The digital universe has grown to 1.2 zettabytes

Information flows continues to grow exponentially (however, who would doubt it). According to the latest IDC estimates , in 2010 the amount of digital information created and copied will reach 1.2 zettabytes (i.e. 1.2 billion terabytes). The scale of this figure can be estimated in different ways. For example, these are 10 ⁹ libraries of Congress or a stack of DVDs up to Moon ¹ .

Approximately 75% of the information created in the world is a copy, and only 25% is original data (home HD-video, photographs, scientific data, etc.).

It is also interesting that the total volume of all storage devices on our planet (hard and laser disks, flash memory, etc.) in 2009 was 35% less than the amount of information created then (0.8 ZB) , and this difference is gradually growing: by 2020, as expected, it will increase to 60%. That is, more than half of the created information cannot be saved.

In general, we can say with confidence: 640 petabytes of memory will be enough for each computer.

¹ Discs should be in paper envelopes: such a stack is obtained if we assume that there are six disks in a centimeter, while the thickness of the disk itself, as is known, is 1.2 mm, that is, without envelopes in a centimeter of 8, (3) disks.