• About Us
  • Partnership Opportunities
  • Privacy Policy

Data Center Frontier

Charting the future of data centers and cloud computing.

  • Cloud
    • Hyperscale
  • Colo
    • Site Selection
    • Interconnection
  • Energy
    • Sustainability
  • Cooling
  • Technology
    • Internet of Things
    • AI & Machine Learning
    • Edge Computing
    • Virtual Reality
    • Autonomous Cars
    • 5G Wireless
    • Satellites
  • Design
    • Servers
    • Storage
    • Network
  • Voices
  • Podcast
  • White Papers
  • Resources
    • COVID-19
    • Events
    • Newsletter
    • Companies
    • Data Center 101
  • Jobs
You are here: Home / Energy / Freeze Ray: Blu-Ray Cold Storage for Your Data Center

Freeze Ray: Blu-Ray Cold Storage for Your Data Center

By Rich Miller - January 11, 2016

Freeze Ray: Blu-Ray Cold Storage for Your Data Center

A row of storage units housing Blu-Ray disks inside Facebook's North Carolina data center. (Photo: Rich Miller)

LinkedinTwitterFacebookSubscribe
Mail

Last year we brought you inside Facebook’s data center to see its Blu-Ray cold storage system, a new way to manage the flood of incoming data from Facebook users, who upload more than 900 million photos every day. Thus far this system is operating in just two data centers, the Facebook facilities in North Carolina and Oregon.

Now Facebook is teaming with Panasonic to make this technology available to data centers everywhere. The commercial version of Blu-Ray cold storage, known as Freeze Ray Optical Data Archiver, is designed to provide a new alternative for companies seeking to store massive amounts of data in long-term storage archives.

“We think this solution will be very attractive to the data center industry,” said Yasu Enokido, President of Panasonic’s AVC Networks Company, who introduced the product last week at CSE 2016 in Las Vegas. “We plan to make these optical disc archivers an industry standard.”

The main selling point for Freeze Ray will be the ability to lower the cost of data archiving, as Blur-Ray disc offer considerable energy savings – which is what intially attracted Facebook to the technology.

Facebook might be unique in the scale of its storage operation, but its not alone in the need to think big when it comes to data storage. With a proliferation of technologies that generate “big data,” more companies will begin to see their archiving requirements scale to the point that they start to look like Facebook.

Slashing Costs for Long-Term Storage

Blu-Ray is an optical data storage format that uses blue lasers to read a disk. It is best known as a medium for video players and gaming systems like the PlayStation and Xbox One, as the discs can store large amounts of data.

It’s not useful for primary storage, since data can’t be retrieved instantly. But using Blu-Ray disks offers savings of up to 50 percent compared with the first generation of Facebook’s cold storage design, since the Blu-Ray cabinet only uses energy when it is writing data during the initial data “burn,” and doesn’t use energy when it is idle.

Last June we saw the system in action at Facebook’s data center in Forest City, North Carolina, where the company operates one of its cold storage facilities for long-term storage of user photos.

The Blu-Ray system stored five units per Open Rack, each housing carousels filled with Blu-Ray disks. When data must be accessed, the action happens in the rear of the unit. That’s where the robotic retrieval system has been condensed into a space in the bottom of the rack. When it springs into action, the arm travels along tracks on either side of the rack, fetches a Blu-Ray disk, pulls data off the disc and writes it to a live server.

BluRay cold storage devices inside a Facebook data center

BluRay cold storage devices inside a Facebook data center. (Photo: Rich Miller)

Facebook’s work with Blu-Ray provided an opportunity for Panasonic, a company with a long history of success in the consumer electronics market which is now pursuing a “B2B transformation.” The data center product fits well with this shift in focus to enterprise IT customers.

Free Resource from Data Center Frontier White Paper Library

Sustainable Data Centers
A New Era of Sustainable Data Centers
The energy footprint taken up by data centers will certainly increase as our reliance increases on artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of Things, and 5G. Another factor driving even more data use is that the world’s population will continue to increase, necessitating more devices, connectivity and more. Get the new paper that discusses what power providers are currently offering in key data center markets, what data centers are doing to be as efficient as possible, and how data center customers can support sustainability. 
We always respect your privacy and we never sell or rent our list to third parties. By downloading this White Paper you are agreeing to our terms of service. You can opt out at any time.

Get this PDF emailed to you.

Panasonic contributed the optical discs, drives, related robotics and library software to control the system in the data center. Facebook provided its unique expertise in deploying data center storage systems at massive scale.

Even Larger Capacity on the Way

The companies have been working on two generations of the freeze-ray solution. Facebook is deploying the first-generation 100 GB Blu-ray Disc-based archive system into its data centers now, and expects deployment of the second-generation 300GB Archival Disc-based archive system later in 2016.

