We are living in a world of unprecedented growth in the digital universe. In just over a decade, the Internet and the creation and utilization of digital data has gone from nascent to a vital part of everyday life. This is why electronic data is growing at rates that make Moore’s Law appear tame, with a forty-four fold increase expected in data between now and 2020. That would put the total amount of electronic data somewhere in excess of 35 zettabytes, according to IDC.
To manage and store all this data, we are also seeing an unprecedented global build out of massive data centers. From co-location providers like Savvis to Internet giants Google and Facebook to enterprises across industries, billions of dollars are being spent to increase the data center footprint and house this tsunami of data. In fact, Industry leaders estimate that nearly 450 billion dollars is being spent annually on new data center facilities.