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The Zettabyte Era is a broad concept that describes an age with an immense and ever-growing amount of digital data. The Zettabyte Era does not have a universally accepted definition, but can be understood as a time-period whereby there is a large and continuous growth of data consumption, creation and replication. The term zettabyte (ZB), in the Zettabyte Era, demonstrates the scale as to how much digital data exists in the world. A zettabyte is a multiple of the unit byte that measures digital storage (1 zettabyte = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes).

There is no single date that marks the beginning of the Zettabyte Era. For example, according to Cisco Systems, an American multinational technology conglomerate, the Zettabyte Era first came about when global IP traffic exceeded that of one zettabyte. In 2016 this milestone was reached when global IP traffic achieved an estimated 1.2 zettabytes (or an average of 96 exabytes (EB) a month). Global IP traffic refers to all digital data that passes over an IP network which includes, but is not limited to, the public Internet. The largest contributing factor to the growth of IP traffic comes from video traffic (including online streaming services like Netflix and YouTube).

The Zettabyte Era can also be understood as an age of growth of all forms of digital data that exist in the world which includes the public Internet, but also all other forms of digital data such as stored data from security cameras or voice data from cell-phone calls. Taking into account this second definition of the Zettabyte Era, it was estimated that in 2012 upwards of 1 zettabyte of data existed in the world and that by 2020 there would be more than 40 zettabytes of data in the world at large. This new era has resulted in difficulties for data centers to keep up with the explosion of data consumption, creation and replication. In 2015, 2% of total global power was taken up by the Internet and all its components, so energy efficiency with regards to data centers has become a central problem in the Zettabyte Era.

Zettabyte

A zettabyte is a digital unit of measurement. One zettabyte is equal to one sextillion bytes or 10²¹ (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes) or, one Zettabyte is roughly equal to a trillion gigabytes. To put this into perspective, consider that “if each terabyte in a zettabyte were a kilometre, it would be equivalent to 1,300 round trips to the moon and back (768,800 kilometers)". Or, as Eric Schmidt puts it, the former CEO of Google, from the very beginning of humanity to the year 2003, an estimated 5 exabytes of information was created. In 2013 that amount of information took only two days to create and that pace is continuously growing.

Multiples of bytes
Decimal Value Metric 1000 kB kilobyte 10002 MB megabyte 10003 GB gigabyte 10004 TB terabyte 10005 PB petabyte 10006 EB exabyte 10007 ZB zettabyte 10008 YB yottabyte	Binary Value IEC JEDEC 1024 KiB kibibyte KB kilobyte 10242 MiB mebibyte MB megabyte 10243 GiB gibibyte GB gigabyte 10244 TiB tebibyte – 10245 PiB pebibyte – 10246 EiB exbibyte – 10247 ZiB zebibyte – 10248 YiB yobibyte –
Orders of magnitude of data

Definitions

The concept of the Zettabyte Era can be separated into two distinct categories:

1. In terms of IP traffic: This first definition refers to the total amount of data to traverse global IP networks such as the public Internet. In Canada for example, there has been an average growth of 50.4% of data downloaded by residential Internet subscribers from 2011 to 2016. According to this definition, the Zettabyte Era began in 2016 when global IP traffic surpassed one zettabyte, estimated to have reached roughly 1.2 zettabytes.
2. In terms of all forms of digital data: In this second definition, the Zettabyte Era came before 2016, but there is no specific date to mark this debut. In 2010, the term Zettabyte Era appeared in Luciano Floridi’s book “Information: A Very Short Introduction” when he predicted the Zettabyte Era was right around the corner. This definition of the Zettabyte Era includes all the digital data that exists in any form. This data includes anything from digital films to transponders that record highway usage to SMS text messages. Digital data in any form contributes to the Zettabyte Era in this definition.

