Western Digital has appointed Ahmed Shihab as Chief Product Officer. Shihab, who has nearly 30 years of experience, previously served as Corporate Vice President of Azure Storage at Microsoft. His role at Western Digital will involve leading product strategy and engineering as the company focuses on HDD development.

Irving Tan, CEO of Western Digital, noted that Shihab’s expertise comes at a crucial time for the HDD industry as the demand for scalable storage and data generation is on the rise. Tan expressed confidence that Shihab's leadership will help meet the industry's evolving needs.

Before joining Microsoft, Shihab held roles at Amazon Web Services, where he was Vice President of Infrastructure Hardware, and at NetApp as Vice President and Chief Architect of File Systems Group. He also has a background with Xyratex, a cloud infrastructure company.

Tan emphasized that cloud service providers and OEMs are looking to Western Digital for advanced HDD technology, and Shihab's leadership will amplify the company's legacy of providing reliable storage solutions.