Today EMC released the findings of the new EMC-sponsored IDC study titled, “The Digital Universe Decade – Are you Ready?” The study measures and forecasts data growth rate, i.e. the amount of digital information created and copied annually worldwide. In 2009, the amount of digital information grew 62 per cent over 2008 to 800 billion gigabytes (0.8 Zettabytes).
One Zettabyte equals one trillion gigabytes.
The amount of digital information created in 2010 is estimated to reach 1.2 Zettabytes. That’s the total estimation from all the tweets, blogging, facebook postings, etc. How much is 1.2ZB in practical terms? According to the study, it can be thought of as a full-length episode of FOX TV’s hit series “24” running continuously for 125 million years. Or, as all the people on Earth tweeting continuously for 100 years. One third of all that data will pass through the Cloud.
PRESS RELEASE
Study Projects Nearly 45-Fold Annual Data Growth by 2020
Cloud Computing to Stimulate More than US$1 Trillion in Incremental Business Revenue by 2014
HOPKINTON, Mass. – May 4, 2010 – EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), the world leader in information infrastructure solutions, today announced results of the new EMC-sponsored IDC study titled “The Digital Universe Decade – Are You Ready?*” This fourth update to the groundbreaking Digital Universe data growth rate study measures and forecasts the vast amount of digital information created and copied annually and its implications for individuals and Information Technology professionals worldwide.
* IDC Digital Universe Study, sponsored by EMC, May 2010
2010 Tally Equals 100 Years of Tweets, 75 Billion iPads
In 2009, amid the “Great Recession,” the amount of digital information grew 62 per cent over 2008 to 800 billion gigabytes (0.8 Zettabytes). One Zettabyte equals one trillion gigabytes. The amount of digital information created in 2010 (1.2 Zettabytes) will equal:
- The digital information created by every man, woman and child on Earth “Tweeting” continuously for 100 years
- 75 billion fully-loaded 16 GB Apple iPads, which would fill the entire area of Wembley Stadium to the brim 41 times, the Mont Blanc Tunnel 84 times, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider tunnel 151 times, Beijing National Stadium 15.5 times or the Taipei 101 Tower 23 times
- A full-length episode of FOX TV’s hit series “24” running continuously for 125 million years
- 707 trillion copies of the more than 2,000-page U.S. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed into Law in March 2010.
Stacked end-to-end, the documents would stretch from Earth to Pluto and back 16 times or cover every inch of the United States in paper three feet deep
Moreover, the number of files, images, records and other digital information containers will grow by a factor of 67, each needing to be managed, secured and protected. Despite this growth, the number of IT professionals globally will grow only by a factor of 1.4. The cumulative effect is driving CIOs to seek out new levels of agility, efficiency and control by moving quickly toward private cloud computing environments.
One-Third of All Digital Information to Live In, Pass Through the Cloud
- The amount of digital information created annually will grow by a factor of 44 from 2009 to 2020, as all major forms of media – voice, TV, radio, print – complete the journey from analogue to digital.
- By 2020, more than one-third of all digital information created annually will either live in or pass through the cloud.
- Based on the use of cloud computing services by companies to reduce the portion of their IT budget devoted to legacy system maintenance, IDC estimates that the increase in IT dollars spent on innovation could drive more than US$1 trillion in increased business revenues between now and the end of 2014. This projection will increase substantially as private cloud and other cloud computing models move into mainstream adoption.
- By 2020, the per cent of digital information requiring security beyond baseline levels will grow from 30 per cent to 50 per cent.
- Thirty-five per cent more digital information is created today than the capacity exists to store it. This number will jump to over 60 per cent over the next several years.
- More than 70 per cent of the Digital Universe is generated by individuals. But enterprises have responsibility for the storage, protection and management of 80 per cent of the Digital Universe. This enterprise liability will only increase as social networking and Web 2.0 technologies continue to invade the enterprise.
The data growth rate study is available for download. The EMC Digital Universe page also features previous versions of the study as well as the worldwide Information Growth Ticker, which is constantly updated to reflect the data growth rate so far this year, and the Digital Footprint Calculator, providing an up-to-the-minute view of how fast an individual’s personal digital universe is expanding.
EMC Executive Quote
Joe Tucci, Chairman and CEO, EMC Corporation
“This year’s Digital Universe study exposes many of the most pressing short- and longer-term strategic issues CIOs grapple with as they map out their IT strategies and investments. They’re quickly discovering that, to remain in the game, they need to do things differently, transforming traditional infrastructures into private cloud data centres that offer internal and external customers IT as a service. Private cloud computing, the next major wave of IT, takes them there, promising new and increasingly automated ways for enterprises and consumers to manage and secure this unyielding onslaught of information.”
About EMC
EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world’s leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information. Information about EMC’s products and services can be found at www.EMC.com.
EMC Canada (www.EMC2.ca), headquartered in Toronto with nine offices from coast to coast, is a wholly owned subsidiary of EMC Corporation.