The Other Data Revolution
Can you conceptualize how much data is created these days?
April 14, 2014
1. Facebook says its user content makes up more than 100 petabytes of stored photos and video.
2. A petabyte is 1015 in the International System of Units (SI), and therefore one petabyte is one quadrillion (short scale) bytes.
3. Just analyzing those data generates about 500 terabytes of new information at Facebook every day.
4. A terabyte is 1012 in the International System of Units (SI), and therefore is one terabyte is one trillion (short scale) bytes.
5. In the 1990s, WalMart – at 180 terabytes – was believed to have the largest commercial data warehouse in the world.
6. Thus, Facebook every day generates 2½ times more than Wal-Mart had in its entirety in the 1990s.
7. Amazon.com in the 1990s had single-digit terabytes of stored data.
From How Big Data is Changing the Whole Equation for Business by Steven Rosenbush and Michael Totty (Wall Street Journal)
Takeaways
Just to analyze its stored photos/videos, Facebook generates 500 terabytes of new data daily.
In the 1990s, WalMart was believed to have the largest commercial data warehouse in the world at 180 terabytes.
Facebook every day generates 2.5x more data than Wal-Mart had in its entirety in the 1990s.
Author
The Globalist
Read previous
Key Takeaways From the GM Safety Debacle
April 14, 2014