The Growing Need for Data storage

By: James Walsh

This means that in one single year, he accumulates a whopping 93 GB worth of images! This example of a single individual shows the avalanche of data generation and accumulation the world is facing today at all levels.

As digital technologies advance and become cheaper and more widespread, tremendous data is getting stored in every house and office. Consider what has happened with the advent of MP3 players and MP3 mobile phones along with Internet sites that offer music for downloads. Kids, teenagers and adults alike now spend many hours a week trying to download music or video to store on their cute little MP3 players.

Managing and increasing their treasure chest of digital data has really become an obsession with many individuals. It is quite easy for even a school-going kid to download 50 to 80 MB of audio files everyday considering the fantastic download speed offered by Internet companies. This would amount to about 18 to 29 GB of digital data downloaded and stored every year! As digital devices proliferate and Internet bandwidth increases, the need for storing this data at a safe and secure place is set to increase exponentially.

Many companies have been overwhelmed by the booming growth in their data storage needs. One of the major reasons for this is new government regulations that require businesses to store more and more information. They must hold their data and records longer (read “forever”) and in a more secure fashion. Archiving has today become a big concern.

In addition, data files (graphics, Web pages, multimedia programmes) as well as software packages are getting bigger and bigger with every passing year. Almost every shred of information in companies today is generated using digital devices. Time was when a computer hard disk of 20 GB was considered revolutionary. Today, even 500 GB is considered barely sufficient.

Retailers are particularly seeing their data storage needs grow tremendously. On the one hand, the volume of customer data they receive from various channels as well as marketing campaigns and loyalty programs has inundated their IT systems. On the other, accumulation of merchandising data has also gone through the roof. Companies that used to aggregate sales data now keep it separately for each business unit, store, Website and catalogue, often for each day or even each hour.

In addition, merchandising data is being archived further and further back — not just one year but two, three or even five years in some cases. Data for market basket analysis, which more and more retailers are finding value in keeping, is also adding significantly to the demand for digital storage devices. The need for more and more real-time or near-real-time systems for performance management, event alerts and loss prevention has also grown.

It is clear that the need for more and more data storage capacities is not going to cool down anytime soon. So what does the future hold? What kind of storage technologies are we going to see a decade from now? Here is a sample:

Holographic Technology: Compact disks (CDs) today store about 700 Mb of digital data. Their more spacious cousins, DVDs, provide enough storage capacity (of up to 4.6 GB) to comfortable store an entire movie on a single disk.

With the introduction of High Definition TV and a growing demand for bigger and bigger data storage media, many companies are in the process of developing Holo-tech Disks (also called Holo-disks) that can store data throughout the thickness of a disk, not just on its surface such as CDs or DVDs do!

With digital storage driven by holo-technology, it may be possible to save tens of terabits of data per cubic centimeter of photosensitive media. Another advantage of holo-technology disks would be that they are almost impossible to pirate or illegally copy by a user, compared to traditional CDs or DVDs. This may surely be viewed as a significant security improvement for large-scale content distributors.

Nano-technology: This may soon emerge as a universal storage solution for a broad range of digital devices. A recent report released by a research firm suggests that nano-technology – which deals with technological breakthroughs at a microscopic level – is likely to introduce extremely small storage devices that can cope with virtually unlimited amounts of digital information.

James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. If you are concerned about data loss and would like more information on Data Recovery see http://www.fields-data-recovery.co.uk

Added on: Nov 13, 2007

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