The AI Future Depends on What You Can't See

First, Woody's hat vanished... then his boots...

Then the rest of Toy Story 2 was gone.

Pixar was just weeks away from finishing the sequel to its animated blockbuster when the unthinkable happened...

In 1998, as the animation team was finalizing the film, disaster struck. A simple command entered into the studio's servers began erasing it. And not just bits and pieces. Almost the entire movie disappeared.

The warning signs started slow. Larry Cutler, a technical director at Pixar, recalls seeing Woody's hat and boots fade away. Soon, Buzz Lightyear's iconic spacesuit began disappearing. Within minutes, Andy's room dissolved into nothingness.

"Woody's gone," a stunned Cutler reportedly said.

The team erupted into chaos. They realized 90% of the film had been lost. This was no minor glitch... It was catastrophic.

They shut down the servers in a desperate attempt to stop the deletion process. But it was too late. Months of work had been erased in mere seconds.

The crew faced a nightmare. They'd already sunk millions of dollars into the project. So restarting from scratch was unimaginable with a looming release deadline.

And worse still, the odds of recovering what was lost were slim.

But just as the team braced for the worst, they got a lifeline...

Galyn Susman, one of the project's supervising technical directors, had been working from home after giving birth to her child. In an incredible stroke of luck, Susman had requested a complete copy of the film's files.

That backup – stored on a workstation carefully transported to her home – was the only existing copy of the film.

Pixar rallied a team to retrieve Susman's work computer. They drove the backup to the studio... with someone riding shotgun to keep the machine stable during the journey.

And it worked. Toy Story 2 was saved.

The film went on to gross nearly $500 million globally. It's cemented as one of the most beloved animated films of all time. And without Susman's backup, it may not have made it to theaters.

The history of Toy Story 2's near loss is now Pixar legend...

But it's also a cautionary tale about the fragility of digital data – and the importance of reliable storage solutions.

When it comes to data storage, the world has moved toward faster and smaller. But cheaper, slower, and more reliable still have their place.

As the AI arms race intensifies, the amount of data out there has skyrocketed. We're creating, storing, and processing more than ever before.

In 2016, the world generated 18 zettabytes of data. (A zettabyte is equal to 1 trillion gigabytes.)

That number reached 149 zettabytes last year. By 2028, thanks to the growth of AI and 5G, we're expected to generate 394 zettabytes.

That's why storage has become the quiet battleground for the next wave of AI dominance.

And while the spotlight shines on chips and algorithms... the companies that handle reliable data storage are cementing their place.

Regards,

Rob Spivey
September 17, 2025

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