Sony’s new optical disk can store data for 100 years

Sony's new optical storage disk offers an average read rate of 3Gbps and an average write rate of 1.5Gbps.

Sony says that up to five extension units can be attached to the master units to make a single 42U library. (Sony)

The world is producing an insane amount of data everyday. Storing this data is no ordinary task. And so in order to fulfill the world's demand for storing large troves of data more conveniently, Sory recently launched a new optical disk that can store up to 3 million GB of data for up to 100 years.

The device dubbed as the Sony Gen3 PetaSite Optical Disc Archive technology can hold from 165 TB to 2.9 PB of immutable optical storage in a standard 42U Rack.

To give you an idea about its data storage capacity, 1 petabyte or PB equals 1,000TB or 1 million GB. This means that Sony's newly released optical storage disk can store up to 2.9 million GB of data.

The scalable Gen3 PetaSite library includes the ODS-L30M master unit, which serves as the main building block and comes with a capacity of 165TB. Additionally, it has an ODS-L60E drive and cartridge extension unit that offer a storage capacity of 335.5TB each, and an ODS-L100E cartridge-only extension unit that provides a storage capacity of 555.5TB.

Sony says that up to five extension units can be attached to the master units to make a single 42U library with a maximum of 535 cartridges and each cartridge comes with an estimated shelf life of 100 years.

That surely is impressive but hold on. It can do more. Sony says that its Optical Disc Archive Gen3 uses the company's Archival Disc (AD) dual-sided media. It reads and writes both sides of the double-sided media to enable an average read rate of 3Gbps and an average write rate of 1.5Gbps.

What makes Sony's newly introduced optical storage system a winner is the fact that it is write compatible to Generation 2 and backward read compatible to all Optical Disc Archive cartridges and that it works on the Write Once Read Many fundamental, which makes it immune to cyber attacks, accidental erasure and ransomware.

Sony has started shipping its Gen3 PetaSite Optical Disc Archive. So if you are a corporate IT, state and local government, a banking, an educational institute or a healthcare institute, you might wanna keep and eye out for this one.