Watch out for zettabyte
Megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte. Now get ready for zettabyte. Cisco is one of the first companies to take the wraps off what will likely become commonplace in the near future: a zettabyte-capable router.
The Cisco Aggregation Services Router 9000 Series, or ASR 9000, is perhaps a little head of its time but it is readying for the era of non-stop video on demand and huge Internet traffic spikes.
The router is designed to cope with the demands of a rapid Internet growth and is intended for major Internet junction nodes.
Cisco says that according to its latest research it expects to see IP traffic nearly double every two years, growing at around 46% a year from 2007 to 2012. That growth would result in an annual bandwidth demand on the world’s IP networks of approximately 522 exabytes, or more than half a zettabyte.
To put that into context, 522 exabytes is approximately the equivalent of downloading 125 billion DVD movies a month.
But don’t expect the ASR 9000 to become a household fixture right now. With a launch price tag of $80 000 (around R820 000) it’s not going to be in this year’s Christmas shopping list.
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