In the third annual Global Cloud Index, Cisco forecasts that global cloud traffic, the fastest growing component of data center traffic, is expected to grow 4.5-fold — that’s a 35 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) — from 1.2 zettabytes of annual traffic in 2012 to 5.3 zettabytes by 2017.

The Cisco Global Cloud Index (2012–2017) was developed to estimate data center and cloud-based Internet Protocol (IP) traffic growth and trends. The Index serves as a complementary resource to existing network traffic studies, providing new insights and visibility into emerging trends affecting data centers and cloud architectures.

The forecast becomes increasingly important as the network and data center become more intrinsically linked in offering cloud services. Overall global data center traffic will grow threefold and reach a total of 7.7 zettabytes annually by 2017.

Approximately 17 percent of data center traffic will be fueled by end …