World's Data Doubles Every Two Years, Creating Mega Job Opportunities

The world's information is more than doubling every two years-with a colossal 1.8 zettabytes to be created and replicated in 2011, according to a study. Creating, managing storing and securing that data is a monumental task that could create jobs for hundreds of thousands.
The study, from IDC Digital Universe, is called "Extracting Value from Chaos" and finds the Digital Universe -- and "Big Data" -- are driving transformational societal, technological, scientific, and economic changes. Enterprise investment in the digital universe has increased 50 percent, to $4 trillion (USD), since 2005, and that's not all going into the CEO's pockets -- much is being used for job creation, salaries, benefits and recruiting.
To give you an idea of the sheer volume of the information being created, 1.8 zettabytes of data is equivalent to:

• Every person in the United States tweeting 3 tweets per minute for 26,976 years nonstop.
• Every person in the world having over 215 million high-resolution MRI scans per day.
• Over 200 billion HD movies (each 2 hours in length) -- It would take one person 47 million years of continuous viewing to watch them all.
• The amount of information needed to fill 57.5 billion 32GB Apple iPads. With that many iPads we could:
  • Create a wall of iPads, 4,005-miles long and 61-feet high extending from Anchorage, Alaska, to Miami.
  • Build the Great iPad Wall of China -- at twice the average height of the original.
  • Build a 20-foot high wall around South America
  • Build a mountain 25-times higher than Mt. Fuji.

All that information does not manage itself, nor is it created without the help of human workers. It certainly gives the unemployed hope for job creation. The study found that the skills, experience and resources needed to manage the deluge of data simply isn't keeping pace.
"The chaotic volume of information that continues growing relentlessly presents an endless amount of opportunity -- driving transformational societal, technological, scientific, and economic changes," said Jeremy Burton, chief marketing officer, EMC Corporation.

Maybe it's time to look into the world of information management.

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By Lisa Johnson Mandell,
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