When most people think of data-storage, what likely comes to mind is the “cloud,” as in cloud storage. For some, the cloud may entertain notions of an amorphous, semi-mysterious location floating in the air where emails, photos, videos, and documents magically reside. In reality, cloud storage is merely large data farms or warehouses that house hundreds of data storage servers.
However, with the continuous, exponential growth in data, storing archival data in these massive storage facilities will at some point become unsustainable. Warehouse storage facilities consume massive amounts of power—not to mention space—and cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build, operate, and maintain. Storing multiple copies of data, at times in discrete locations, further adds to these costs.
What this means in the long run is that space and storage limitations will at some point inhibit the amount of data that can be saved, imposing limitations on use cases that require large quantities of data to be stored indefinitely. That is, unless there’s a way to store data at smaller scale.
As it turns out, that’s just where data storage is headed, and the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity's (IARPA) Molecular Information Storage (MIST) program is leading the way. As a multi-year research effort to develop next-generation data storage technologies that can scale into exabytes (1 million terabytes), MIST will allow for data storage with a significantly reduced physical footprint, along with power and cost requirements, relative to today’s conventional storage warehouses. To achieve this, IARPA researchers (performers) will use synthetic (manufactured) DNA as a data storage medium and develop a new category of devices that can write information to, and read from, synthetic DNA media.
“While this may seem like science fiction, our performers are demonstrating that this technology will likely become science fact,” said MIST program manager, Dr. David A. Markowitz. “When fully realized, MIST will be a game-changer for the Intelligence Community, government, industry, and academia by significantly expanding data storage capacity while dramatically reducing the space needed, environmental impact, and expense.”
Although technology already exists for writing and reading DNA, significant advances in speed and costs will have to be made to make DNA storage widely useful for government, industry, and academia. However, once achieved, not only will this resolve storage space issues, but it will also address the problem with conventional storage’s limited shelf-life, as DNA data can last for centuries.
The organizations selected to work on MIST have deep expertise in developing DNA technology, and include the Georgia Tech Research Institute, the Broad Institute, and a consortium of industry partners. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory will work together to independently test the new technology.
“I’m excited about the possibilities DNA storage technology offers,” Dr. Markowitz said. “Once fully developed, there’s no question it will transform the way government, industry, and academia operate.”
