Sony and Panasonic collaborate to provide long-term data storage solution
Published: MEA
WORLD: Sony and Panasonic have announced the formulation of Archival Disc, a new standard for professional-use, next-generation optical discs, with the objective of expanding the market for long-term digital data storage.
As outdated as you might feel that they have become in today’s rapidly advancing technological world, optical dics still have a few unique qualities not shared by ‘more-advanced’ data storage mediums on the market today that make that make them an ideal candidate for long-term data storage. Firstly they are dust- and water-resistant, and can withstand changes in temperature and humidity when stored. They also allow inter-generational compatibility between different formats, ensuring that data can continue to be read even as formats evolve.
In recent times, demand for archival capabilities has increased significantly in the film industry, as well as in cloud data centres that handle big data, where advances in network services have caused data volumes to soar. Recognising that optical discs will need to accommodate much larger volumes of storage going forward, particularly given the anticipated future growth in the archive market, Sony and Panasonic have been engaged in the joint development of a standard for next-generation optical discs.
These efforts have resulted in the formulation of Archival Disc, a new professional-use next-generation optical disc standard. Both Sony and Panasonic aim to launch systems with a recording capacity of 300 GB per disc from summer 2015, onwards, with plans from companies both companies to further expand the recording capacity per disc to 500Gb and 1Tb.