According to IDC, organizations worldwide collectively generated more than 64.2 zettabytes of data in 2020, a “dramatic increase” attributed to the large numbers of people “working, learning, and entertaining themselves at home” during the global pandemic. However, less than 2% of this data was actually saved into 2021: As IDC explains, most of this data was created expressly for consumption or temporarily cached and then overwritten. (IDC, “Data Creation and Replication Will Grow at a Faster Rate Than Installed Storage Capacity, According to the IDC Global DataSphere and StorageSphere Forecasts,” Mar. 24, 2021.)

 

IDC argues that organizations should store more of the data they generate, explaining that data is the key to achieving their digital transformation goals. Likewise, companies should store their data longer, so they can mine the data for untapped value.

 

What is holding companies back from storing more of their data for longer periods of time? The answer is simple: the cost of data storage. And as IDC points out, the only way to overcome this obstacle is to demonstrate the value of that data by gaining insights from it and showing the strong ROI returned by those insights.”