An Exploding Digital Universe
It used to be that the word “trillion” was seldom used. But in the past couple of decades, it has become part of common parlance. Now we are beginning to need the word “quadrillion” to begin describing the huge explosion of information we are about to experience.
EMC’s yearly “Digital Universe” report, 2014, states that the number of devices with sensors, capable of being connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) is currently over 200 billion. Today, about 14 billion of these devices exist in networks and are connected to each other and producing data. By 2020, EMC projects 32 billion devices generating 44 Trillion GB of data.
These devices include smartphones, tablets, household appliances, automobiles and industrial machinery and systems. The ecosystem fostering this explosion includes the Internet, cloud computing, mobile devices, and automation equipment. New types of devices coming online include smart city technology such as traffic lights, medical equipment such as MRI machines, and data created by supercomputers.
According to EMC, all of this is giving rise to:
- New business models
- Real-time information for mission-critical systems
- Diversified revenue streams
- Global opportunity
- More efficient and intelligent business and industrial operations
The following graphic from EMC outlines the growth of global data, the need for better databases, and analysis of information.
