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May 21, 2008 by Steve.
The amount of data people create now exceeds the amount of space available for storage. People sent e-mails, took digital pictures, processed credit cards, and generally did things that collectively created 281 exabytes of data by the end of 2007, according to the research company IDC. (“Exabyte” sounds made up, but it’s a real term meaning 1,000,000,000,000 megabytes.) IDC also added up all the computer drives, backup tapes, CDs, DVDs, memory sticks, and other devices that store data and estimated that their total capacity is only 264 exabtyes.
A lot of the data that is created—say, an Internet phone call—gets stored. Other data gets erased or recorded over. It’s the digital equivalent of a conversation going in one ear and out the other. But for the first time in human history, we couldn’t save all this information even if we wanted to, according to IDC.
Businesses are contributing to the data crunch. Wal-Mart, for example, adds a billion rows of data to its data warehouse every hour. But IDC estimates that 70% of the world’s data is created by individuals, either in their role as workers or private citizens. The information is stored on their computers or on other devices they control, not in the company data center.
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