Facebook Deploys Robots to Save Blu-ray From Extinction | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

A snapshot of pragmatic data center innovation at Facebook

"Facebook calls it cold storage, and it’s yet another way that the giants of the web are pushing data center design into the future, seeking more efficient ways of processing and, yes, storing your data. It could also signal a larger movement towards the use of robotics in the data center, but at the same time, Facebook is venturing into the past with this rather surprising project. Just when the Blu-ray seemed to be on the way out — undercut by Netflix and other services that stream movies over the internet — another part of the internet has thrown it a lifeline.
“We went to Japan to understand the industry, and we were just — embraced,” says Giovanni Coglitore, the Facebook director of engineering who dreamed up this cold storage project. “I don’t want to call us a savior, but there are a lot of companies who see us as the new opportunity for optical discs.”"

Facebook Deploys Robots to Save Blu-ray From Extinction | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com