Microsoft's Glass Plates Now Store Live Data, Aiming to End Digital Obsolescence

In a quiet but significant shift, Microsoft has begun using glass to store real data inside its data centers. The move marks a major step for Project Silica, an initiative to combat the frustratingly short lifespan of conventional digital storage.

The technology uses ultrafast lasers to etch data into small, durable squares of quartz glass. Each plate, no larger than a coaster, can hold several terabytes of information. Crucially, the medium requires no power to maintain and is designed to survive for millennia, resisting heat, water, and physical wear that would destroy a hard drive or magnetic tape.

For decades, institutions have faced a costly cycle of copying archival data onto new media every few years before the old formats degrade. Microsoft’s internal deployment suggests glass could halt that cycle for data kept for legal, historical, or regulatory reasons—information that must be kept but is almost never accessed.

Significant engineering hurdles remain. Writing and reading the data is slower than current methods, and the specialized hardware is not yet suited for mass production. However, by using the technology within its own Azure cloud, Microsoft is providing the ultimate test bed, moving from a research concept to a practical, if nascent, solution.

The long-term vision extends beyond corporate servers. Museums and national archives, which watch helplessly as digital records become unreadable, are keenly interested. The promise is a future where today's most important digital records could outlast the very institutions that created them.

Source: Webpronews