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I am surprised that we're still stuck at Blu-Ray levels of data storage on disc. I would have thought we would be up to a terabyte or so by now, but everything has stagnated.

Tape remains expensive for the home data hoarder, and there is a point at which cloud storage becomes more expensive than tape.

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Sony and Panasonic are making 500GB optical disks as an LTO tape alternative for businesses (See Sony’s “Optical Disc Archive” - Panasonic has a different name for the same standard).

However, these don’t really have a use for consumers. CDs had music, DVDs and Blu-rays had television and films, but there is unfortunately no compelling use case given home media is turning to streaming. Additionally, for many, cloud storage is replacing the need for local storage in spite of its drawbacks.

I'd like Microsoft Project Silica to come to the market. Basically laser burning your data onto a cube of glass, like CD-Rs it is write once read many, but it can store so, so much more, and also once the bits are 'drilled' into glass...there is nothing to delaminate or stop reflecting. Is the glass scratched? No? Then a reading laser can see the bit state.

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