Cisco Report - The Zettabyte Era: Trends and Analysis

In 2016, Cisco stated that the Zettabyte Era was now reality when global IP traffic reached an estimated 1.2 zettabytes. Cisco also provided future predictions of global IP traffic in their report "The Zettabyte Era: Trends and Analysis". This report uses current and past global IP traffic statistics to forecast future trends. The report predicts trends between 2016 and 2021. Here are some of the predictions found in the report:

• In 2021 global IP traffic on a yearly basis is estimated to reach 3.3 ZB
• 73% of total IP traffic in 2016 was used by video traffic (i.e. Netflix and YouTube), in 2021 this will increase to 82%
• The number of devices connected to IP networks will be more than three times the global population by 2021
• By 2021 the amount of time it would take for one person to watch the entirety of video that will traverse global IP networks in one month is 5 million years
• By 2021 global IP traffic will triple
• PC traffic will be exceeded by smartphone traffic – by 2021, PC traffic will account for 25% of total IP traffic while smartphone traffic will be 33% 
• By 2021 there will be a twofold increase in broadband speeds

Factors That Led to the Zettabyte Era

There are many factors that brought about the rise of the Zettabyte Era. Increases in video streaming, mobile phone usage, broadband speeds and data center storage are all contributing factors that led to the rise (and continuation) of data consumption, creation and replication.

Increased Video Streaming

There is a large, and ever-growing consumption of multimedia, including video streaming, on the Internet that has contributed to the rise of the Zettabyte Era. In 2011 it was estimated that roughly 25-40% of IP traffic was taken up by video streaming services. Since then, video IP traffic has nearly doubled to an estimated 73% of total IP traffic. Furthermore, Cisco has predicted that this trend will continue into the future, estimating that by 2021, 82% of total IP traffic will come from video traffic.

The amount of data used by video streaming services depends on the quality of the video. Thus, Android Central breaks down how much data is used (on a smartphone) with regards to different video resolutions. According to their findings, per hour video between 240p and 320p resolution uses roughly 0.3GB. Standard video, which is clocked in at a resolution of 480p, uses approximately 0.7GB per hour. High-definition video which is in the middle of 720p and 2k resolution uses about 0.9GB (720p), 1.5GB (1080p) and 3GB (2k) per hour. Finally, 4K video, known as ultra-high-definition video, uses about 7.2GB per hour.

Netflix and YouTube are at the top of the list in terms of the most globally streamed video services online. In 2016, Netflix represented 32.72% of all video streaming IP traffic, while YouTube represented 17.31%. Netflix and YouTube are far ahead of the field, considering the third spot is taken up by Amazon Prime Video where global data usage comes in at 4.14%.

Netflix

Currently, Netflix is the largest video streaming service in the world. Netflix is accessible in over 200 countries and has more than 80 million subscribers. Streaming HD video content through Netflix equates to roughly 3GB of data per hour. Streaming standard definition videos on Netflix per person uses roughly 1 GB of data per hour. This means that if there are 4 residents in a household and each resident streams a two-hour long HD movie in a day, the result would be roughly 12 GB of data used in that day – only on Netflix. In North America, at about 8PM (during peak bandwidth consumption hours) Netflix uses about 40% of total network bandwidth. The vast amount of data marks an unparalleled period in time and is one of the major contributing factors that has led us into the Zettabyte Era.

YouTube

YouTube is another large video streaming (and video uploading) service. In the case of YouTube, across both fixed and mobile networks, the data consumption rate remains quite large. In fact, in 2016 YouTube was responsible for using up about 20% of total Internet traffic. Moreover, 40% of mobile traffic was used by YouTube in 2016. YouTube is not only a service that offers content for download (through streaming) but also a large quantity of their total Internet usage is attributed to uploading video content. That is to say, in 2016, 100 hours of video content on YouTube is uploaded every 60 seconds.

