DNA data storage will dramatically effect the way organizations think about data retention, data protection, and archival by providing capacity density and longevity several orders of magnitude beyond anything available today, while reducing requirements for both power, cooling, and fixity checks. One of challenges of any long term archival storage is being able to recover the data after possibly decades or longer. To do this, the reader must be able to bootstrap the archive, akin to how an OS is loaded after the master boot record is loaded. This talk will describe our initial work to define a standard schema for a self-describing DNA data archive sector zero, which will be as generic as possible, exploiting the format immutability of the natural DNA molecule to assure the archive can be bootstrapped by sequencers decades in the future, all while enabling archive writers to continue innovation in how the balance of the archive is synthesized. We call this the “DNA Rosetta Stone” project.
The DNA Data Storage Rosetta Stone Initiative
- Understand the high level potential use cases for DNA as a data storage medium
- Understand the challenges associated with consuming a DNA data storage archive
- Understand how the DNA data storage Rosetta Stone may enable future consumers to leverage DNA as a media
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The industry needs a new storage medium that is more dense, durable, sustainable, and cost effective to cope with the expected future growth of archival data.
Using synthetic DNA for data storage implies two complex steps of digital data processing, namely Encoding and Decoding, which are very different from what we are used to in the conventional Flash
- Rino MicheloniDNAalgo
Synthetic DNA-based data storage is a major attraction due to the possibility of storage over long periods.
- Marília MenossiLenovo/IPT
DNA molecules offer an alternative to storage information at extremely high spatial density.
- Adriano Galindo LealLenovo/IPT
The ever-present connectivity in our lives, and the data storage demands that come with it, is growing exponentially.
To wrap up the DNA Data Storage track, Dave Landsman, along with session presenters and others from the DNA Data Storage Alliance, will host an open and informal Q&A.
SNIA Developer Conference
September 15-17, 2025
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