When most people think of storing data such as videos, pictures, and documents in the cloud, the common view is that the data is placed on storage drives on servers located in large data centers. However, the way data is stored may change in the future for future use. Microsoft announced that its research arm is working on what it calls Project Silica. In short, it is trying to create a new storage technology that will use sheets of glass to store large amounts of data.
According to Microsoft, data is stored in the glass through a four-step process: written with an ultra-fast femtosecond laser, read by a computer-controlled microscope, decoded, and finally stored in a library. The memory is passive, requiring no power to be read from any memory cell. The complexity lies in the fact that the robot charges when idle in the lab and wakes up when data is needed. They climbed onto the shelf, removed the glass plate, and quickly loaded it onto the reading device.
Currently, the technology can be used to store terabytes of data on small plates of glass, and the data will last at least 10,000 years. Because these glass panes are so small, they require a fraction of the space compared to current cloud data centers,
Currently, Microsoft is working with a venture capital group called Elire to use technology from Project Silica to help create a global music library in Svalbard, Norway. The technology will allow songs to be stored using glass panels that are both environmentally friendly and resistant to electromagnetic pulses.
The bad news is that this glass-panel data storage technology is still not commercially viable. Microsoft says it will take three to four stages of development to reach this level. However, at some point in the future, Microsoft Azure cloud centers may use Project Silica's technology to store your photos, videos, audio, and documents.