India's 'digital universe' to multiply nine-fold to 2.8 zetabytes by 2020

With growing Internet penetration and data usage, digital universe is poised to touch 44 trillion gigabytes by 2020, against 4.4 trillion gigabytes in 2013, and emerging markets would account for 60 per cent of that, says a report. The digital universe in India is nearly doubling in size every two years and will multiply nine-fold between 2013 and 2020 - from 326 exabytes to 2.8 zetabytes. For perspective, data created by an average Indian household is enough to fill 65 32GB versions of iPhones. This is poised to grow to 318 by 2020.   Strong adoption of wireless technologies coupled with the growth in Internet consumption, migration to digital TV and increasing ‘sensors’ based machine to machine communication are playing a central role in explosive growth in the digital universe, the report by tech giant EMC and research firm IDC said.   “China already accounts for 14 per cent of the digital universe. Though US’ share has declined as the other emerging markets have grown, it is still 26 per cent. India’s share is also growing from 3 per cent in 2010 to 6 per cent in 2020,” EMC India and SAARC President Rajesh Janey told reporters. He added that India’s Digital Universe was driven by increasing digitisation across business and government and a steady rise in social and mobile usage by everyone.   IDC also forecasts that by 2020 Internet of Things (IoT) will represent almost 10 per cent of the data generated in India. IoT refers to everyday objects equipped with sensors, anything from shoes to mobile phones to surveillance cameras, that can record, report and receive data. The data from these connected devices represents 4 per cent of the total data in India today, the report said.   “Business don’t need to wade through the vast amounts of data but instead can extract tremendous value by focusing on high-value, “target rich” data that accounts for 1.7 per cent of the current Digital Universe,” IDC India MD Jaideep Mehta said. The report found that mobility will be a key driver of the Digital Universe with mobile ‘Connected Things’ generating 18 per cent of the Digital Universe in 2014 and is estimated to grow to 27 per cent by 2020.   PTI