EMC has announced results of the seventh EMC Digital Universe study reveals how the emergence of wireless technologies, smart products and software-defined businesses are playing a central role in catapulting the volume of the world's data.
Due in part to the Internet of Things, the digital universe is doubling in size every two years and will multiply 10-fold between 2013 and 2020 – from 4.4 trillion gigabytes to 44 trillion gigabytes, EMC says.
The Internet of Things comprises billions of everyday objects that are equipped with unique identifiers and the ability to automatically record, report and receive data.
According to IDC the number of devices or things that can be connected to the Internet is approaching 200 billion today, with 7 percent (or 14 billion) already connected to and communicating over the Internet.
The data from these connected devices represents 2 percent of the world's data today. IDC now forecasts that, by 2020, the number of connected devices will grow to 32 billion – representing 10 percent of the world's data.
"The Digital Universe and The Internet of Things go hand in hand," Vernon Turner, Senior Vice President, IDC, said. "As sensors become connected to the Internet, the data that they generate becomes increasingly important to every aspect of business, transforming old industries into new relevant entities.? Traditional storage services will be elevated to new levels of resiliency and tolerance to support the Digital Universe, which can only be guaranteed in a software-defined environment."
The Internet of Things will also influence the massive amounts of "useful data" – data that could be analysed – in the digital universe. In 2013, only 22 percent of the information in the digital universe was considered useful data, but less than 5 percent of the useful data was actually analysed – leaving a massive amount of data lost as dark matter in the digital universe. By 2020, more than 35 percent of all data could be considered useful data, thanks to the growth of data from the Internet of Things.
For example, IDC estimates that 40% of the data in the digital universe require some level of protection, from heightened privacy measures to fully-encrypted data. That said, only half of that data – just 20 percent – is actually protected.
In addition, 60 percent of data in the digital universe is attributed to mature markets such as Germany, Japan, and the United States, but by 2020, the percentage will flip, and emerging markets will account for the majority of data.
The world's amount of available storage capacity across all media types is growing slower than the digital universe. In 2013, the available storage capacity could hold just 33 percent of the digital universe. By 2020, it will be able to store less than 15 percent.
