Society is creating digital data  at a rapid pace, exceeding previous estimates by at least 10 percent, a new study by industry analyst IDC says. The report, called The Diverse and Exploding Digital Universe, estimates the size of the digital universe at 281 exabytes, or 281 billion gigabytes. The increased estimate is due to faster growth in digital cameras, digital-TV shipments and a better understanding of information replication.
The study also estimates that by 2011, the digital universe will grow an order of magnitude -- 10 times -- from its size in 2006.
Imperatives for IT
IDC said IT organizations will face three basic imperatives to deal with this explosive growth of data.
First, they will need to "transform their existing relationships with the business units," IDC said. "It will take all competent hands in an organization to deal with information creation, storage , management, security, retention and disposal." The digital universe is a business problem, "not a technical problem," IDC said.
Next, organizations must develop "organization-wide policies for information governance: information security, information retention, data access, and compliance," the analysts said.
Finally, IT must "rush new tools and standards into the organization," including storage optimization , unstructured data searches, database analytics, virtualization , and management and security tools. "All will be required to make the information infrastructure as flexible, adaptable, and scalable as possible. We have many of the tools in place -- from Web 2.0 technologies and terabyte drives to unstructured data-search software and the Semantic Web -- to tame the digital universe. Done right, we can turn information growth into economic growth."
Fast Growth in Images and the Cloud
The fastest-growing areas are related to digital television, surveillance cameras, Internet access in emerging countries, sensor-based applications, cloud computing , and social networks, the study found.
One intriguing development is the growth of packets over stored data. IDC researchers said increased use of RFID tags, Voice over IP and sensors means that "information containers" such as files, images and packets are growing 50 percent faster than the number of gigabytes. By 2011, we will generate 20 quadrillion containers, the report said. (continued...)
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