Optical discs have excellent properties to protect them against the environment, such  as dust-resistance and water-resistance, and can also withstand changes in  temperature and humidity when stored. They also allow inter-generational  compatibility between different formats, ensuring that data can continue to be  read even as formats evolve. This makes them a robust medium for long-term  storage of content. Both companies have previously developed products based on  the Blu-ray format, leveraging the strengths of optical discs. However, both  Sony and Panasonic recognized that optical discs will need to accommodate much  larger volumes of storage in years to come given the expected future growth in  the archive market, and responded by formulating this agreement.

Sony previously commercialized a file-based optical disc archive system in  September, 2012. Based on optical disc technology that Sony cultivated for its  XDCAM series of professional broadcasting products, this system houses twelve  optical discs within a compact cartridge as a single, high-capacity storage solution.  Each disc within the cartridge holds 25GB capacity,  offering a total range of storage capacities from 300GB to 1.5TB.