Comment
The Digital Universe
and the data centre
A sudden realisation that the GB v VoIP, sensors, and RFID, the number of electronic
Australia Men’s Hockey match is information “containers” — files, images, packets, tag
almost finished sends me contents — is growing 50% faster than the number of
scrabbling for the BBC website, and gigabytes.
a few moments later I’m watching a
live feed of the last six minutes of A further bullet point relates that, of the digital universe
the game. GB are leading 3-2, can created by individuals, over half of it is a ‘digital shadow’ –
they hold on? No, the Aussies score ie passive records and logs in various file formats.
an equaliser, and GB do well to
hang on for the draw. The team was While data centres are mentioned above specifically, it would
never likely to achieve the 8-0 win needed to get amongst be fair to say that, whatever the digital application, there’s
the medal matches, but a win against Australia is always always an attendant data centre somewhere underpinning its
welcome, no matter what the sport! use. Digital TV – that’s a lot of files that need to be stored,
searched and served; Surveillance – where are all the images
As IDC’s EMC-sponsored recent whitepaper, “The Diverse kept, and for how long? Internet access – prime data centre
and Exploding Digital Universe” makes frighteningly clear, hosting territory; Social networks – again a massive storage,
the experience above is just one of millions that means that network and server challenge.
the size of the Digital Universe, calculated at 281 billion
gigabytes, or 281 exabytes, in 2007, will continue to The challenge for businesses is to understand what the
explode, placing massive strain on the IT resources that Digital Universe requires of them. Okay, so we all use PCs
provide the necessary support infrastructure. in the work environment to produce reports, invoices,
power point presentations (Oh why?!!) and the like, but in
Some of IDC’s numbers and predictions will scare and excite what ways can IT, underpinned by the company’s data
folk equally. If you’re a glass half empty person by nature, centre (anything from a couple of servers in a cupboard
then meltdown is just a few short years away. A natural through to a multi-million pound, purpose-built, high
optimist? Then the opportunities are huge – for all of us to security building), help into the future?
use IT to further enrich our lifestyles, and for the IT industry
to develop the technologies and services we require. Can we sell our product online? Not just so we can sack
some sales staff, but is the customer experience enhanced
Here are some of the stats: or, at least, no different, online as opposed to the personal
circle6 The amount of information created, captured, or touch. Does our use of IT help or hinder efficient intra-
replicated exceeded available storage for the first time in company communications? And what happens to the
2007. Not all information created and transmitted gets company if IT lets us down? Do we go under, or bounce
stored, but by 2011, almost half of the digital universe will back quickly?
not have a permanent home.
circle6 Fast-growing corners of the digital universe include those There’s no avoiding the Digital Universe, but an enquiring
related to digital TV, surveillance cameras, Internet access mind is required if data centres around the globe are not to
in emerging countries, sensor-based applications, data become clogged up with useless terabytes. I wanted to
centres supporting “cloud computing,” and social watch the GB/Australia hockey game live, but would I ever
networks. visit an archive to view it again?
circle6 The diversity of the digital universe can be seen in the
variability of file sizes, from 6 gigabyte movies on DVD to Phil Alsop
128-bit signals from RFID tags. Because of the growth of Editor
4| DATA CENTRE SOLUTIONS | www.datacentresols.com September 2008
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