The Role of Optical Technology in Active Archive Sustainability

Data centers consume perhaps as much as 3% of global electricity today and that figure may approach 10% by 2030 due to AI and high-performance computing applications. Due to the rise in data center density and the explosion in data storage, some researchers claim the amount could reach 20%. These numbers make it clear that we all must do our part to improve storage efficiency.

Instead of flash competing with disk, or disk with tape and optical, we all must embrace our place in tomorrow’s data storage architectures. There is room for each technology and a role for each when you consider that there will be around 15 zettabytes of global storage capacity by 2030.

Seven-Tiered Storage Pyramid
The first step is to eliminate overly simplistic data storage models with hot, warm, and cold data and expand them to show the actual tiers that exist. These are:

• Ultra-high performance at the top of the pyramid served by flash.
• A performance tier served by flash and HDD. These top two tiers will comprise about 20% of all storage.
• Bulk storage served by HDDs (15% of the total).
• An active archive optical library (15%).
• An archive on optical media and tape (40%).
• Offsite tape cartridges (10%).

This tiering arrangement is already manifesting among hyperscalers and large MSPs.  With so much storage being offered as a service, they have realized that providing large quantities of storage at different price points is wanted by their customers. Thus, more tiers are evolving. Over time, the storage pyramid is going to become increasingly fragmented. There is room for every type of media. Each has different qualities, advantages, and pricing arrangements that fit the various tiers.

Optical Storage Advantages
Optical storage is destined to carve out a sizeable niche consisting of a couple of tiers. This will amount to an addressable market of about 4.7 ZB by 2030. The advantages of optical storage include:

• Lowest GHG emissions and power use: This adds up to an 80% reduction in energy consumption for storage, a 22 GTon reduction in CO2e potential by 2050, and 10X lower TCO compared to disk as no energy is used to store written data.
• Long life: current optical formats provide +100 years between remasters which is 20X longer than HDD.
• Lowest acquisition cost: $3/TB with roadmap to <$1/TB which is 6X lower than HDD.
• Immutable, durable, and cybersafe: Optical offers WORM, air-gapped media that is impervious to heat, cold, and EMP.

Thus, optical technologies now have a compelling value proposition. Green technology is required for a sustainable future in data storage. The greenest energy, of course, is the energy that you don’t need to use.

You can find out more about emerging use cases for active archives by listening to the recordings of the 2023 Active Archive Virtual Conference