Size matters. Think of the most basic unit of digital information: the bit, which is a combination of the words ‘binary’ and ‘digit.’ Is it important? Of course it is. Without bits, we wouldn’t have a byte, which is comprised of 8 bits. How much information is stored in a byte? A single character or punctuation mark.
Why do we need to think about Zettabytes? Because all those bits, bytes and gigabytes are adding up quickly. According to Statista, the percentage of data stored in the cloud by organizations doubled from 2015 to 2022 – from 30% to 60%. Not only is this trend NOT going to decrease, it will continue to increase at an exponential rate. Where are we going to keep all this data?
The ’cloud’ is not a cloud – some magical place with limitless room. Cloud providers operate data centers – huge spaces filled with servers storing data and providing cloud computing. Space is at a premium. One of the basic requisites of technology is that it must continue to get smaller.
It is a commonly known fact that a smart phone today has more computing power than the entire Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) that took Armstrong and Aldrin to the moon in 1969. Just think about the vacuum tube versus the transistor. The debut of transistors meant that you could buy a radio that fit in your pocket.
The conundrum is: While the amount of data needing storage continues to get bigger - as do the units of measurement, the hardware in which to store it must necessarily get smaller.
Computing and data storage continue to evolve. The internet allowed IT Services to move from the old ‘Break & Fix’ model, where the IT support person had to fix everything in person, to the Managed IT services model, where over 90% of issues are managed remotely – and much more quickly. For data storage, the tipping point is fast approaching – but so are the solutions.
How many units of data are there?
Below is a breakdown from the smallest to the largest in commonly used terms:
Bit is an eighth of a byte – more of a building block than a unit of data.
Byte (B): 1 Byte (8 bits).
Kilobyte (KB): 1 thousand or, 1,000 bytes.
Megabyte (MB): 1 million, or 1,000,000 bytes.
Gigabyte (GB): 1 billion, or 1,000,000,000 bytes.
Terabyte (TB): 1 trillion, or 1,000,000,000,000 bytes.
Petabyte (PB): 1 quadrillion, or 1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes.
The above sum up the sizes of digital information society currently encounters. The largest publicly available storage unit will hold 1.91 PBs. Not in common usage. It is said that all photos on facebook would total up to about 1PB of digital information.
Now we get to the borderline hypothetical:
Exabyte (EB): 1 quintillion, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes
Zettabyte (ZB): 1 sextillion, 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes
International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that the entirety of all digital information that existed in the world as of 2020 amounted to 64 Zettabytes, which is equivalent to 64 TRILLION Gigabytes..
Yottabyte (YB): 1 septillion, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes
At this point, scientists just did some math and gave it a name.
What is the latest technology of data storage?
The Next Generation technologies to address the data storage are in the works:
Molecular Storage: Instead of reliance on traditional circuits, magnetics, and inorganic materials for storage, this method will use molecular species, incorporating such mechanisms as photochromism and ‘charge’ storage.
DNA Storage: This offers the potential for housing monumental amounts of data in DNA molecules, which engineers believe will make it easily retrievable and fairly inexpensive. DNA storage has been used on a small scale, but to use it like this is what keeps the engineers at the drawing board.
Crystal Storage: This is already being done. Over 5 years ago Scientists at the University of Southhampton in the UK successfully laser-encoded information inside crystals. They state that this data will last a billion years.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How much data is a zettabyte?
A: Remember back in the 1990s, when a 6 or 8 Gigabyte (GB) hard drive was like ‘The World of Tomorrow’? Back then, people still talked about Kilobytes (KB) – about a paragraph in a text document. We still measure things like email attachments in terms of Megabytes (MB = 1,000 KBs), but for data storage, even the Gigabyte (1,000 MBs) is puny and now. We now traffic in Terabytes (TB = 1,000 GBs). Once we skip a couple of units we arrive at the Zettabyte (ZB), which is a TRILLION Gigabytes or a BILLION Terabytes.
Q: What are the benefits of backing up data?
A: The 5 key benefits:
1) Quick file access
2) Remedy for a Cyber-attack
3) Mitigates hard drive and Operating System (OS) failure
4) Additional anti-virus (AV) protection
5) Protects data against power failures
Q: How long is 1mb of text?
A: On average, about 500 pages of text, depending on the document formatting. Generally, it’s about the size of an average paperback novel (NOT War and Peace).
Q: Who invented the bit?
A: Claude Shannon is regarded as the inventor of the bit – hypothetically, because as a practical application, it could not be put into practice until the invention of the transistor around 1948.
How secure is your network?
As a longstanding, reputable member of the IT Support Charlotte community, ITFirm.com offers a FREE, no-risk network and Cybersecurity assessment. We perform a non-intrusive scan that allows us to deliver a comprehensive report of the state of your system and its vulnerabilities that is yours to keep. There are no strings attached, and you are under no obligation to ever use our Managed IT Services.
The two best defenses are next-generation Cybersecurity to protect your data from theft, and a top-notch Managed Services Provider to ensure continued reliability and defenses against newly emerging threats.
We put our 100% Money Back Guarantee in writing, so there is no risk in trying us out. Because we do not require a ‘hard’ contract, our clients can fire us at any time with 30 days’ notice. We have to be good.
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