Storage is an essential requirement for all life forms, with examples ranging from ants storing food to humans storing data. DNA has been selected by life as the medium for storing the blueprint of existence. In computing, storage is a fundamental primitive; without it, data processing is impossible. Different representations of information offer various formats for data storage.
Humans have been storing data since ancient times, but with the advent of modern technology, the volume of data generated daily from sources like digital media has skyrocketed. The need for dense storage mediums has become pressing, especially with predictions indicating that data generated by the Internet of Things will soon reach geopbyte levels.
Current storage solutions require extensive space and are costly. Synthetic DNA storage presents a promising solution. In 2013, scientists demonstrated the storage of 2.2 petabytes of data on one gram of synthetic DNA, with the potential to store 455 exabytes of data. Over the past decade, various error-correcting codes have been developed to push the limits of DNA data storage.
The formation of the DNA Data Storage Alliance (SNIA) in 2021 signals the growing interest in standardizing this technology. This talk provides an overview of DNA-based data storage, including recent advancements and security considerations, and outlines the challenges ahead.
