Why Facebook thinks Blu-ray discs are perfect for the data center

Why Facebook thinks Blu-ray discs are perfect for the data center

Jan 31st 2014, 14:00, by Jon Brodkin

Inside Facebook's Blu-ray storage rack.

Facebook

Facebook's hardware guru thinks Blu-ray discs might have a brighter future in the data center than in consumers' homes.
We wrote on Wednesday about how Facebook has developed a prototype storage system that uses 10,000 Blu-ray discs to hold a petabyte of data. After that story posted we were able to talk to Frank Frankovsky, VP of hardware design and supply chain operations at Facebook, to find out just why he's so excited about the project.
While the Blu-ray storage system is just a prototype, Facebook hopes to get it in production sometime this year and share the design with the Open Compute Project community to spur adoption elsewhere. If Facebook and others start using Blu-ray discs for long-term archival storage, Blu-ray manufacturers will see a new market opportunity and pursue it, Frankovsky said.