According to recent studies on cloud data usage conducted by Cisco, North Americans are currently the biggest consumers of cloud data, transmitting around 261 Exabytes of data per year. The Asia Pacific region is the next biggest consumer, transmitting 216 Exabytes of data in 2011. An Exabyte is one billion gigabytes. If that sounds like a lot of data, that’s because it is – but it’s a tiny amount compared to how much analysts believe will be used by 2016.
Cloud usage is growing more rapidly in Asia than it is in North America, so by 2016 the Asia Pacific region will be the biggest consumer of cloud data, handling 1.5 Zettabytes of data per year. That’s one and a half billion terabytes worth of data. North America will be handling 1.1 Zettabytes, with Western Europe not far behind, and also hitting the one Zettabyte barrier.
Cloud computing is a huge industry, and as this infographic shows it’s only going to get bigger as more and more industries start heading online. Software as a Service is already a ubiquitous idea, with email, messaging and even accounting products heading “always online”. Don’t miss out on the cloud revolution.
