Making new bytes to fit all that data
Companies may not be putting much stock in data storage right now, but forecasters are saying it's time to break out the buckets and umbrellas. If your business has yet to start construction on a data arc, you better get cracking faster than Noah. Four years from now, PC Magazine says we'll be drowning in data. More than a zettabyte of it, to be exact, per year, from 2016 until the 3.4 billion web users doubles and everyone is online. Without backup storage management and other data facilities to absorb the impact of so much information, business continuity could be at risk.
Build better boxes
The Internet is where all this data volume is coming from, and while there's no speculation as to whether the digital frontier has limited real estate, if Die Hard 3 taught us nothing else, it's that you can't put more than 3 gallons of water into a 3-gallon container.
Cisco Systems says this problem could ostensibly be worsened as the proliferation of tablets, laptops and smartphones with internet access create more users every day, adding to the overhead of data. This explosion of users and influx of information could cripple an unprepared system, even though Cisco says connection speeds are forecast to increase beyond 30 megabits per second by the time the data wave breaks.
Can't touch this
The real issue, according to Inc. Magazine, isn't whether the connection will be fast enough, it's where all the data will go. Big data structures with backup tape software can be engineered to house petabytes of information, PC Advisor reports, but with online resources like Google already struggling to manage search indexes and data mining taking over where simple inquest parameters used to suffice, it's clear the depth of content is already reaching a crux.
"Whether by video phone calls, movies on tablets, web-enabled TVs, or desktop video conferencing, the sum of our actions…dramatically changes the network requirements needed to deliver on the expectations of the 'new normal'," said Cisco marketing vice president Suraj Shetty.
Effectively housing and maintaining sensitive information will take on a new importance as online resources deal with more data. These restraints could make virtual backup storage solutions slower, put them at risk of loss or theft and additionally make them cumbersome to access.