Derrick
ლ(ಠ_ಠ )ლ
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2010
- Messages
- 5,085
- Reaction score
- 5
Following the explosion of social networking and video streaming websites, government surveillance and internet enabled mobile phones the world’s total store of digital content currently weighs in at 487 billion gigabytes.
According to the Guardian, this is equivalent to one full top of the range iPod for every two people on the planet. If all of this data were to be printed it would form a pile that would stretch from the Earth to Pluto ten times – roughly 60 billion kilometres.
Although 487 billion gigabytes may seem like an enormous number, this is set to double in the next 18 months according to research from technology consultancy IDC and IT firm EDC.
In their first report in 2007 the team estimated total digital content on earth to be 161 billion gigabytes. This means that in only two years the ‘digital universe’ grew by 302%. If it were to continue on the same course the world’s total data in 2012 would be 2206 billion gigabytes.
According to the report roughly 70% of the data in the ‘digital universe’ is created by individuals. This data includes phone calls, e mails, photos, online banking and activity on social networking websites.
With a growing membership of over 120 million users Facebook is just one example of a social media website which has contributed a considerable amount of data to the world’s total in recent years.
The report also estimates that the total cost of computer, network and storage facilities that drive the ‘digital universe’ is about $6 trillion.
In order to accommodate for this massive growth in information, science will have to invent new and more cost effective ways to store data. Holographic data storage which allows for multi layered disk storage is just one technology on the horizon that may achieve this.
According to the Guardian, this is equivalent to one full top of the range iPod for every two people on the planet. If all of this data were to be printed it would form a pile that would stretch from the Earth to Pluto ten times – roughly 60 billion kilometres.
Although 487 billion gigabytes may seem like an enormous number, this is set to double in the next 18 months according to research from technology consultancy IDC and IT firm EDC.
In their first report in 2007 the team estimated total digital content on earth to be 161 billion gigabytes. This means that in only two years the ‘digital universe’ grew by 302%. If it were to continue on the same course the world’s total data in 2012 would be 2206 billion gigabytes.
According to the report roughly 70% of the data in the ‘digital universe’ is created by individuals. This data includes phone calls, e mails, photos, online banking and activity on social networking websites.
With a growing membership of over 120 million users Facebook is just one example of a social media website which has contributed a considerable amount of data to the world’s total in recent years.
The report also estimates that the total cost of computer, network and storage facilities that drive the ‘digital universe’ is about $6 trillion.
In order to accommodate for this massive growth in information, science will have to invent new and more cost effective ways to store data. Holographic data storage which allows for multi layered disk storage is just one technology on the horizon that may achieve this.