This means that less than 20% of the data overall, globally, is actually protected today. And that is a major security meltdown waiting to happen.
IDC in an annual measurement and analysis of the “Digital Universe” sponsored by EMC, actually found that the percentage of data in the digital universe that requires protection is growing faster than the whole of the information. Sensitive data will go from making up less than a third of traffic in 2010 to accounting for more than 40% of the data generated in 2020.
One potential game changer is the industry-wide adoption of Big Data-oriented analysis, capable of sifting through massive data sets to create actionable information, eliminate blind spots where threats can lurk undetected and, ultimately, help to shrink the windows of vulnerability, the study noted. But right now, less than 1% of world’s data is analyzed.
The issue is only going to get more unwieldy: IDC projects that the digital universe will reach 40 ZBs by 2020, an amount that exceeds previous forecasts by 5 ZBs, resulting in a 50-fold growth from the beginning of 2010. To put it in perspective, the researchers noted that if we could save all 40 ZB onto today’s Blu-ray discs, the weight of those discs (without any sleeves or cases) would be the same as 424 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers.
The study found that machine-generated data is a key driver in the growth of the world’s data: the proliferation of devices such as PCs and smartphones worldwide, increased internet access within emerging markets and the boost in data from machines such as surveillance cameras or smart meters has contributed to the doubling of the digital universe within the past two years alone – a pace that’s expected to continue. The world’s data is thus projected to increase 15-fold by 2020, when emerging markets will supplant the developed world as the main producer of it.
All of these trends will coalesce, IDC and EMC hope, into investment in spending on IT hardware, software, services, telecommunications and staff. This 'infrastructure' of the digital universe will grow by 40% between 2012 and 2020. Investment in targeted areas like storage management, security, Big Data and cloud computing will grow considerably faster.
In the meantime, the study points out that large quantities of useful data are getting lost: The promise of Big Data lies within the extraction of value from large, untapped pools of data. However, the majority of new data is largely untagged file-based and unstructured data, which means little is known about it. Challenges such as advanced threats, the security skills gap and lack of adherence to security best practices among consumers and corporations will continue to compound the issue, the study noted.
“As the volume and complexity of data barraging businesses from all angles increases, IT organizations have a choice: they can either succumb to information-overload paralysis, or they can take steps to harness the tremendous potential teeming within all of those data streams,” said Jeremy Burton, executive vice president of product operations and marketing at EMC. “This year’s study underscores the massive opportunity that exists for businesses that not only identify the potential benefits of the digital universe, but recognize the importance of navigating that universe with the right balance of technology, data security practices and IT skills.”