MUMBAI: Sony Corporation of America (SCA) has acquired Optical Archive Inc. (OAI), a company that specializes in optical storage systems for the data center market.  The acquisition is made by SCA on behalf of Sony Corporation.

With Sony, OAI will leverage its experience and capabilities in data center hardware design, supply chain operations and systems integration with Sony's expertise in optical disc and manufacturing technology to develop new optical disc library systems that will meet the technological demands from the growing cold archive market.

The term "cold archive" refers to a class of data that must be retained over a long period of time but isn't accessed frequently, such as cloud-based photo storage and data retained for legal or regulatory reasons. Cold archive is the largest and fastest growing portion of the data center storage market.

“This acquisition marks the beginning of our commitment to this growing market. Optical disc libraries will provide many advantages to customers who are currently using tape or hard drive technology to store cold data, such as lower costs, extremely durable media life, and higher data throughput rates. We plan to leverage and expand our existing optical disc production lines in order to accommodate the growing demand for this media,” said Sony Corporation SVP and deputy president, Device Solutions Business Group Terushi Shimizu.

“We are thrilled to be part of Sony. Merging Sony's excellence in optical engineering and manufacturing with OAI's experience and capabilities in data center hardware design and operations will deliver innovative new storage solutions to customers,” added OAI CEO Frank Frankovsky.