WHAT ’ S A ZETTABYTE ?
A Zettabyte is a unit of data equivalent to 1 trillion gigabytes . That ’ s 250 billion DVDs worth of storage — a stack about 93,000 miles high . Over the next five years , humans and machines are going to generate at least 175 Zettabytes of data from connected devices , autonomous vehicles , businesses and private citizens .
It would be hard enough just to store that much data . But the challenge is far greater than finding somewhere to stash it : The data has to move , too . We need to put that data to work on everything from guiding autonomous vehicles to reinventing an organization ’ s business model .
Right now , many businesses ’ infrastructure aren ’ t yet equipped to handle the coming influx of data : Data lakes require a massive amount of storage . Isolated and uncurated data is difficult to track and analyze . When you add in privacy and access concerns , it ’ s easy to see how the current infrastructure is insufficient .
We run a real risk of overloading the network , stalling progress and stifling innovation . We must act now to make sure we ’ re ready .
© 2020 Dell Inc . The Zettabyte World 2