Digital Universe in India to hit 2.8 zettabytes by 2020: Study

Digital universe in India is predicted to double in size every two years and grow nine-fold between 2013 and 2020, from 326 exabytes to 2.8 zettabytes, says a new research conducted by IDC and tech giant EMC. Globally, Digital Universe is set to hit 44 trillion gigabytes by 2020, rising from 4.4 trillion gigabytes in 2013.

Currently, 60% of data in the digital universe is attributed to mature markets such as Germany, Japan, and the United States, but by 2020, the percentage will flip, and emerging markets including India, Brazil,China, Mexico and Russia will account for the majority of data, says  the report.

"China already accounts for 14 per cent of the digital universe. Though US' share has declined as the other emerging markets have grown, it is still 26 per cent. India's share is also growing from 3 per cent in 2010 to 6 per cent in 2020," EMC India and SAARC President Rajesh Janey is quoted as saying.

“India’s Digital Universe is growing fast driven by increasing digitization across business and government; and a steady rise in capitalization of the social and mobile phenomenon by
everyone. It’s full of untapped potential and once unlocked it promises to inform us in ways  that can improve lives, find remedies to incurable diseases, redefine industries, discover new
markets, help solve local community challenges such as hunger and poverty – the possibilities are endless."

According to the report, wide adoption of wireless tech along with rise in Internet consumption have played a pivotal role in massive growth in the digital universe. For India, increased digitisation across sectors including business and government along with growth in social and mobile usage have helped drive India's Digital Universe.

If the Indian Digital Universe were represented by the memory in a stack of tablets, in 2013 it would have stretched 3% of the way to the Moon. By 2020, it would stretch 42% of the way from the Earth to the moon, adds the IDC and EMC report.

The study also found that that more than 50% of the Digital Universe in India needs protection. "This is significant especially if we look in the context of India ranking 4th in terms of most phishing attacks globally in 2013. 4.4 trillion gigabytes of data created in 2013, less than half the data that needed protection received protection, things most at risk are Corporate financial data,  Personally identifiable information (PII), Medical records and User account information. Organisations based in India (80%) are more likely to have experienced data loss and/or  systems downtime within the past year, than those overall across Asia Pacific and Japan (71%)," says the study.

The report also sheds light on growth of Internet of Things (IoT), which is predicted to contribute up to 10 percent of total data generated in India by 2020. Currently, data from these connected device have about 4 percent share in the total data in India.

"Business don't need to wade through the vast amounts of data but instead can extract tremendous value by focusing on high-value, "target rich" data that accounts for 1.7 per cent of the current Digital Universe," IDC India MD Jaideep Mehta said.