People sent emails, took digital pictures, processed credit cards and generally did things that collectively created 281 exabytes of data by the end 2007, according to the research company IDC. (“Exabyte” sounds made up, but it’s a real term meaning 1,000,000,000,000 megabytes.) IDC also added up all the computer drives, backup tapes, CDs, DVDs, memory sticks and other devices that store data and estimated that their total capacity is only 264 exabtyes.
Wal-Mart, for example, adds a billion rows of data to its data warehouse every hour.
If businesses don’t start thinking about how they will manage all the data flowing in and out of their organizations “they could become large sink holes,” Reinsel says.
clipped from: blogs.wsj.com 