This wild Microsoft tech may solve data storage and backup crisis forever

Scientists at Microsoft demonstrate glass-based data storage that could preserve terabytes of digital information for more than 10,000 years.

Scientists at Microsoft Research demonstrated a glass-based data storage system called Silica that can write and read digital information in ordinary glass. According to a study published in Nature, the system can store the equivalent of about two million books in a thin, palm-sized piece of glass, while tests indicate the data could remain readable for more than 10,000 years.

The work aims to address a long-standing challenge in digital archiving. Current storage media such as magnetic tapes and hard drives wear out over time and need to be replaced, making them less suitable for preserving information for future generations. Researchers say long-term digital preservation is becoming increasingly important as governments, research institutions, businesses and cultural organisations look for reliable ways to store valuable records.

Silica stores information using ultrashort laser pulses that last only a few quadrillionths of a second, known as femtoseconds (10⁻¹⁵ seconds). Although incredibly brief, these laser pulses carry enough energy to make tiny, permanent changes inside transparent glass without damaging the surrounding material.

Normally, this type of laser light passes through glass without interacting with it. However, when the beam is focused on a tiny spot, it creates an intense electric field that changes the molecular structure of the glass at that point. Each of these tiny marks is called a voxel, which is the three-dimensional version of a pixel. Instead of storing information only on the surface, voxels allow data to be written throughout the volume of the glass in hundreds of layers.

The idea of storing data in glass using laser-written voxels is not new. In the 1990s, Eric Mazur and colleagues at Harvard University showed that femtosecond lasers could permanently write data structures inside ordinary glass. In 2014, Peter Kazansky and his team at the University of Southampton reported long-term data storage in fused quartz glass with a "seemingly unlimited lifetime."

According to the Microsoft Research team, Silica does not introduce a new scientific principle. Instead, it is the first demonstration of a complete archival storage system that combines every major step needed for practical use. The platform includes data encoding, writing, reading, decoding and error correction, while also testing writing speed, storage density, energy efficiency, reliability and long-term durability.

One of the biggest advances in the latest study is the use of ordinary borosilicate glass instead of fused silica, which was used in earlier research. Borosilicate glass is inexpensive, widely available and commonly found in laboratory equipment, kitchen cookware and oven doors because it can withstand high temperatures and sudden changes in heat. According to the researchers, using this material removes two major barriers to commercial use by reducing costs and making the storage medium easier to source.

The system stores information across 301 layers inside a sheet of glass measuring 120 millimetres by 120 millimetres and 2 millimetres thick. Each piece can hold up to 4.8 terabytes of data. The researchers also simplified the reading system so it uses only one camera instead of three or four, reducing both cost and size. The writing system was redesigned with fewer parts, making it easier to build, calibrate and operate.

The study describes two ways of writing data into the glass. The first creates tiny elongated void-like structures through laser-driven "micro-explosions" inside the material. This method achieves a storage density of 1.59 gigabits per cubic millimetre, allowing large amounts of information to be packed into a very small space.

The second method creates small changes in the glass's local refractive index instead of forming tiny voids. The refractive index is the property that determines how light travels through a material. By changing this property in specific locations, researchers can create patterns that represent digital information and later read them using optical imaging. Although this method stores less data in the same volume, it writes information faster and uses less energy. The researchers reported a writing speed of about 65.9 megabits per second using this approach and said the speed could be increased further by using multiple laser beams at the same time. Across the current system, the overall writing speed is 25.6 megabits per second for each laser beam, mainly limited by how quickly the laser can produce pulses.

To estimate how long the data would last, the team carried out accelerated ageing experiments. These tests expose materials to harsher conditions, such as higher temperatures, to predict how they will perform over much longer periods under normal conditions. The researchers also developed a new ageing method for borosilicate glass, allowing them to estimate the long-term stability of the lower-cost material. The results suggest that data stored using both writing methods would remain stable for more than 10,000 years.

According to the study, this projected lifespan is far longer than that of today's archival storage technologies, including magnetic tapes and hard drives. The researchers say the results show that glass could become a practical medium for long-term digital archiving by combining durable, widely available materials with a complete system for writing, storing and retrieving data.

TL;DR:

• Microsoft Research's Silica is a new glass-based data storage system that can store the equivalent of about two million books in a palm-sized piece of ordinary glass, with data expected to remain readable for more than 10,000 years.

• The system uses ultrashort femtosecond laser pulses to create tiny permanent marks called voxels inside the glass, allowing data to be stored in hundreds of layers rather than just on the surface.

• While the concept of storing data in glass has existed for decades, Silica is the first system to combine the entire process, including data writing, reading, decoding and error correction, into a practical archival storage platform.

• A major advance is the use of ordinary borosilicate glass instead of specialised fused silica, making the technology less expensive and easier to manufacture, while also simplifying the hardware used to write and read data.

• The researchers demonstrated storage of 4.8 terabytes in a 120 mm × 120 mm × 2 mm glass sheet and tested two different writing methods that balance storage capacity, speed and energy use.

• Accelerated ageing tests suggest the stored data could remain stable for over 10,000 years, making glass a potential long-term alternative to magnetic tapes and hard drives for preserving digital information.

   

Source: Microsoft Research, Macquarie University via The Conversation, Nature

This article was generated with some help from AI and reviewed by an editor. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, this material is used for the purpose of news reporting. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.

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Posted Sunday 19 July 2026 at 12:19 pm AEST (my time).

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