The study, titled “The Digital Universe of Opportunities: Rich Data and the Increasing Value of the Internet of Things”, was completed in partnership with analyst firm IDC, and revealed that the internet of things was significantly increasing data volumes.
“As more and more businesses capitalise on the social and mobile phenomenon, the enormity and potential of the digital universe grows, and businesses are presented with greater opportunities to analyse new streams of data and gain more value from the data they already have,” said Jeremy Burton, president of products and marketing at EMC Information Infrastructure.
“While the potential is massive, the implications are equally daunting.”
Results estimated that the number of devices that can be connected to the internet will reach 32 billion by 2020, representing 10% of the world’s data.
To put it in perspective, reports said that in 2013 the storage required to hold the digital universe would fill a stack of iPads reaching two thirds of the way to the moon. By 2020, there could be enough data to fill stacks of iPads that would cover the distance to the moon 6.6 times.
Vernon Turner, SVP at IDC, said that the digital universe and the internet of things go hand in hand.
“As sensors become connected to the Internet, the data that they generate becomes increasingly important to every aspect of business, transforming old industries into new relevant entities,” Turner said.
“Traditional storage services will be elevated to new levels of resiliency and tolerance to support the digital universe, which can only be guaranteed in a software-defined environment,” he added.
The survey also discovered that although 60% of data currently comes from mature markets such as Germany, Japan and the US, emerging markets are producing more data, and EMC expects the majority of data to come from countries like Brazil, Mexico and India by 2020.
