Cerabyte's Ceramic Storage Medium Hyped as Industry Disruptor

[T0@st]

Cerabyte/Ceramic Data Solutions Holding GmbH, a German storage technology startup, is hyping up its nanolayer-based storage method: "creating the most reliable data storage ever. Data is safe in a wide temperature range of -273 °C (-460 °F) to 300 °C (570 °F) and even in corrosive or acidic atmosphere. Also radiation and an EMP can't destroy information stored on (our system)." The firm's leadership is comprised of self-described "pioneers," with a goal to disrupt the storage market (worth $500 billion)—they want to reduce data center storage total cost of ownership (TCO) by 75 %, while introducing their environment friendly solution that: "requires 99 % less energy. Sustainable long-term data storage is one of the most urgent problems in our world. Cerabyte is the solution for reducing 99% of CO2 emissions generated by conventional cloud data storage."

A product preview showcases the potential of multiple CeraMemory cartridges (2025-30) in a rack formation capable of storing between 10 PB and 100 PB of data, and their CeraTape (2030-35) series offering up to 1 EB capacity per unit. Cerabyte representatives are set to discuss their technologies at the 2023 Storage Developer Conference, scheduled to take place later this month (September 18 to 21). Their "Ceramic Nano Memory - Data Storage for the Yottabyte Era" abstract is available to view in advance of the upcoming meet up in Silicon Valley.




Ceramics lasts 5,000+ years
Safe storage for generations...durable as hieroglyphs:

Cerabyte was founded by a handful of pioneers who dared to re-think sustainable data storage from scratch. Our vision is to store all data forever and to preserve today's digital records for future use.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

As an admitted storage fiend......I need to know more.

 

[Canned Noodles]

Data is safe in a wide temperature range of -273 °C (-460 °F) to 300°C (570 °F) and even in corrosive or acidic atmosphere. Also radiation and an EMP can't destroy information stored on (our system).

durable as hieroglyphs

Sounds to me like they’re bringing back stone slabs... I can’t wait to put this chisel to use.

 

[Jism]

ROM on glass.

 

[Wye]

This doesn't sound like something new in theory.
Unless they have some practical demos I could see it fail because of so many reasons.

 

[TumbleGeorge]

It feels like it's April Fools again. Oh, these pranksters hallucinate more interestingly than any LLM!

 

[CheapMeat]

I like what they're doing but are some of the statements really true? Like 5 years in terms of HDD replacement? Are cloud storage & enterprise data centers really throwing out HDDs that quickly? Or do they mostly just expand capacity with more racks / facilities? I mean, I can see the long-term appeal in terms of HDD cycling, tape & even M-DISC. I'm just wondering if how they're presenting it, might bite them back.

 

[Denver]

I wish I wasn't so skeptical and could believe in these startups that create revolutionary technologies. Was there a single time that a small Startup prospered in creating a technology that displaced large corporations and their tens of billions employed in research?

 

[Pizdarenkowitch]

I wish I wasn't so skeptical and could believe in these startups that create revolutionary technologies. Was there a single time that a small Startup prospered in creating a technology that displaced large corporations and their tens of billions employed in research?

 

[R-T-B]

I wish I wasn't so skeptical and could believe in these startups that create revolutionary technologies. Was there a single time that a small Startup prospered in creating a technology that displaced large corporations and their tens of billions employed in research?

Netflix, at least sorta. Different animal, but startup indeed killed a billion upon billion dollar industry with... dvds in the mail.

 

[Denver]

Netflix, at least sorta. Different animal, but startup indeed killed a billion upon billion dollar industry with... dvds in the mail.

Yes, this is a good example of a small company that revolutionized the market, there are also digital banks and other successful startups in other segments.

But speaking specifically of hardware and the like, I find it very difficult for these small companies to prosper in creating something that the multi-billionaires haven't managed yet (or have already patented, bought the IP etc...).

 

[80251]

Netflix, at least sorta. Different animal, but startup indeed killed a billion upon billion dollar industry with... dvds in the mail.

Was Netflix pretty much the end of Blockbuster or were they already dead by that point?

Ribbit!

 

[AusWolf]

Interesting. Anything for home users?

I wish I wasn't so skeptical and could believe in these startups that create revolutionary technologies. Was there a single time that a small Startup prospered in creating a technology that displaced large corporations and their tens of billions employed in research?

Every company was a startup at some point.

 

[Chaitanya]

Interesting. Anything for home users?


Every company was a startup at some point.

Would be useful for delivery of games and softwares over the current turdfest of internet based delivery and subscriptions.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

it doesnt talk about speed, so a chisel and stone slab might be just about right. Cassette storage of the 80s maybe.

