Database systems require, among other things, efficient query processing, storage access, and data communication. Currently, query processing Performance supported by advanced VLSI technology has outpaced the access speed of conventional disk storage and the bandwidth of data communication links. We advocate the use of holographic storage and wavelength division multiplexing technologies as fundamental solutions to the storage and communication issues in database systems. The purpose of the paper is to accelerate the research and development momentum of system and device research by discussing both performance advantages and issues requiring further research.Index Terms-wavelength division multiplexing, holographic storage, surface-emitting laser array, database systems, VLSI filters, text search.