Digital data explosion brings security challenges for IT

The amount of digital information created in the world will increase sixfold by 2010, with the vast majority of this data being stored and secured by organisations, according to research.

The survey by analyst IDC on behalf of storage vendor EMC suggests that the amount of digital data created and copied will grow by 57 per cent every year, reaching 988 exabytes - 988 billion gigabytes - by the end of the decade.

Last year's figure of 161 exabytes is estimated by IDC to be equivalent to three million times the information contained in all the books ever written.

But although 70 per cent of this data will be created by individuals, companies will bear the burden of having to store and secure at least 85 per cent of it.

The incredible growth and sheer amount of the different types of information being generated from so many different places represents more than just a worldwide information explosion of unprecedented scale,' said John Gantz, chief research officer at IDC.

'It represents an entire shift in how information has moved from analogue form, where it was finite, to digital form, where it’s infinite. From a technology perspective, organisations will need to employ ever-more sophisticated techniques to transport, store, secure and replicate the additional information that is being generated every day.'

The growth is being driven by technologies such as digital images on cameras, camcorders and mobile phones, emails and instant messages. More than 95 per cent of all digital data is unstructured, as opposed to the structured information typically stored in corporate IT systems such as databases.