Data Flood

So let’s look at some numbers a little more closely. According to the Populations Reference Bureau in 2003 the world population was 6.3 billion. Using this figure in conjunction with the data from the UC Berkley research on how much information is produced each year we come up with a figure of about 800 MB per person per year.
It is estimated that by the end of 1999, the sum of human knowledge (including audio, video and text) was 12 exabytes. In 2002, it was estimated that people produced 5 exabytes (5 billion gigabytes) of data. “Tom Hawk, general manager for enterprise storage at IBM, says that in the next three years, humanity will generate more data–from websites to digital photos and video–than it generated in the previous 1,000 years.” [1] So an easy assumption will be that by 2008 we will have over 24 Exabytes worth of data and with that same growth rate of doubling the data produced every 3 years some where around 2025 we will reach a Zettabyte. If history holds true these simple estimations of the scope of data growth will be shattered in a much shorter time frame.
So what are we going to do to solve this problem? Like all daunting tasks human innovation and creative new ideas are trying to address these issues. Two front runners for physically storing all this data are Holographic Memory and Molecular Memory but other technologies are being developed that can meet or possible surpass the promise of the two discussed here.
Holographic Memory stores data using lasers and crystals or photopolymers. This technology can store data in 3D a phenomenon known as Bragg volume selectivity. Holographic drives can read or write a million bits at once, encoded as the interference pattern of two intersecting laser beams“Holograms can theoretically store equal to one bit per cubic block the size of the wavelength of light in writing. For example, light from a helium-neon laser is red, 632.8 nm wavelength light. Using light of this wavelength, one square inch of perfect holographic storage would be able to hold 1.61×1013 bits which is about 2,014 terabytes. One cubic inch of such storage would be able to hold 8,083,729,105 terabytes.” [3]
So theory aside a company called InPhase Technology has partnered with Bayer Material Science and created a device that utilizes Holographic Memory. “By 2006 they will introduce both a recording and reading device and a holographic data-storage medium, based on polymers made by Bayer MaterialScience, with a capacity of 300 gigabytes.” [4]They are also striving for smaller devices that will also use the technology. “InPhase promises two gigabytes of data on a chip the size of a postage stamp, or 20 gigabytes on one the size of a credit card.” Longer term the amount of data the devices can handle jumps significantly “discs with a capacity of up to 1.6 terabytes- equivalent to the content of about four million books or about 1.6 million high-resolution photographs. Such discs could be available by 2009” [4]
Molecular Memory is another contender for our future data storage solution.“The researchers’ ultimate goal is to pack 100 gigabits, or 100 billion bits, into one square centimeter of chip space using the molecular memory technology, he said. That’s at least 1,000 times more than is possible using standard semiconductor technology” [5] HP and a company called ZettaCore are working on this technology but it is still in development.

[1] The Fading Memory of the State – David Talbot -Technology Review –July 2005
[2] Peter Lyman and Hal R. Varian, “how-much-info@sims.berkeley.edu”http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info-2003/execsum.htm#summary

[3]Wikipedia
[4] Funding of Innovative Startups – Andrew Madden – Technology Review- July 2005

Population Reference Bureau– http://www.prb.org/

Print, film, magnetic, and optical storage media produced about 5 exabytes of new information in 2002. Ninety-two percent of the new information was stored on magnetic media, mostly in hard disks.We estimate that the amount of new information stored on paper, film, magnetic, and optical media has about doubled in the last three years.Information flows through electronic channels — telephone, radio, TV, and the Internet — contained almost 18 exabytes of new information in 2002, three and a half times more than is recorded in storage media. Ninety eight percent of this total is the information sent and received in telephone calls – including both voice and data on both fixed lines and wireless.