Big Data For All: Your Life Takes Up 44.5GB

The average amount of data associated with an individual person’s ‘digital life’ is now at least 44.5GB. That has complex implications not just for how individuals keep their data organised, but how IT pros can manage it.

Hard drive picture from Shutterstock

Business Insider reports that Professor Vladimir Shalaev told the International Conference for Quantum Technologies in Moscow over the weekend that the typical amount of data associated with an individual has risen from 500 megabytes in 1986 to 44.5GB in 2007. Note that this figure reflects all the data that’s associated with that individual, rather than the data directly stored by them (very few people would have owned that many floppy disks back in 1986).

Given the 2007 cut-off date and the proliferation of online services since that time, it seems reasonable to assume that the amount of data associated with an individual is now much higher. That creates several challenges:

  • scaling ‘big data’ analysis to deal with this proliferation of information
  • ensuring better security and privacy for all this data
  • challenges in replicating this large volume of data, especially on slower or patchier networks

Ever Wondered How Much Junk The Average Person Has On Their Computer? [Business Insider]


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