Digital universe explodes in slowdown

BANGALORE: 3,892,179,868,480,350,000,000. Too tough a number to read, isn't it? Ok, then we can translate this to 486.522 billion gigabytes for the sake of convenience.

If you wonder what is this number game all about, just listen to what John Gantz, chief research officer for IDC has to say about it.

“That’s the number of new digital information bits created in 2008. Contrary to popular belief, as the economy deteriorated in late 2008, the pace of digital information created and transmitted over the Internet, phone networks, and airwaves actually increased.”

According to the new EMC-sponsored IDC study titled 'As the Economy Contracts, the Digital Universe Expands', the amount of digital information created in 2008 grew 3 per cent faster than IDC’s prior projection. Looking forward, the digital universe is expected to double in size every 18 months, it said. In 2012, five times as much digital information will be created versus 2008.

The new findings highlight the third update to the digital universe study, which measures and forecasts the vast amounts and diverse types of digital information created and copied annually, said a press release.

To understand the magnitude of this information created in 2008, the following examples will help. This is the equivalent of more than:

* 237 billion fully-loaded Amazon Kindle wireless reading devices

* 4.8 quadrillion online bank transactions

* 3 quadrillion Twitter feeds

* 162 trillion digital photos

* 30 billion fully-loaded Apple iPod Touches

* 19 billion fully-loaded Blu-ray DVDs

The study also said that over the next four years, the number of information-generation technologies and interactions will increase dramatically. According to it, mobile users will grow by a factor of 3.0, whereas over the next four years, 600 million more people will become Internet users. Nearly two-thirds of all Internet users will use mobile devices at least some of the time.

Non-traditional IT devices such as wireless meters, automobile navigation systems, industrial machines, RFID readers, and intelligent sensor controllers will grow by a factor of 3.6, while interactions between people via email, messaging, social networks, etc will grow by a factor of 8.0.

The data explosion will also increase the requirement for information security as well, said the study.

More than 30 per cent of information created today is 'security-intensive', thus requiring high standards of protection. That number will grow to roughly 45 per cent by the end of 2012, it said.