct cable connection is always better than accessing the disk via WiFi.
It doesn’t make much sense to expect the speed that we get by connecting an external device directly to the computer’s USB 3.0 port or what SSDs achieve, but it does offer enough performance for its intended use scenario. An important recommendation is to carry out the first configuration without haste and let the device work calmly until the first copy of our files is finished.
Trying to simulate a standard scenario, we connected the drives in a scenario with a Mac Mini connected by Ethernet to the router and a Windows 11 laptop accessing it via WiFi. Our average after a week of work was about 55-60 MB/s reading and 25-30 MB/s reading connected by network cable. Opting for wireless connectivity and depending on the location our transfer speeds ranged between 30-35 MB/s reading and 15-20 MB/s writing.
These numbers more than meet the needs of the home user. Once the initial large copy of all our information is made, it is not a handicap under normal conditions. Obviously, those users who prioritize transfer speed and want to work with files “live” from storage drives should look at external SSD drives, with many advantages, but also radically different from the concept of security and long-term storage that WD proposes.
The benefits of redundant storage
The benefits of redundant storageAlthough almost identical in everything else, it is important to highlight the added value offered by the Duo model. By equipping two exactly the same hard drives, configured in duplication mode (RAID 1) all the data we save on the device is copied to two different physical locations (two identical hard drives).
In this way, even if one of the two drives has a hardware failure, our precious information will always be safe. Of course, it is possible to deactivate this mode and configure a RAID 0 with twice the capacity, but always keeping in mind that we will lose that “extra life” and it will be necessary to resort to an external backup if we want security guarantees in any scenario.
In case of irreversible breakage of a disk, we can buy another equal and install it ourselves. The system will detect it and begin the process of duplicating information immediately to once again guarantee the redundancy of our data.
conclusions
My Cloud Home and My Cloud Home Duo are reliable, maintenance-free storage devices specially designed for users who want a safe and simple solution to store and share their data.
The My Cloud Home version is available from 151 euros for 2 Terabytes of capacity and is sold in 2, 4, 6 and 8 Terabyte versions. The My Cloud Home Duo version starts at 4 Tbyes and costs 314 euros, and can reach up to 20 Terabytes of storage with RAID 1 redundancy.
Beyond remarkable hardware, WD’s expertise is also evident in software and the device’s ability to adapt to the environment and applications we already use. Without the need for technical knowledge and in just a few minutes, we can deploy a private cloud to keep our information safe.
In summary, a fantastic option to centralize the storage of your digital life in a single place, quickly, easily and with access from any place and device with an Internet connection, such as a smartphone or tablet. Especially recommended for domestic users interested in saving their documents, photos, videos and any type of file safely and without having to resort to paid services in the cloud.
It is worth noting the extreme ease of use and the possibility of protecting the different profiles that we create with a password, as well as synchronization and automatic copying with the backup solutions integrated into Windows or Mac systems that we have at home or in the office.
