• Press Release

    March 06, 2007

    Groundbreaking Study Forecasts a Staggering 988 Billion Gigabytes of Digital Information Created in 2010

    Primary Drivers Include Rich Media, User-Generated Content and 1.6 Billion Internet Users

    Hopkinton, Mass. - March 06, 2007 -

    EMC Corporation, the world leader in information infrastructure solutions, today announced groundbreaking EMC-sponsored research from IDC that for the first time measures and forecasts the amounts and types of digital information created and copied in the world – and whether it is generated from individuals or businesses.

    The Expanding Digital Universe: A Forecast of Worldwide Information Growth Through 2010 reveals the amount of information the world is creating and copying in a given year. It forecasts this entire "digital universe" through the year 2010, and it identifies the specific information types and geographies contributing to its growth. The report's findings have sweeping implications for individuals, businesses and society. The complete study can be found at: www.emc.com/about/destination/digital_universe.

    Key findings:

    In 2006, 161 exabytes of digital information were created and copied, continuing an unprecedented period of information growth. This digital universe equals approximately three million times the information in all the books ever written – or the equivalent of 12 stacks of books, each extending more than 93 million miles from the earth to the sun. According to IDC, the amount of information created and copied in 2010 will surge more than six fold to 988 exabytes, a compound annual growth rate of 57%.

    While nearly 70% of the digital universe will be generated by individuals by 2010, most of this content will be touched by an organization along the way – on a network, in a data center, at a hosting site, at a telephone or Internet switch, or in a backup system. Organizations – including businesses of all sizes, agencies, governments and associations – will be responsible for the security, privacy, reliability and compliance of at least 85% of the information.

    "This ever-growing mass of information is putting a considerable strain on the IT infrastructures we have in place today," said Mark Lewis, EMC Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer. "This explosive growth will change the way organizations and IT professionals do their jobs, and the way we consumers use information. Given that 85% of the information created and copied will be the responsibility of organizations and businesses, we must take steps as an industry to ensure we develop flexible, reliable and secure information infrastructures to handle the deluge."

    "The incredible growth and sheer amount of the different types of information being generated from so many different places represents more than just a worldwide information explosion of unprecedented scale," said John Gantz, Chief Research Officer and Senior Vice President, IDC. "It represents an entire shift in how information has moved from analog form, where it was finite, to digital form, where it's infinite. From a technology perspective, organizations will need to employ ever-more sophisticated techniques to transport, store, secure and replicate the additional information that is being generated every day."

    Other key findings:

    To find out more about information trends, history and preservation, go to: http://www.emc.com/about/destination/.

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