Digital Universe

Explosion of Digital Cameras, Digital TVs, Surveillance Cameras and Social Networks Fuel Rapid Rise

March 11, 2008 – IDC and EMC Corporation today released an updated report on the size and diversity of the “digital universe.” The “digital universe” can be defined as information that is created, captured, or replicated in digital form. The research, which forecasts worldwide digital information growth through 2011, was conducted by IDC. Key findings of the study include:

At 281 billion gigabytes, the digital universe in 2007 was 10% bigger than previously estimated. This works out to about 45 gigabytes per person on the planet.

2011 the digital universe will be 10 times the size it was in 2006 and is growing at close to 60% annually.

The faster than expected growth can be attributed to increased global sales of higher-resolution digital cameras, digital surveillance cameras, and digital TVs and burgeoning use of social networks, especially in countries like China.

The “digital universe” – at least in raw gigabytes – is predominately visual: images, camcorder clips, digital TV signals, and surveillance streams.

As forecasted, the amount of information created, captured, or replicated exceeded available storage for the first time in 2007.

The segment of storage consumption most underestimated by IDC early in 2007 was that for personal data protection. Worldwide shipments of personal storage devices, a.k.a. external hard disk drives, exceeded all expectations in 2007.

"Green IT" is a hot topic in IT circles today as electronic waste is already accumulating at more than 1 billion units a year. Most of this is in the form of mobile phones, but also personal digital electronics and PCs. The switch to digital TV will place a lot more analog TV sets and DVDs on the waste pile, which will double by 2011.

To deal with this explosion of the digital universe in size and complexity, IT organizations will need to spearhead the development of policies for information creation, storage, management, security, retention, and disposal.

The study also revealed that for the first time in history more digital information is being generated about people than by people. This “digital shadow," describes the collection of data about a person, such as video from surveillance cameras, banking information, credit card usage data, telephone records, web search histories, medical databases and public records.

A digital shadow enables conveniences, such as Amazon’s ability to recommend new books to you, validates to others that they can trust you in an eBay transaction, and helps long-lost relatives find you. However, a “digital shadow” also carries with it a risk of identity theft and other privacy issues.