Web: Study: Digital Universe and Its Impact Bigger Than We Thought

Study: Digital Universe and Its Impact Bigger Than We Thought
Computerworld (03/11/08) Mearian, Lucas

In three years' time there will be a tenfold increase in the 180 exabytes of electronic data created and stored in 2006, according to a white paper from IDC. The report estimates that electronic receptacles for that data are expanding 50 percent faster than the data itself, and that information will be stored in over 20 quadrillion containers by 2011, producing a massive management conundrum for consumers as well as businesses. The bulk of the data consists of digital "shadows" such as surveillance photos, Web search histories, financial transaction journals, mailing lists, and so on. IDC chief research officer John F. Gantz says that a great deal of the data being created by consumers outside of enterprises will require enterprise protection, as 85 percent of that information sooner or later goes through a corporate asset. IDC acknowledges an underestimation of earlier digital figures for 2007, noting that the actual data total--281 exabytes--is 10 percent greater than it had projected earlier in its first "Digital Universe" study, owing to more rapid growth in digital cameras, televisions, and data, and improved comprehension of data replication. IT organizations will need to accommodate the digital universe's rapidly increasing size and sophistication by transforming their existing relationships with business units; driving the development of organization-wide policies for information governance such as security and retention of information, data access, and compliance; and expediting new tools and standards into the organization, from storage optimization, unstructured data search, and database analytics to virtualization and management and security tools.
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