Dissecting the Digitization: Data Age 2025

December 18

IDC analysis of our digital world continues to provide intelligence and updates on the development of the global ‘Datasphere’. The latest in their Data Age 2025 whitepaper series, The Digitization of the World (from Edge to Core), is available now. We’re breaking down some of the key points in the report for you.

While the growth of the digital world isn’t that new of a thing, the role that data plays in it continues to evolve. As we know well here at CBL Data Recovery, data plays a roll in both our business and personal lives. However, this latest incarnation of IDC’s report focuses on the value and importance of having intelligent data is increasing to top importance in our digital world.

The Ever-growing Datasphere

three primary data location categories that make up the Datasphere

Of course, taking stock of just how big the Datasphere is currently and where it’s trending is the first order of business in any discussion about data.
The storage of digital content occurs everywhere and IDC identifies three locations:

datacenters (the core)
infrastructure and enterprise areas (the edge)
PCs, portable devices and appliances (endpoints)

It shouldn’t be surprise that the world’s Datasphere continues to see tremendous growth. Currently the world’s data storage is about 33 zettabytes (ZB). Just keeping up with all the data being produced is a challenge for the digital storage world and it’s only going to get tougher. IDC predicts that our global data will grow in size to 175 ZB by 2025!

Annual Size of the Global Datasphere

While a large boom in consumer data driving the growth the last few years, the world’s data growth currently is trending back towards enterprise storage. But don’t let that think you can rule out consumer data. People are still producing a ton of digital content but more and more of it is being stored in the cloud which means really enterprises are managing all of that digital storage and also why IDC identifies cloud datacenters as the ‘core’.

Storage

With so much data being produced companies in many industries continue to look to largescale cloud storage as the solution for their processing needs. This means industries need to be prepared for the shift with various levels of management, usage and opportunities to capitalize arising. A lot of the data creation will be realtime, and not just from machines dubbed part of the “Internet of Things”. Consumers will be interacting with data devices more than ever, up to 4900 times a day in 2025 by IDC estimates.

Where is all the data going to be stored? Endpoints will prioritize speed and realtime access, so technologies like solid-state will continue to grow. Meanwhile, enterprise core storage will include a mix of HDD, SSD and tape. Hard disk drives will continue to meet the performance and archive demands of 59% of the world’s capacity.

Determining Who’s Data-Ready

IDC analyzed some key industries to assess whether they are on a trajectory to be ready for future data demands. Industry areas that were looked at were chosen because they make up 48% of the world’s enterprise Datasphere – manufacturing, healthcare, financial services and media & entertainment. Judgements were calculated based on these areas:

Data growth and investment
Digital transformation competency
IT structural assessment
C-level involvement
Data value competency
Leadership self-score

Each industry has a different profile of growth, data use and a mix of use of the various Datasphere locations (core, edge, endpoints). See the full report PDF linked below for the insights.

IDC wraps up their studies by providing concluding guidance points. The shifts in data stewardship from consumer to enterprise-centric follow strategic thinking that companies must take according to an increasingly global outlook. Data access is one thing to make an organization data-ready, but transforming the enterprise to be constantly utilizing data intelligence seems to be a continuing trend that will play a huge role in the real-time Datasphere.

Evolving Conclusions

In a previous report, IDC made conclusions that the evolution of data had made it “critical” to our daily lives.

“Data has become critical to all aspects of human life over the course of the past 30 years; it’s changed how we’re educated and entertained, and it informs the way we experience people, business, and the wider world around us.”
Data Age, Page 2

Now the mot du jour coming out of these findings is “change”. Data is changing the world helping “reach new markets, better serve existing customers, streamline operations, and monetize raw and analyzed data”.

“The real value of data is out there, and companies are just finding out that data has real worth. Those businesses first through the gateway of digital transformation will be the first to find out just how valuable their data is.”
Data Age, Page 26