 "By 2020, India Will See 25-Fold Growth Of Useful Information")
Corporation has announced results of the EMC-sponsored IDC Digital Universe study, “Big Data, Bigger Digital Shadows, and Biggest Growth in the Far East - India”— which revealed that the digital universe in India will grow 23-fold between 2012 and 2020. The digital bits captured or created each year in India are expected to grow from 127 EB to 2.9 ZB between 2012 and 2020.
India’s digital information explosion is being driven by 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. Other contributing factors include increasing machine-to-machine communication (M2M), falling cost of technology, and digitisation of TV, among others. Over time, the distribution of the bits within the digital universe by country of origin will more and more closely mirror the distribution of population.
Key findings of this India-specific study include:
Less than half a percent of all digital information is analysed today while 36 percent would provide valuable insights making Big Data a significant opportunity for India
By 2020, India will see 25-fold growth of useful information, which should be an inspiration for the adoption of Big Data technologies and practices.
Cloud adoption is growing fast and by 2020, 42 percent of all digital information will be “touched” by the cloud
While India’s digital universe is expected to grow by 50 percent every year through 2020; the number of IT professionals managing it is estimated to grow in single digits only. Although cloud computing is at a nascent stage in India, it is already having an impact on the digital universe. The study reveals that 22 percent of the digital universe in the country in 2012 was in some way “touched” by the cloud i.e. stored, transmitted, or processed. This is estimated to almost double by 2020 with 42 percent of digital information to be touched by cloud, the highest in the world.
India’s Digital Information at highest risk amongst all countries covered
As per estimates, 61 percent of data present in the digital universe at present needs information security at some level. India has the highest fraction of information that warrants protection compared to more developed countries/regions.
India needs to act today on managing, securing and driving value from its digital universe
India’s digital universe is growing 67 percent faster than the U.S. at present. By 2020, India’s share will be many times more valuable than today and many times more volatile as well. Many times more bytes will need information security, many more systems will need real-time responses, and many more demands for reliability and speedy access will be made of the IT managers, CIOs, data scientists, and chief security officers that manage the actual digital universe.
Gap between Digital Information generated and available storage capacity to grow from a third in 2012 to a ninth by 2020
The study revealed that India’s digital universe is growing much faster than available storage. While in 2012 only 1 exabyte of storage capacity was available for every 3.4 exabytes of data, by 2020, data is expected to grow almost thrice to 9.4 exabyte for every exabyte of available storage. It also highlighted that India spent $0.87 per GB to manage data; which is much lower than China, US and Western Europe.
More from the study:
India and China together contribute 17 percent of the digital universe and by 2020 the contribution from these two countries to the total digital universe is expected to be as high as 29 percent.
Less than half a percent of all digital information is analysed today while 36 percent would provide valuable insights.
India’s share of digital information is expected to grow 23-fold between 2012-2020, driven by continued growth of Internet usage, social networks, and smart phones among consumers, falling cost of technology, digitisation among others.
India’s digital information tally would equal to more than 5100 stacks of iPhone 5 devices that are as tall as the sub continent’s famed Mt Everest. If printed out as text, it would make a stack of books (equivalent to Hunger Games paperback 100,000 words) reaching from the earth to Pluto and back 10 times.
While individuals only accounted for 42 percent of the regional digital universe in 2012 and enterprises created 58 percent, nevertheless enterprises had responsibility or liability for 84 percent compared to 77 percent in the US.
Globally, the amount of data that requires protection is growing faster than the digital universe itself. 61 percent of India’s digital universe might need information security at some level.
Only 56 percent of all data that needs protection in India is protected which makes data in India vulnerable to security threats.
By 2020, emerging markets will supplant the developed world as the main producer of the world’s data.
Rajesh Janey, President, EMC India and SAARC said, “India’s digital transformation is happening at a rapid pace exposing gaps in technology investments that exist in enterprises today. These gaps exist in all aspects of digital information management including storing, securing, managing and deriving value through analytics. It is largely due to a piece meal approach as against an integrated roadmap.”
He further added that, “Less than half a percent of the digital information is analysed today; businesses and governments need to recognise this and invest in understanding and tapping it. We at EMC recognise this opportunity and continue to invest in scaling our operations and developing an ecosystem including partners, service providers and educational institutions to help businesses tap the potential of cloud and Big Data.”