Let's talk about big data for a second. I'm not talking about my 13" macbook pro, which stores 250 gigabytes, or 2147483648000 bytes of data. I'm talking about BIG data. It's estimated that as of 2013, global data usage on the world wide web was around 4 zettabytes of data. According to wikipedia, a zettabyte is 1000^7 bytes, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes, or 1,000 billion gigabytes, or...you get the point. It's so large that it kind of blows my mind.
So how do we store all this data?
The problem with this massive influx of information is that the cost reduction rate for storage space is not keeping up with the rate of data creation. This is not hard to imagine when you think about how much data the average person uses on a daily basis. The storage and retrieval of massive amounts of data comes with its own set of issues that don't stop at the price. For example, it's estimated that google spends about 90 million dollars a year maintaining youtube.
A major problem with data storage is that even the longest lasting storage methods will inevitably face what is known as data rot. The information will quite simply erode away or become corrupt over time. The best prevention of this data rot is backing up information in duplicate files, which of course adds more data to the data dilemma. Another solution is re-storing the information every few years, but this too becomes problematic as the pace of technology antiquates storage methods quite quickly. (Think about the last time you used a floppy disk).
Even if there is enough room to store all this data, the right people are going to need to access it, and access it quickly, while preventing others from viewing their information. In the healthcare industry, for example, patient records must be both easily accessible by health care professionals and yet secure from other prying eyes. In order to access this information algorithms are needed to sort through massive amounts of information in a timely fashion once given the right password.
Though we would like to believe that our every waking thought, picture, video, and tweet is precious, some think that eventually we will have to get smarter about what we choose to store. Big business especially will have to think about what information is most critical to their continued operation and simply get rid of the rest. And maybe the rest of us can go one day a month without posting a picture to instagram of the food someone else prepared at a restaurant...serious...does anyone actually care? Just because someone gives you a megaphone doesn't mean you need to share your every thought with the world.
Another possible solution is being explored currently. While we will certainly continue to develop storage methods that are more effective, stable, longer lasting, and cost effective, some think the answer may lie within ourselves. Some think that if we can figure out how DNA is stored biologically and recreate such biological storage we will achieve massive storage space in microscopically small volumes. Think about it. Imagine a typical data storage room with rows and rows of hard drives, only they are just like moss and fungus or something else. I doubt that's actually how it works but in my head that's how I'd like to imagine it.
Coming Soon!
Copyright Jordan M. Schreuder 2014