Project Silica: towards sustainable cloud archival storage in glass

Patrick Anderson; Erika Aranas; Youssef Assaf; Raphael Behrendt; Richard Black; Marco Caballero; Pashmina Cameron; Burcu Canakci; Andromachi Chatzieleftheriou; Rebekah Clarke; James Clegg; Daniel Cletheroe; Bridgette Cooper; Thales De Carvalho; Tim Deegan; Austin Donnelly; Rokas Drevinskas; Alexander Gaunt; Christos Gkantsidis; Ariel Gomez Diaz; Istvan Haller; Freddie Hong; Teodora Ilieva; Shashidhar Joshi; Russell Joyce; William Kunkel; David Lara; Sergey Legtchenko; Fanglin Liu; Bruno Magalhaes; Alana Marzoev; Marvin Mcnett; Jayashree Mohan; Michael Myrah; Truong Nguyen; Sebastian Nowozin; Aaron Ogus; Hiske Overweg; Antony Rowstron; Maneesh Sah; Masaaki Sakakura; Peter Scholtz; Nina Schreiner; Omer Sella; Adam Smith; Ioan Stefanovici; David Sweeney; Benn Thomsen; Govert Verkes; Phil Wainman; Jonathan Westcott; Luke Weston; Charles Whittaker; Pablo Wilke Berenguer; Hugh Williams; Thomas Winkler; Stefan Winzeck

doi:10.1145/3708996

Project Silica: towards sustainable cloud archival storage in glass

Patrick Anderson
, Erika Aranas
, Youssef Assaf
, Raphael Behrendt
, Richard Black
, Marco Caballero
, Pashmina Cameron
, Burcu Canakci
, Andromachi Chatzieleftheriou
, Rebekah Clarke
, James Clegg
, Daniel Cletheroe
, Bridgette Cooper
, Thales De Carvalho
, Tim Deegan
, Austin Donnelly
, Rokas Drevinskas
, Alexander Gaunt
, Christos Gkantsidis
, Ariel Gomez Diaz

Istvan Haller, Freddie Hong, Teodora Ilieva, Shashidhar Joshi, Russell Joyce, William Kunkel, David Lara, Sergey Legtchenko, Fanglin Liu, Bruno Magalhaes, Alana Marzoev, Marvin Mcnett, Jayashree Mohan, Michael Myrah, Truong Nguyen, Sebastian Nowozin, Aaron Ogus, Hiske Overweg, Antony Rowstron, Maneesh Sah, Masaaki Sakakura, Peter Scholtz, Nina Schreiner, Omer Sella, Adam Smith, Ioan Stefanovici, David Sweeney, Benn Thomsen, Govert Verkes, Phil Wainman, Jonathan Westcott, Luke Weston, Charles Whittaker, Pablo Wilke Berenguer, Hugh Williams, Thomas Winkler, Stefan Winzeck

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Sustainable and cost-effective long-term storage remains an unsolved problem. The most widely used storage technologies today are magnetic (hard disk drives and tape). They use media that degrades over time and has a limited lifetime, which leads to inefficient, wasteful, and costly solutions for long-lived data. This article presents Silica: the first cloud storage system for archival data underpinned by quartz glass, an extremely resilient media that allows data to be left in situ indefinitely. The hardware and software of Silica have been co-designed and co-optimized from the media up to the service level with sustainability as a primary objective. The design follows a cloud-first, data-driven methodology underpinned by principles derived from analyzing the archival workload of a large public cloud service. Silica can support a wide range of archival storage workloads and ushers in a new era of sustainable, cost-effective storage.

