Paper Title: The Looming Need for Molecular Storage

Paper Abstract: Data bytes stored continues to grow at about 40% annually. This trend now exceeds the device capacity growth rate of all existing commercial scale media types 2including HDD, Flash, Tape and Optical, and the gap between growth rates is about 20%. That implies that the datacenter footprint for storage will be approximately doubling every 3.5 years just to keep up. However, the roadmaps for ongoing density improvement makes the situation much more stark. Past 2030 growth in device capacities may slow substantially leading to a need for 40x or more datacenter space and power by 2040 to keep up with data growth. Although the methods we have used to store data with magnetized materials or corralling electrons are true technological wonders, it is becoming apparent that if we don't want to impinge data growth we may need a substantial paradigm shift in storage technology. Molecular storage is the panacea of storage density and DNA is the leading contender for the championship of storage density, but we will also need to invest in technologies that allow for high speed molecular storage. This is going to be a heavy lift, but if we want to intercept the coming storage capacity crunch we need to start work now.

Paper Author: Aaron Ogus, Distinguished Engineer, Microsoft

Author Bio: Aaron is a Distinguished Engineer working in the Microsoft Azure Storage Team. His one line summary of his job is "Make sure that Azure Storage has the right hardware and software". He works (with many others) on optimizing the co-design of Hardware and Software for Azure Storage, Compute and Networking. Aaron has been working on Azure Storage since its inception in 2008 and has helped Microsoft optimize storage design and deployment, and has worked with industry partners to optimize components, servers and switch designs for the cloud. Aaron has helped influence the evolution of Network Switches, SSDs, HDDs and Archival Systems for Cloud deployment. Aaron started at Microsoft in 1991, and before Azure worked on a few notable projects, including Windows 95, DirectX, XBOX and Forza Motorsport. Aaron has a regional SCCA racing championship in Formula Mazda, which was instrumental in helping make Forza the highest grossing racing franchise on XBOX. Aaron also plays a little poker from time to time. He finished second in a World Poker Tour Tournament at a Televised Final Table.