Sony and Panasonic have announced that they will be partnering up to develop a next-generation optical disc for professional use. The companies have set a goal of an optical disc with a recording capacity of “at least” 300GB by the end of 2015.

The joint announcement of the project states that the objective of the project is to expand each companies’ archive business. The market for archival solutions is expected to grow rapidly, and soon. The market is expected to be driven by cloud data centers, as well as the movie and broadcasting industries.

Optical discs are being targeted for the initiative for their physical properties, which include dust, water, humidity, and temperature resistance.

Sony and Panasonic both have worked on developing Blu-Ray disc technology, and both have offered archival solutions based on optical discs. Sony’s system offered cartridges holding up to twelve optical discs, each holding 25GB of data. Panasonic’s LB-DM9 products also used ‘magazines’ containing twelve optical discs, though each of theirs could hold up to 100GB.