EMC today announced results of the seventh edition of EMC Digital Universe study revealing that 85% of the digital universe (DU) bits are created by the enterprises, while only two thirds are captured by the consumers and workers.
Emphasising on the role of mobility, the study stated that mobility will be a key driver of the digital universe with mobile “connected things” generating 18% of the DU in 2014 and estimated to grow to 27% by 2020.
“Currently, 60% of data in the digital universe is attributed to mature markets such as Germany, Japan and US, but by 2020, the percentage will flip and emerging markets including India, Brazil, China, Mexico and Russia will account for the majority of data,” said Rajesh Janey, President, EMC India and SAARC.
According to IDC the number of devices or things that can be connected to the internet is approaching 200 billion, with 7% (or 14 billion) already connected to and communicating over the internet. The data from these connected devices represents 2% of the world’s data today. IDC now forecasts that, by 2020, the number of connected devices will grow to 32 billion – representing 10% of the world’s data.
The Internet of Things (IoT) which comprises of everyday objects that are equipped with unique identifiers and the ability to automatically record, report and receive data, represent 4% of the total data in India. IDC now forecasts, that by 2020, it will represent almost 10% of the country’s data.
The study, further states that by 2020, more than 35% of all data could be considered useful data, thanks to the growth of data from the Internet of Things, but it will be up to businesses to put this data to use. This phenomenon will present radical new ways of interacting with customers, streamlining business cycles, and reducing operational costs, stimulating trillions of dollars in opportunity for businesses.
Conversely, it presents significant challenges as businesses look to manage, store and protect the sheer volume and diversity of this data. For example, IDC estimates that 50% of the data in the digital universe require some level of protection, from heightened privacy measures to fully-encrypted data. This is significant especially if we look in the context of India ranking fourth in terms of most phishing attacks globally in 2013.
