Some future optical storage (hopefully are not vaporware): HoloMem, Cerabyte & MS Project Silica
HoloMem: An optical ribbon inside a standard LTO tape case.
Storage Capacity: 200 TB per LTO cartridge
Lifespan: 50 years
Storage media: 100 meters of polymer tape inside an LTO tape case.
Bandwidth read/write: thought to be about the same as an LTO-9 tape (up to 400 MB/s)
Data access: Serial, its on a tape.
Compatibility: Designed to work with existing LTO tape libraries
Coming to a data centre near you: Maybe 2027
Home : https://holomem.co.uk
Cerabyte : Thin optical ceramic films inside a standard LTO tape case.
Storage Capacity: 1 TB per LTO cartridge. The LTO tape case stores 180, 9 x 9cm ceramic films.
Lifespan: 1000+ years
Bandwidth, read/write: 100 B/s (?)
Data access: Random
Compatibility: Designed to work with existing LTO tape libraries
Coming to a data centre near you: Unknown, currently on trial on some data centres.
Roadshow presentation: Munich June 2025 (Youtube) A good overview, a shame the audience didn’t have more intelligent questions.
My thoughts. Both Cerabyte and HoloMem are advertised as compatible with LTO Tape Libraries (ATLs) but it will not be plug-play. ATL library software will have to be updated. ATL robotics and data comms will have to work with both LTO tapes and optical storage in LTO carts, presumably they come with an RFI chip to be managed like current LTO tapes.
At time of writing both HoloMem and Cerabyte are shy in publishing specs on their kit, presumably because they are a work progress.
Microsoft Project Silica : Small glass slabs in a unique library system.
Storage capacity: 7 TB per glass slab.
Lifespan: 1,000+ years
Storage media: Uncased 7.5 x 7.5 cm glass slab, 2mm thick
Bandwidth read/write: < 1MB/s
Data access: Random
Compatibility: Everything is unique and not compatible with existing storage hardware.
Coming to a data centre near you: Nope, its for Microsoft cloud use. It may go into commercial use in 2027.
The current problem is the expense of the lasers used - Project Silica’s glass storage archive tech progress https://blocksandfiles.com/2025/12/23/project-silicas-glass-storage-archive-tech-progress/
Home : https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/project-silica/
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