There is a growing interest in cloud storage and other services currently. Their providers strive to constantly expand their capabilities so that they do not hesitate to reach for experimental technologies. An example of this is the HSD project identified by Microsoft. The goal is to develop fast storage using a holographic system containing data that should move the data file beyond flash memory and hard drives.
NAND flash and rotating hard drives are the mainstays of today's warm cloud storage, but they no longer exponentially improve capacity; besides, they face reliability and performance issues due to mechanical movement in hard disk drives and declining flash cell life.
The concept of holographic data set has been known to mankind for a long time, and the first experiments date back to the 1960s. Microsoft now expects to be able to bring this technology to life and adapt it to make it more widely applicable.
What does holographic storage mean?
It is a crystal into which data can be written and read. These are filtered from the two-dimensional form to 3D using an optical system. Spatiality makes it possible to determine the large capacity of a single crystal. When using UV light, the data from the crystal can be erased again.
The technical complexity of the entire solution remains a great form of the future. The optics in such storage must be highly accurate and reliable. Individual pixels must be written and read with complete accuracy. Microsoft hopes that the current precision optics and deep learning technologies known from mobile phones could help solve this problem. Also, artificial intelligence could help compute faulty data sequences.
The project could be used for the so-called warm storage, ie storage, for any time to frequently write and delete data. So far, still, a research project, because its potential is considerable.
The HSD project is the collaboration between Microsoft Research Cambridge and Microsoft Azure, intending to redefine an old idea, holographic storage, as a cloud design. Take advantage of recent exponential improvements and commoditization of optical technologies, such as smartphone cameras, as well as the unique opportunity proposed in the cloud.
The HSD project was publicly announced at Ignite 2020. The HSD project is part of MSR Cambridge's broader Optics for the Cloud group, which is exploring the future of cloud infrastructures at the crossroads of optics and computer science.
Experts in physics, optics, machine learning, and data compilation systems are included in an interdisciplinary team that designs high-performance cloud storage without mechanical motion that is efficient and cost-effective. This has led to new research challenges and breakthroughs in the areas from materials to machine learning.