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:
-- The 2006 digital universe was 161 billion gigabytes (161
exabytes) in size.
-- IDC projects a six fold annual information growth from 2006 to
2010.
-- While nearly 70% of the digital universe will be generated by
individuals by 2010, organizations will be responsible for the
security, privacy, reliability and compliance of at least 85%
of the information.
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:
-- Images - Images, captured by more than 1 billion devices in
the world, from digital cameras and camera phones to medical
scanners and security cameras, comprise the largest component
of the digital universe.
-- Digital Cameras - The number of images captured on consumer
digital still cameras in 2006 exceeded 150 billion worldwide,
while the number of images captured on cell phones hit almost
100 billion. IDC is forecasting the capture of more than 500
billion images by 2010.
-- Camcorders - Camcorder usage should double in total minutes of
use between now and 2010.
-- E-mail - The number of e-mail mailboxes has grown from 253
million in 1998 to nearly 1.6 billion in 2006. During the same
period, the number of e-mails sent grew three times faster
than the number of people e-mailing; in 2006 just the e-mail
traffic from one person to another - i.e., excluding spam -
accounted for 6 exabytes.
-- Instant Messaging - There will be 250 million IM accounts by
2010, including consumer accounts from which business IMs are
sent.
-- Broadband - Today over 60% of Internet users have access to
broadband circuits, either at home, at work or at school.
-- Internet - In 1996 there were only 48 million people routinely
using the Internet. The Worldwide Web was just two years old.
By 2006, there were 1.1 billion users on the Internet. By
2010, IDC expects another 500 million users to come online.
-- Unstructured Data - Over 95% of the digital universe is
unstructured data. In organizations, unstructured data
accounts for more than 80% of all information.
-- Compliance and Security - Today, 20% of the digital universe
is subject to compliance rules and standards and about 30% is
potentially subject to security applications.
-- Classification - IDC estimates that today less than 10% of
organizational information is "classified," or ranked
according to value. IDC expects the amount of classified data
to grow better than 50% a year.
-- Emerging Economies - These now account for 10% of the digital
universe but will grow 30-40% faster than mature economies.
To find out more about information trends, history and
preservation, go to: http://www.emc.com/about/destination/.
About EMC
EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world's leading developer and
provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that
enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete
and create value from their information. Information about EMC's
products and services can be found at www.EMC.com.
EMC is a registered trademark of EMC Corporation. All other
trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
This release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined
under the Federal Securities Laws. Actual results could differ
materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a
result of certain risk factors, including but not limited to: (i)
adverse changes in general economic or market conditions; (ii) delays
or reductions in information technology spending; (iii) risks
associated with acquisitions and investments, including the challenges
and costs of integration, restructuring and achieving anticipated
synergies; (iv) competitive factors, including but not limited to
pricing pressures and new product introductions; (v) the relative and
varying rates of product price and component cost declines and the
volume and mixture of product and services revenues; (vi) component
and product quality and availability; (vii) the transition to new
products, the uncertainty of customer acceptance of new product
offerings and rapid technological and market change; (viii)
insufficient, excess or obsolete inventory; (ix) war or acts of
terrorism; (x) the ability to attract and retain highly qualified
employees; (xi) fluctuating currency exchange rates; and (xii) other
one-time events and other important factors disclosed previously and
from time to time in EMC's filings with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission. EMC disclaims any obligation to update any such
forward-looking statements after the date of this release.
