Despite the seemingly unending amount of data storage space, so much data has been produced in recent years that a time could come when there's nowhere to put it all, even on the cloud, Digital Trends writes. It adds that that's where DNA-based data storage could come into play.
"In the very near future, we're going to have a huge gap between the useful data that we're generating, and how we are able to store it using conventional mediums," Hyunjun Park, CEO and co-founder of the startup Catalog tells Digital Trends.
Digital Trends notes that DNA's use as a storage medium has been batted about for decades. While others have considered data storage based on DNA synthesis and linking the bases generated to the data stored, Catalog is taking a different tack, it says. The startup is instead separating the synthesis and the encoding processes and is basing its storage abilities on the generation of a large volume of a few different molecules and then use their diversity to encode data, according to Digital Trends, which adds that the startup is first trying their approach for archival storage where a delay in data retrieval is acceptable.
Digital Trends adds that the company is carrying out a number of pilot projects.