The Paradigm shifts in Data Storage technology

In 2005, a hundred and thirty exabytes of information were created.?An exabyte is equal to 250 million DVDs put together. In 2012, more than 1.8 Zettabytes of data was created, this is equivalent to a whopping 500 billion DVDs. This figure is more than doubling every two years. So much data is getting created that scientists are discussing the creation of new numbers. It was in the year 2012 that Scientists were successfully able to decode the entire works of Shakespeare along with the “I have a dream” speech by Martin Luther King onto a single strand of DNA. DNA storage allows for the equivalent of 500 thousand DVDs to be stored in less than a gram of genetic matter. To store all the world’s data today would need only a DNA storage device roughly the size of a small family hatchback.

-Stephen Fry

We are living in a mind-boggling world of data and information. And while we still have legacy tools like the Hard Disk Drives still in usage and far from being replaced for a good 15-20 years if industry experts are to be believed. According to the roadmap put forth by the Advanced #StorageTechnology Consortium, the HDD capacity will be augmented to 100 Tera bytes by 2025 (1 tera byte = 1trillion bytes) enabled by new writing technologies such as Shingled Magnetic Recording, Perpendicular Magnetic Recording, Enhanced Caching, and even installing helium inside the casing. Let us look at the three evolving storage technologies that are going to change the face of how we see data in the next few years-

Helium Drive-

While Helium drives are similar in appearance to traditional HDDs, on the insides they differ a great deal. While they use the same physical platters to store information as the HDDs, the sealed casing is filled with helium instead of air. Helium is six times less dense than air, hence it takes far less power to spin the disks as the resistance is six times less. It is also cooler, so more drives can squeeze into the same form factor with more longevity. While this is not a quantum leap in storing data, it is still a promising step towards unprecedented levels of performance, reliability, and affordability.

DNA storage AKA The Eternity Drive-

The double helical strand inside our bodies is a miracle of nature. If we stretch the strand, it can reach the moon and back 8 times, imagine the kind of information it can hold. Over the last few years, scientists have made great strides in converting binary information to DNA bases (A, G, T, and C). While the process is still very slow, cumbersome and uneconomical for small-scale purposes, the DNA strands are extremely dense as storage media and remarkably robust. Scientists believe that with the right storage conditions, DNA strands can keep information safe and uncorrupted for an error-free retrieval for up to a good million years. Compare the hard drives for size which would give out after a few decades at the most. While the process is extremely costly as it requires highly specialized equipment to decode the data into computer-readable formats, we simply can’t deny the huge potential it holds when weighed in on a scientific and industrial scale.

Holographic Storage-

While traditional storage devices operate in a two-dimensional playing field, holographic storage uses photosensitive optical material to store multiple bits of information in the same location using light at different angles. This means data can be stored in a three-dimensional volume than on a flat surface. This can augment the storage capacity of the traditional DVD by a good 500 GB at the same time increasing its life span up to 30 years.

Data Storage, retrieval, and cloning have been the blue-eyed motifs of many science-fiction books and movies. While we are still an impossible distance from “Beam me up Scotty” the near future scene is rapidly and incrementally evolving. And when scientific breakthroughs such as the ones mentioned above start making business sense, it will be a paradigm shift for mankind. Perhaps it will be what Gutenberg will be to a caveman, only more real, only more urgent.

We at Integration International Inc. are geared to stay future-focused when it comes to data on the cloud. The #cloud is shrinking and we are glad to be a part of this big crunch.?

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