Three predictions for 2013: Rajesh Khurana

BANGALORE, INDIA: Key trends predictions for 2013 from Rajesh Khurana, country manager, India & SAARC, Vietnam, Phillipines, Seagate Technology.

Storage Drivers

Data consumption and creation and global internet connectivity growth continue to be very robust. For example, in 2012, the total digital information in the world is about 2.7 zettabytes. This is increased by almost 50 per cent since 2011.

According to Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast (2011-2016), the annual global IP traffic is forecast to be 1.3 zettabytes by 2016. What's more, between 2015 & 2016, the increase of global traffic is more than 330 exabytes, almost equal to the total amount of global traffic in 2011 (369 exabytes). 

At the same time, computing is changing fundamentally and at a rapid pace, driven by open source software, cloud infrastructure and architectures, and mobility. 

Cloud computing

According to analysts, enterprise hard disk drive capacity demand alone for both public and private cloud services accounted for 13.7 exabytes of the 58.6 exabytes of total enterprise compute capacity shipped in 2011. And, it is expected to nearly triple in the next 10 years. And many cloud providers are moving away from traditional enterprise hardware and software to open architectures that use open source software and APIs. 

Mobile lifestyle

It is also a known fact that the mobile lifestyle is becoming increasingly visible today both at enterprise and consumer levels. We believe that tablet offerings will continue to evolve and may result in a notebook refresh cycle to lengthen, depending on macro-economic conditions and competitive product offerings. We are optimistic that the wide variety of new notebook offerings, including thin and light systems, will result in renewed growth in this market over the next 12 months.

We also remain optimistic about the long term impact of Windows 8 and other operating systems that enhance the user experience by incorporating touch, keyboard, pen, voice and gesture.

In summary, we are witnessing the strong growth in the cloud computing and mobile connectivity, be it end users, enterprises or OEMs.