In 2011, the amount of information created and replicated will surpass 1.8 zettabytes (1.8 trillion gigabytes) — growing by a factor of 9 in just five years.
IDC’s latest snapshot of the digital universe suggests that data volumes continue to grow at a dramatic pace that shows little signs of slowing down. While the cost of storing and processing data is falling, the sheer scale of the problem suggests that simply adding more storage is not a sustainable strategy. What is the solution?
Metadata is one way to address the problem. The use of metadata remains less prevalent than we might expect. But where it can be applied cheaply, it offers information architects and storage managers the means to effectively curate the data for which they are responsible.
To read more of my thoughts on this and other ways to manage the data deluge, please see my latest Weekly Update at GigaOM Pro (subscription required).
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