Evolution of Big Data
As inconceivable as it seems today, the Apollo Guidance Computer took the first spaceship to the moon with fewer than 80 kilobytes of memory. Since then, computer technology has grown at an exponential rate – and data generation along with it. In fact, the world’s technological capacity to store data has been doubling about every three years since the 1980s. Just over 50 years ago when Apollo 11 lifted off, the amount of digital data generated in the entire world could have fit on the average laptop. Today, the IDC estimates that number to be at 44 zettabytes (or 44 trillion gigabytes) and further predicts it to grow to 163 zettabytes by 2025.