“We’re seeing exponential growth in the number of photos and videos being uploaded to Facebook,” said Jason Taylor, VP of Infrastructure for Facebook. “The work we’ve done with Panasonic is exciting because optical storage introduces a medium that is immutable, which helps ensure that people have long-term access to their digital memories.”

Both companies plan to continue to collaborate in the study of and eventual development of next- generation systems utilizing higher densities of 500 GB-and oneterabyte Archival Discs to realize a multi petabyte cold storage archive system that will provide even greater benefits to the data center industry.

Panasonic isn’t alone in seeking to commercialize the use of Blu-Ray discs for data center archiving.  Last year Sony acquired Optical Archive, a storage startup founded by former Facebook hardware executive Frank Frankovsky.

LinkedinTwitterFacebookSubscribe
Mail

Tagged With: Big Data, Blu-Ray, Data Archiving, Facebook, Storage

Newsletters

Stay informed: Get our weekly updates!

Are you a new reader? Follow Data Center Frontier on Twitter or Facebook.

About Rich Miller

I write about the places where the Internet lives, telling the story of data centers and the people who build them. I founded Data Center Knowledge, the data center industry's leading news site. Now I'm exploring the future of cloud computing at Data Center Frontier.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Voices of the Industry

Overcoming Supply Chain Roadblocks: How to Avoid Disruptions in Your Data Center

Overcoming Supply Chain Roadblocks: How to Avoid Disruptions in Your Data Center The data center industry continues to experience significant global supply chain problems. Brett Williams of Service Express, explores the importance of leveraging the secondary hardware market to overcome supply chain roadblocks.

White Papers

data center solutions

Data Center Solutions: Reducing the Risk of Change

While many data center professionals are comfortable with the status quo, new solutions are required to address the rapid changes in the industry and to reduce the risk of evolving with the times. Future Facilities explores how new data center solutions can address the challenges today’s data center professionals are facing.

Get this PDF emailed to you.

We always respect your privacy and we never sell or rent our list to third parties. By downloading this White Paper you are agreeing to our terms of service. You can opt out at any time.

DCF Spotlight

Data center modules on display at the recent Edge Congress conference in Austin, Texas. (Photo: Rich Miller)

Edge Computing is Poised to Remake the Data Center Landscape

Data center leaders are investing in edge computing and edge solutions and actively looking at new ways to deploy edge capacity to support evolving business and user requirements.

An aerial view of major facilities in Data Center Alley in Ashburn, Virginia. (Image: Loudoun County)

Northern Virginia Data Center Market: The Focal Point for Cloud Growth

The Northern Virginia data center market is seeing a surge in supply and an even bigger surge in demand. Data Center Frontier explores trends, stats and future expectations for the No. 1 data center market in the country.

See More Spotlight Features

Newsletters

Get the Latest News from Data Center Frontier

Job Listings

RSS Job Openings | Pkaza Critical Facilities Recruiting

  • Critical Power Energy Manager - Data Center Development - Ashburn, VA
  • Site Development Manager - Data Center - Ashburn, VA
  • Data Center Facility Operations Director - Chicago, IL
  • Electrical Engineer - Senior - Dallas, TX
  • Mechanical Commissioning Engineer - Calgary, Alberta

See More Jobs

Data Center 101

Data Center 101: Mastering the Basics of the Data Center Industry

Data Center 101: Mastering the Basics of the Data Center Industry

Data Center Frontier, in partnership with Open Spectrum, brings our readers a series that provides an introductory guidebook to the ins and outs of the data center and colocation industry. Think power systems, cooling, solutions, data center contracts and more. The Data Center 101 Special Report series is directed to those new to the industry, or those of our readers who need to brush up on the basics.

  • Data Center Power
  • Data Center Cooling
  • Strategies for Data Center Location
  • Data Center Pricing Negotiating
  • Cloud Computing

See More Data center 101 Topics

About Us

Charting the future of data centers and cloud computing. We write about what’s next for the Internet, and the innovations that will take us there. We tell the story of the digital economy through the data center facilities that power cloud computing and the people who build them. Read more ...
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

About Our Founder

Data Center Frontier is edited by Rich Miller, the data center industry’s most experienced journalist. For more than 20 years, Rich has profiled the key role played by data centers in the Internet revolution. Meet the DCF team.

TOPICS

  • 5G Wireless
  • Cloud
  • Colo
  • Connected Cars
  • Cooling
  • Cornerstone
  • Coronavirus
  • Design
  • Edge Computing
  • Energy
  • Executive Roundtable
  • Featured
  • Finance
  • Hyperscale
  • Interconnection
  • Internet of Things
  • Machine Learning
  • Network
  • Podcast
  • Servers
  • Site Selection
  • Social Business
  • Special Reports
  • Storage
  • Sustainability
  • Videos
  • Virtual Reality
  • Voices of the Industry
  • Webinar
  • White Paper

Copyright Data Center Frontier LLC © 2022