Original language	English
Article number	3
Journal	ACM Transactions on Storage
Volume	21
Issue number	1
Early online date	8 Feb 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3708996
Publication status	Published - Feb 2025
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

archival
cloud storage
cold storage
data center
disaggregation
glass
Storage
sustainability

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10.1145/3708996Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

Anderson, P., Aranas, E., Assaf, Y., Behrendt, R., Black, R., Caballero, M., Cameron, P., Canakci, B., Chatzieleftheriou, A., Clarke, R., Clegg, J., Cletheroe, D., Cooper, B., De Carvalho, T., Deegan, T., Donnelly, A., Drevinskas, R., Gaunt, A., Gkantsidis, C., ... Winzeck, S. (2025). Project Silica: towards sustainable cloud archival storage in glass. ACM Transactions on Storage, 21(1), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.1145/3708996

@article{c2393fd22a044cd6966a8d54c5b074fc,

title = "Project Silica: towards sustainable cloud archival storage in glass",

abstract = "Sustainable and cost-effective long-term storage remains an unsolved problem. The most widely used storage technologies today are magnetic (hard disk drives and tape). They use media that degrades over time and has a limited lifetime, which leads to inefficient, wasteful, and costly solutions for long-lived data. This article presents Silica: the first cloud storage system for archival data underpinned by quartz glass, an extremely resilient media that allows data to be left in situ indefinitely. The hardware and software of Silica have been co-designed and co-optimized from the media up to the service level with sustainability as a primary objective. The design follows a cloud-first, data-driven methodology underpinned by principles derived from analyzing the archival workload of a large public cloud service. Silica can support a wide range of archival storage workloads and ushers in a new era of sustainable, cost-effective storage.",

keywords = "archival, cloud storage, cold storage, data center, disaggregation, glass, Storage, sustainability",

author = "Patrick Anderson and Erika Aranas and Youssef Assaf and Raphael Behrendt and Richard Black and Marco Caballero and Pashmina Cameron and Burcu Canakci and Andromachi Chatzieleftheriou and Rebekah Clarke and James Clegg and Daniel Cletheroe and Bridgette Cooper and \{De Carvalho\}, Thales and Tim Deegan and Austin Donnelly and Rokas Drevinskas and Alexander Gaunt and Christos Gkantsidis and \{Gomez Diaz\}, Ariel and Istvan Haller and Freddie Hong and Teodora Ilieva and Shashidhar Joshi and Russell Joyce and William Kunkel and David Lara and Sergey Legtchenko and Fanglin Liu and Bruno Magalhaes and Alana Marzoev and Marvin Mcnett and Jayashree Mohan and Michael Myrah and Truong Nguyen and Sebastian Nowozin and Aaron Ogus and Hiske Overweg and Antony Rowstron and Maneesh Sah and Masaaki Sakakura and Peter Scholtz and Nina Schreiner and Omer Sella and Adam Smith and Ioan Stefanovici and David Sweeney and Benn Thomsen and Govert Verkes and Phil Wainman and Jonathan Westcott and Luke Weston and Charles Whittaker and \{Wilke Berenguer\}, Pablo and Hugh Williams and Thomas Winkler and Stefan Winzeck",

year = "2025",

month = feb,

doi = "10.1145/3708996",

language = "English",

volume = "21",

journal = "ACM Transactions on Storage",

issn = "1553-3077",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery ",

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}

Anderson, P, Aranas, E, Assaf, Y, Behrendt, R, Black, R, Caballero, M, Cameron, P, Canakci, B, Chatzieleftheriou, A, Clarke, R, Clegg, J, Cletheroe, D, Cooper, B, De Carvalho, T, Deegan, T, Donnelly, A, Drevinskas, R, Gaunt, A, Gkantsidis, C, Gomez Diaz, A, Haller, I, Hong, F, Ilieva, T, Joshi, S, Joyce, R, Kunkel, W, Lara, D, Legtchenko, S, Liu, F, Magalhaes, B, Marzoev, A, Mcnett, M, Mohan, J, Myrah, M, Nguyen, T, Nowozin, S, Ogus, A, Overweg, H, Rowstron, A, Sah, M, Sakakura, M, Scholtz, P, Schreiner, N, Sella, O, Smith, A, Stefanovici, I, Sweeney, D, Thomsen, B, Verkes, G, Wainman, P, Westcott, J, Weston, L, Whittaker, C, Wilke Berenguer, P, Williams, H, Winkler, T & Winzeck, S 2025, 'Project Silica: towards sustainable cloud archival storage in glass', ACM Transactions on Storage, vol. 21, no. 1, 3. https://doi.org/10.1145/3708996

