Stored Data to Exceed 1.8 Zettabytes by 2011

jcatcw writes "By 2011, there will be 1.8 zettabytes of electronic data stored in 20 quadrillion files, packets or other containers because of, among other things, the massive growth rate of social networks, and digital equipment such as cameras, cell phones and televisions, according to a new study by IDC. Data is growing by a factor of 10 every five years. According to John Gantz, IDC's lead analyst, "at some point in the life of every file, or bit or packet, 85% of that information somewhere goes through a corporate computer, website, network or asset," meaning any given corporation becomes responsible for protecting large amounts of data that it and its customers may not have created. The study, which coincided with the launch of a " digital footprint" calculator, also found that as the world changes over to digital televisions, analog sets and obsolete set-top boxes and DVDs "will be heaped on the waste piles, which will double by 2011.""

Comments

Re:Riiight

[Brian Gordon]

What, are you kidding? Blu-ray has horrifying DRM and doesn't really look that much better than DVDs with good postprocessing. I'd never even think of supporting DRMed blu-ray.

Re:Which definition of a zetabyte?

[EricR86]

2^50 bytes or 10^15 bytes? What I really meant was: 2^70 bytes or 10^21 bytes? Pfft. Only a few orders of magnitude... :|

Re:That is a lot of...

[phyrestang]

Try installing Gentoo Linux. The current minimal installer for x86 is about 57MB. The rest is downloaded during the installation.

Re:That is a lot of...

[stuporglue]

You can still do it with one floppy :

http://damnsmalllinux.org/network-install.html

• Get TOMSRTBT and boot it
• Configure network
• Download install script
• Download image and use install script

Debian has a 5-floppy installer still as well : http://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian/dists/etch/main/installer-i386/current/images/floppy/