 

[silentbogo]

SDC 2023 is quite soon (Cerabyte will be giving a talk as well), gonna wait for some videos of presentations to appear on the net to see fuller picture, but as far as it looks right now - it's a small startup with mostly people coming from marketing and sales (even the ones posed as "engineers"), one very-very young software dev with less than 4 years of work experience in software dev. and cloud storage (plus short internship in AI/ML), and one and a half real engineer.
So, either they are trying to do a budget-friendly Project Glass copypasta, or [more likely] all they really have is 3D renders and stock footage along with few semi-competent people to answer simple questions from investors, with no intention of developing anything real any time soon. Mind you - they already make all those bold claims about petabyte capacities and multigig read speeds while they don't even have a whitepaper or anything else of a sorts. Heck, even crypto startups publish whitepaper or anything resembling a proper technical document before they scam people out of their money. These guys didn't even bother doing that.
.. or maybe I am wrong and they are secretly a team of talented super-physicists with a revolutionary tech, but with really bad presentation skills.

 

[Bwaze]

I wish I wasn't so skeptical and could believe in these startups that create revolutionary technologies. Was there a single time that a small Startup prospered in creating a technology that displaced large corporations and their tens of billions employed in research?

I don’t think it’s possible to usurp the whole industry with their large scale manufacturing, distribution channels etc., at least not quickly. It helps when one of the large players buys up the startup with the technology.

Even with the revolutionary product you are in the beginning very constrained in terms of volume (you can’t just scale up production, that cost lots and lots of money) - and if the product is really desirable, the price will of course shoot up - and then marketing might calculate it makes more sense to continue to produce it as a niche very expensive product instead of trying to risk a very large production with lower margins. And this many times has no relation with the real manufacturing and development cost.

 

[Dirt Chip]

1EB?
You can have all YouTube offline and then some.
That's about 1% of all data generated so far, isn't it?

 

[Tahagomizer]

If I got a penny every time an "industry disruptor" promises to revolutionize the world I would have a sizeable jar of pennies every week. This is just another bunch of people producing flashy videos to wow gullible venture capitalists and proceed do vanish into thin air with pockets nicely lined with money.

 

[Steevo]

Netflix, at least sorta. Different animal, but startup indeed killed a billion upon billion dollar industry with... dvds in the mail.

Steam and a few other delivery stores killed the physical copy, when I first used steam I never thought it would completely remove the need for a disc drive.

Cell phones have replaced the home for most users. They had to break up the landline monopoly.

Uber has replaced taxis almost everywhere.

 

[80251]

If I got a penny every time an "industry disruptor" promises to revolutionize the world I would have a sizeable jar of pennies every week. This is just another bunch of people producing flashy videos to wow gullible venture capitalists and proceed do vanish into thin air with pockets nicely lined with money.

Is it a Producers movie type scam where they take investors' money and let/hope the product fails?

 

[Tahagomizer]

Is it a Producers movie type scam where they take investors' money and let/hope the product fails?

Otherwise known as a rug pull. Hype something up, get money from gullible people, fail, take the money. A lot of that lately, just look at what Musk is doing.

 

[Denver]

I don’t think it’s possible to usurp the whole industry with their large scale manufacturing, distribution channels etc., at least not quickly. It helps when one of the large players buys up the startup with the technology.

Even with the revolutionary product you are in the beginning very constrained in terms of volume (you can’t just scale up production, that cost lots and lots of money) - and if the product is really desirable, the price will of course shoot up - and then marketing might calculate it makes more sense to continue to produce it as a niche very expensive product instead of trying to risk a very large production with lower margins. And this many times has no relation with the real manufacturing and development cost.

I find it very sad that there are many companies like this that live on promises and continue taking money from investors and delaying launches until they go bankrupt due to unviability or are just exposed and arrested. To name a few that have already fallen or will probably fall taking millions: Aquion Energy, Sion Power, Theion, GMG, NanoTech Solar inc, Quantum Scape, Altris AB, Natron, Lyten etc...

 

[AusWolf]

Steam and a few other delivery stores killed the physical copy, when I first used steam I never thought it would completely remove the need for a disc drive.

Cell phones have replaced the home for most users. They had to break up the landline monopoly.

Uber has replaced taxis almost everywhere.

I wish discs were still a thing. Not only because I like owning my games, but also because internet connection in my area is 20 years behind industry standards. The best cable broadband I can get (and have) is 40/5. It takes at least a day to download my game library at full speed (and then the missus can't watch YouTube on the living room TV). One modern game easily takes 3-5 hours.

 

[Laykun]

Yes, this is a good example of a small company that revolutionized the market, there are also digital banks and other successful startups in other segments.

But speaking specifically of hardware and the like, I find it very difficult for these small companies to prosper in creating something that the multi-billionaires haven't managed yet (or have already patented, bought the IP etc...).

Internal company politics and poor leadership generally allow holes to open in the market for smaller competitors to enter and eat their lunch, it's happened again and again throughout history. I don't think it's as unlikely as you might think.