TY - JOUR

T1 - Project Silica

T2 - towards sustainable cloud archival storage in glass

AU - Anderson, Patrick

AU - Aranas, Erika

AU - Assaf, Youssef

AU - Behrendt, Raphael

AU - Black, Richard

AU - Caballero, Marco

AU - Cameron, Pashmina

AU - Canakci, Burcu

AU - Chatzieleftheriou, Andromachi

AU - Clarke, Rebekah

AU - Clegg, James

AU - Cletheroe, Daniel

AU - Cooper, Bridgette

AU - De Carvalho, Thales

AU - Deegan, Tim

AU - Donnelly, Austin

AU - Drevinskas, Rokas

AU - Gaunt, Alexander

AU - Gkantsidis, Christos

AU - Gomez Diaz, Ariel

AU - Haller, Istvan

AU - Hong, Freddie

AU - Ilieva, Teodora

AU - Joshi, Shashidhar

AU - Joyce, Russell

AU - Kunkel, William

AU - Lara, David

AU - Legtchenko, Sergey

AU - Liu, Fanglin

AU - Magalhaes, Bruno

AU - Marzoev, Alana

AU - Mcnett, Marvin

AU - Mohan, Jayashree

AU - Myrah, Michael

AU - Nguyen, Truong

AU - Nowozin, Sebastian

AU - Ogus, Aaron

AU - Overweg, Hiske

AU - Rowstron, Antony

AU - Sah, Maneesh

AU - Sakakura, Masaaki

AU - Scholtz, Peter

AU - Schreiner, Nina

AU - Sella, Omer

AU - Smith, Adam

AU - Stefanovici, Ioan

AU - Sweeney, David

AU - Thomsen, Benn

AU - Verkes, Govert

AU - Wainman, Phil

AU - Westcott, Jonathan

AU - Weston, Luke

AU - Whittaker, Charles

AU - Wilke Berenguer, Pablo

AU - Williams, Hugh

AU - Winkler, Thomas

AU - Winzeck, Stefan

PY - 2025/2

Y1 - 2025/2

N2 - Sustainable and cost-effective long-term storage remains an unsolved problem. The most widely used storage technologies today are magnetic (hard disk drives and tape). They use media that degrades over time and has a limited lifetime, which leads to inefficient, wasteful, and costly solutions for long-lived data. This article presents Silica: the first cloud storage system for archival data underpinned by quartz glass, an extremely resilient media that allows data to be left in situ indefinitely. The hardware and software of Silica have been co-designed and co-optimized from the media up to the service level with sustainability as a primary objective. The design follows a cloud-first, data-driven methodology underpinned by principles derived from analyzing the archival workload of a large public cloud service. Silica can support a wide range of archival storage workloads and ushers in a new era of sustainable, cost-effective storage.

AB - Sustainable and cost-effective long-term storage remains an unsolved problem. The most widely used storage technologies today are magnetic (hard disk drives and tape). They use media that degrades over time and has a limited lifetime, which leads to inefficient, wasteful, and costly solutions for long-lived data. This article presents Silica: the first cloud storage system for archival data underpinned by quartz glass, an extremely resilient media that allows data to be left in situ indefinitely. The hardware and software of Silica have been co-designed and co-optimized from the media up to the service level with sustainability as a primary objective. The design follows a cloud-first, data-driven methodology underpinned by principles derived from analyzing the archival workload of a large public cloud service. Silica can support a wide range of archival storage workloads and ushers in a new era of sustainable, cost-effective storage.

KW - archival

KW - cloud storage

KW - cold storage

KW - data center

KW - disaggregation

KW - glass

KW - Storage

KW - sustainability

U2 - 10.1145/3708996

DO - 10.1145/3708996

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:86000576545

SN - 1553-3077

VL - 21

JO - ACM Transactions on Storage

JF - ACM Transactions on Storage

IS - 1

M1 - 3

ER -

Project Silica: towards sustainable cloud archival storage in glass

Abstract

Keywords

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