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"Digital Universe" Enters the Zettabyte Era

miller60 writes "In 2010 the volume of digital information created and duplicated in a year will reach 1.2 zettabytes, according to new data from IDC and EMC. The annual Digital Universe report is an effort to visualize the enormous amount of data being generated by our increasingly digital lives. The report's big numbers — a zettabyte is roughly a million petabytes — pose interesting questions about how the IT community will store and manage this firehose of data. Perhaps the biggest challenge isn't how much data we're creating — it's all the copies of it. Seventy-five percent of all the data in the Digital Universe is a copy, according to IDC. See additional analysis from TG Daily, The Guardian, and Search Storage."

6 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. I'm happy to see by ltning · · Score: 2, Funny

    That we have all become good citizens, backing up all our data. I presume the data recovery firms are all panicking now that all their potebtial customers have backups of everything, and thus no longer need their services.

    Not bad to have a global backup ratio of >1:1

    Personally I use RAIM (Redundant Array of Instant Messages) to back up all my important notes and communications. It only works as long as all my friends log everything too, of course.

    --
    Love over Gold.
    1. Re:I'm happy to see by natehoy · · Score: 2, Funny

      Dude, that's so old-school. I use RAT (Redundant Array of Tweets). My data is backed up... 140 characters at a time.

      I'm thinking of upgrading to a system with a larger packet size. RASC (Redundant Array of Slashdot Comments) might work, but I'm afraid of having my pr0n collection marked "insightful".

      --
      "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
  2. Re:Who cares? by natehoy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yes, 640 petabytes should to be enough for anybody.

    --
    "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
  3. Re:Who cares? by CODiNE · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't you mean

    Yes, 640 petabytes should to be enough for everybody.

    --
    Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
  4. 1.21 zettabytes? by nonregistered · · Score: 5, Funny

    1.21 zettabytes? Great Scott!

  5. Space Program by Ukab+the+Great · · Score: 5, Funny

    - 1 zettabyte / 1.44MB floppy disk = approx 694,444,444,444,444 floppy disks.

    - 694,444,444,444,444 * 3.5 inches per disk = 2,430,555,555,555,550 inches if you laid the floppies end to end.

    - 2,430,555,555,555,550 inches / 63360 inches per mile = 38,361,040,965 miles

    - 38,361,040,965 miles / 2.7 billion miles to pluto = approx 7 round trips to Pluto via floppy disk.

    In conclusion: Don't kill NASA yet, President Obama. We've found a way to get to Pluto!.