Scality has partnered with Biomemory to develop DNA-based cold archive storage for object storage environments, aimed at organisations that need very long-term data retention.
The partnership aims to add DNA storage as a cold archive tier within Scality-managed systems, including its ADI platform. It would sit alongside existing flash, disk and tape infrastructure rather than replace those media.
As part of the tie-up, Scality Chief Executive Officer Jerome Lecat has joined Biomemory's board of directors, creating a governance link as the two companies work on an integration roadmap for the new storage tier.
DNA data storage has been discussed for years as a way to preserve information over long periods, but commercial use has remained limited. Scality and Biomemory are now trying to bring the technology into mainstream data centre environments used by enterprises, government bodies and service providers.
The companies are focusing on archival workloads in which data is kept for decades and accessed rarely. They cited use cases including national archives, scientific and genomic repositories, media preservation, regulated financial and healthcare records, and sovereign or defence workloads.
Biomemory says its systems are designed for data retention and readability for up to 150 years. That places the technology in a segment of the storage market where long-term integrity and resistance to loss matter more than frequent access.
For Scality, the agreement broadens its approach to managing data across different storage media. Its software platform is built around S3 object storage and policy-based data placement, which can be extended to a DNA archive tier as the technology develops.
The strategic case centres on long-term archive management and chain of custody, particularly for customers seeking stronger protection against corruption, unreadability or cyber incidents over multi-decade periods. The partners argue that DNA storage could become another layer in a broader archive hierarchy managed through software.
Biomemory recently acquired assets from DNA storage company Catalog Technologies, a move it says strengthens its technical base and speeds its path to market. The deal supports its effort to move DNA storage from research settings into industrial use.
Archive market
Cold storage is already a crowded part of the broader infrastructure market, with tape still widely used for long-term archiving because of its cost and established workflows. Any DNA-based alternative will need to fit those workflows and prove it can meet operational and regulatory requirements.
That is where software integration is likely to matter. Rather than asking customers to adopt a standalone platform, the partnership aims to make DNA storage part of a familiar object storage environment, with policy controls determining when data moves to a deeper archive tier.
Lecat outlined Scality's view of the market in a statement accompanying the announcement. "The future of data storage is not a single medium; it is a spectrum of storage qualities, each optimised for the demands of the data it holds. DNA storage represents the logical culmination of that spectrum: a cold archive tier with density, secure immutability, and longevity that no conventional medium can approach. Our partnership with Biomemory is a strategic investment in owning that future. By bringing DNA into the Scality ecosystem now, we ensure our customers, which include the world's most demanding enterprises, governments, and service providers, will be ready to harness it as it matures. And by being on Biomemory's board, I'm personally committed to helping accelerate that journey for the entire industry," said Jerome Lecat, Chief Executive Officer, Scality.
His comments suggest a longer-term strategy rather than an immediate commercial rollout. A joint integration roadmap will be developed over the coming months, indicating that the technical and operational work is still at an early stage.
Board link
For Biomemory, the alliance offers access to a storage software partner with an established presence in large-scale object storage. That matters because DNA media alone is unlikely to win customers unless it can be managed through existing retention policies and storage administration tools.
Erfan Arwani, Chief Executive Officer, Biomemory, said the company was building around data centre needs rather than laboratory experimentation. "Biomemory is building DNA storage with enterprise scale and enterprise expectations. Not as a laboratory curiosity, but as a modular, data centre-ready archival system. To realise that vision, we work with software partners who understand the full stack: how data moves, how policies are enforced, how resilience is maintained across tiers, and how enterprises actually manage the lifecycle of their most valuable assets. Scality is the ideal partner for that challenge. Their hardware-aware, software-defined architecture is precisely the kind of control plane that DNA storage needs to reach its potential in production environments. Having Jerome on our board brings not just strategic alignment, but deep operational experience scaling storage platforms globally," said Arwani.
Biomemory was founded in 2021 and draws on research from Sorbonne University and CNRS laboratories in France. It is based in Paris and also has research, development and production operations in Boston.
The partnership highlights how storage suppliers are looking beyond conventional media as data volumes grow and retention periods lengthen. Whether DNA storage can move from specialist promise to a practical archive tier will depend on integration, economics and trust, but Biomemory's stated 150-year retention target gives the collaboration a clear benchmark.