Dubai, United Arab Emirates - 25th March 2009- Western Digital, a pioneer and global leader in the data storage industry has been named Components Vendor of the Year at the 2009 Channel Middle East Awards.

The Channel Middle East Awards, organized by Channel Middle East Magazine, a leading monthly publication for the IT channel community, recognize individuals and companies that have been influential in the Middle East's IT channel throughout the past year.

Over 300 of the region's leading channel executives and senior delegates from vendors, distributors, resellers and retailers attended the gala award ceremony at the Westin hotel on Monday, March 23rd.

The award honored Western Digital's commitment to supporting the channel and facilitating the success of its partners. Judges highlighted the strength in Western Digital's product training, industry specialization, rewards and incentives, and contribution to the development of the regional channel over the past year.

"Winning the Components Vendor of the Year at the Channel ME 2009 awards, is a big recognition for all the hard work we pursue every day to support the channel community in the Middle East region and worldwide," said Khwaja Saifuddin, Sales Director, Western Digital, Middle East & Africa.

Western Digital was also recently awarded 'Choice of Channel 2009' for the Storage Vendor of the Year. Readers of VAR Magazine, channel partners, distributors and system integrators from across the Middle East were invited to nominate the most outstanding storage vendor among other categories.

Earlier this month, Western Digital Corp. was named 'EMEA Peripherals Vendor of the Year 2009' at the EMEA Channel Academy 2009 Awards in Monaco where over 400 attending distributors from across the EMEA region voted live for the vendor categories.

"We greatly value our business partners in the MEA market and their commitment to the WD brand and these awards is a validation of our efforts and dedication to building strong relationships with our channel partners and is a reflection of our leadership in the storage space," added Saifuddin.


About Western Digital
WD, one of the storage industry's pioneers and long-time leaders, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company produces reliable, high-performance hard drives that keep users' data accessible and secure from loss. WD applies its storage expertise to consumer products for external, portable and shared storage applications.

WD was founded in 1970. The company's storage products are marketed to leading systems manufacturers, selected resellers and retailers under the Western Digital® and WD brand names. Visit the Investor section of the company's Web site (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.