MOST of the world’s information is already digital, and the volume keeps rising each year — a trend accelerated by AI, which depends on massive datasets. That growth puts pressure on storage systems and raises the stakes for long-term preservation. Microsoft’s research arm is pursuing an unusual solution: storing data inside glass using ultrafast lasers.

Known as Project Silica, the effort uses femtosecond lasers to create tiny 3D modifications — voxels — deep within a glass substrate. These “phase voxels” encode information in three dimensions, boosting density and stability. Unlike conventional media that degrade over years or decades, the changes in glass can endure for millennia; Microsoft’s team says the data could remain intact for 10,000 years. That resilience could eliminate the repeated migrations now required to avoid “data rot,” the gradual corruption that afflicts aging storage formats.

A key advance reported by Project Silica in the journal Nature on Feb. 18 is cost reduction. Early work relied on fused silica, a high-grade material used in optics and semiconductors, which is costly to produce. Researchers have now demonstrated reliable writing in borosilicate glass — the tough, affordable material found in cookware — making the approach far more practical for archival use.

Reading and retrieval combine robotics and machine learning. Stacked glass archives are handled by robots that fetch the correct piece; neural networks then decode the microscopic patterns written inside. Because the system favors longevity over speed, it’s not meant to replace HDDs or SSDs for frequent access, but to serve as a durable, low-maintenance archive for national records, scientific data, and cultural heritage.

Experts note such media rarely displace incumbents quickly, but they fill an important niche. With global storage needs ballooning — IDC estimated 11.2 zettabytes of capacity in 2025, projected to grow to over 19.3 ZB by 2029 — new archival options could help safeguard the digital record. Project Silica suggests that, by harnessing glass, we might finally store some of humanity’s most valuable data for many generations to come.(SD-Agencies)