{"id":692673,"date":"2020-09-22T08:03:15","date_gmt":"2020-09-22T15:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?p=692673"},"modified":"2020-10-06T16:27:53","modified_gmt":"2020-10-06T23:27:53","slug":"in-search-for-future-of-cloud-storage-researchers-look-to-holographic-storage-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/blog\/in-search-for-future-of-cloud-storage-researchers-look-to-holographic-storage-solutions\/","title":{"rendered":"In search for future of cloud storage, researchers look to holographic storage solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Data storage has always been a key tenet of compute, and with the massive growth in cloud compute, the demand for cloud data storage has opened an avenue for both revisiting prior technologies and developing new ones. It is projected that around 125 zettabytes of data will be generated annually by 2024, and storing this in a cost-effective way is going to be a big challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cloud has also changed the way we think about compute and storage. In the cloud, services are virtualized. In cloud data storage, for example, customers pay for storage capacity and access rate rather than for physical storage devices (see Figure 1). This virtualization provides new opportunities to design and optimize technologies that are uniquely adapted for the cloud. This is particularly interesting in storage since all current storage mediums were created during the pre-cloud era. In cloud storage, this provides opportunities for new storage devices with different features to both complement the existing storage technologies that we deploy today and to solve some of the challenges that the cloud has placed on storage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Microsoft Research is taking on these challenges head on in their Optics for the Cloud<\/a> program, where researchers are investigating new ways to improve storage, compute, and networking by bringing together different areas of technical expertise to identify new applications for optics (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>. We see a real opportunity to make an impact by bringing together optical physicists and engineers, with the expertise that Microsoft has in computer systems and artificial intelligence (AI). AI is one of these intersecting areas that offers great potential in this space as it continues to make rapid advances in deep learning and beyond. In optical storage specifically, researchers are especially interested in opportunities to meet the current and future storage demands of the cloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe massive growth we see in the cloud today has been largely powered by advances in integrated electronics. Looking forward, however, these advances are stalling. At Microsoft Research, we set up the Optics for the Cloud program in collaboration with Microsoft Azure to look for new ways of exploiting optical components and technologies in combination with electronics as we seek to support the growth in cloud compute, storage, and networking. As researchers, the cloud has given us a unique opportunity to go back to the drawing board and think about designing cloud-first technologies from the ground up.\u201d<\/p>Ant Rowstron, Distinguished Engineer<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 1: The cloud storage landscape as it is today. The cost of storage to the customer is a function of the access rate and the required storage capacity. Within the cloud, storage services are virtualized and built using the relevant storage technology to deliver the required performance to the customer. The virtualized storage model provides new opportunities for storage technologies that provide new and complementary features to the existing storage technologies.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

At Microsoft Research Cambridge, in collaboration with Microsoft Azure, we\u2019ve been investigating new cloud-first optical storage technologies. For several years now in Project Silica<\/a>, we\u2019ve been developing an optical storage technology that uses glass storage media. In this technology we exploit the longevity of glass media for write once read many (WORM) archival storage. In a recent Hot Storage paper<\/a>, we also talked about the challenges that the incumbent storage technologies are facing in the cloud era and the opportunity that this brings for new storage technologies\u2014two particular challenges are increasing both storage density and access rates. In this blog post, we are introducing Project HSD<\/a> (Holographic Storage Device), a new project that is reimagining how holographic storage can be utilized in the cloud era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t

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We have found that revisiting this technology now is especially advantageous\u2014in a time where the cloud is growing its reach, commodity optics-related components have made large steps forward, and new machine learning techniques can be integrated into the process. In our work so far, we have already achieved 1.8x higher density than the state of the art for volumetric holographic storage, and we are working on increasing density and access rates further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe opportunity to take a fresh look at an old idea, holographic storage, and reimagine it for the cloud, where we have the freedom to innovate across the full storage stack and bring ideas from other domains to make this a viable technology, is super exciting.\u201d<\/p>Benn Thomsen, Senior Principal Researcher<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How does holographic storage work?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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