Project Silica
News & features
In the news | The Times UK
The tiny glass blocks that can preserve your data for centuries
For years governments, hospitals and families have had to use frail magnetic storage for their most important data. Now, scientists have an alternative — that lasts for ever…
In the news | Handelsblatt
Das Yottabyte-Zeitalter – wie Glas unsere Daten rettet
Digitalisierung und Künstliche Intelligenz sorgen für Datenmengen, die die Vorstellungskraft sprengen. Ausgerechnet einer der ältesten Werkstoffe der Menschheit soll helfen.
Research at Microsoft 2023: A year of groundbreaking AI advances and discoveries
AI saw unparalleled growth in 2023, reaching millions daily. This progress owes much to the extensive work of Microsoft researchers and collaborators. In this review, learn about the advances in 2023, which set the stage for further progress in 2024.
Project Silica: Sustainable cloud archival storage in glass
| Richard Black, Burcu Canakci, Andromachi Chatzieleftheriou, Sergey Legtchenko, Ant Rowstron, and Ioan Stefanovici
This research paper was presented at the 29th ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (opens in new tab) (SOSP 2023), the premier forum for the theory and practice of computer systems software. For millennia, data has woven itself into every…
In the news | Microsoft Innovation Stories
Microsoft Unlocked | Sealed in glass
Sealed in glass Project Silica’s coaster-size glass plates can store data for thousands of years, creating sustainable storage for the world. Storing data on glass might sound futuristic, but it’s a concept that dates back to the 19th century when…
In the news | Data Center Dynamics
Issue 46 – The Last Data Center
Long-term data storage enters a new epoch. What will remain of the human race? We don’t know how long our species will survive, and even if we can hold on for thousands more tears it is not clear that the…
In the news | Pitchfork
The Global Music Vault Wants to Safeguard the World’s Songs—But Who Decides What’s Preserved?
Halfway between Norway and the North Pole lies Svalbard, a demilitarized archipelago sheathed in glacial ice. The remote territory is home to less than 3,000 people, some reindeer and polar bears, and the Arctic World Archive—a collection of digitized historical documents,…
In the news | Fast Company
Microsoft’s plan to preserve music for 10,000 years with glass
Nothing is forever. By Microsoft’s estimation, hard drives protect data for five years before they can go bad. Tape lasts about a decade, while CDs and DVDs can make it as long as 15 years before their contents are at…
In the news | Global Music Vault
Elire Group collaborates with Microsoft on a trial for long-term archival storage
Elire Group, with Global Music Vault, is dedicated to sourcing, safeguarding, and celebrating the world’s most valuable music, where the mission is to pass on the world’s music to the next generations forever. Microsoft is using recent discoveries in ultrafast…