Increased Wireless and Mobile Traffic

The usage of mobile technologies to access IP networks has resulted in an increase in overall IP traffic in the Zettabyte Era. In 2016, the majority of devices that moved IP traffic and other data streams were hard-wired devices. Since then, wireless and mobile IP traffic have increased and are predicted to continue to increase rapidly. Cisco predicts that by the year 2021, wired devices will account for 37% of total IP traffic while the remaining 63% will be accounted for through wireless and mobile devices. Furthermore, smartphone traffic is expected to surpass PC traffic by 2021 where PCs are predicted to account for 25% of total IP traffic, down from 46% in 2016, whereas smartphone traffic is expected to increase from 13% to 33% between 2016 and 2021.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), mobile broadband penetration rates are ever-growing. Between June 2016 and December 2016 there was an average mobile broadband penetration rate increase of 4.43% of all OECD countries. Poland had the largest increase coming in at 21.55% while Latvia had the lowest penetration rate having declined 5.71%. To put this into perspective, the OECD calculated that there was 1,274,839,047 total mobile broadband subscriptions in 2016, 1,141,999,636 of these subscriptions had both voice and data included in the plan.

Increased Broadband Speeds

Broadband is what connects Internet users to the Internet, thus the speed of the broadband connection is directly correlated to IP traffic – the greater the broadband speed, the greater the possibility of more traffic that can traverse IP networks. Cisco estimates that broadband speeds are expected to double by 2021. In 2016, global average fixed broadband reached speeds as high as 27.5 Mbps but are expected to reach 53 Mbps by 2021. From the fourth quarter of 2016 to the first quarter of 2017, average broadband speeds globally equated to 7.2 Mbps. South Korea was at the top of the list in terms of broadband speeds, in that period broadband speeds increased 9.3%.

High-bandwidth applications need significantly higher broadband-speeds. For example, to download an HD movie it takes roughly 2 minutes at 100 Mbps compared to 20 minutes at 25 Mbps. Certain broadband technologies including Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), high-speed digital subscriber line (DSL) and cable broadband are paving the way for increased broadband speeds. FTTH can offer broadband-speeds that are ten times (or even a hundred times) faster than DSL or cable.

Internet Service Providers in the Zettabyte Era

The Zettabyte Era has affected Internet service providers (ISPs) with the growth of data flowing from all directions. In both China and the U.S. some ISPs store and handle exabytes of data. The response by certain ISPs is to implement network management practices in an attempt to accommodate the never-ending data-surge of Internet subscribers on their networks. Furthermore, the technologies being implemented by ISPs across their networks are evolving to address the increase in data flow.

Network management practices have brought about debates relating to network neutrality in terms of fair access to all content on the Internet. According to the European Union, network neutrality can be understood as “all Internet should be treated equally, without discrimination or interference. When this is the case, users enjoy the freedom to access the content, services, and applications of their choice, using any device they choose”.

According to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) Telecom Regulatory Policy 2009-657 there are two forms of Internet network management practices (ITMPs) in Canada. The first is economic ITMPs such as data caps, the second is technical ITMPs such as bandwidth throttling and blocking. According to the CRTC, technical ITMPs are put in place by ISPs to address and solve congestion issues in their network. Congestion occurs when there is too much data flowing in and the quality of service (QoS) weakens. In the United States however, during the Obama-era administration, under the FCC 15-24 policy, there were three bright-line rules in place to protect network neutrality practices: no blocking, no throttling, no paid prioritization. On December 14, 2017, the FCC voted 3-2 to remove these three bright-line rules. The result of removing the rules protecting network neutrality means that ISPs can block, throttle and give fast-lane access to content on their network.

In an attempt to aid ISP's in dealing with large data-flow in the Zettabyte Era, in 2008 Cisco unveiled a new router, the Aggregation Services Router (ASR) 9000, which at the time was supposed to be able to offer six times the speed of comparable routers. In one second the ASR 9000 router would, in theory, be able to process and distribute 1.2 million hours of DVD traffic. In 2011, with the coming of the Zettabyte Era, Cisco had continued work on the ASR 9000 in that it would now be able to handle 96 terabytes a second, up significantly from 6.4 terabytes a second the ASR 9000 could handle in 2008.

Data Centers

Energy Consumption

Data centers attempt to accommodate the ever-growing rate at which data is produced, distributed, and stored. Data centers are large facilities used by enterprises to store immense datasets on servers. In 2014 it was estimated that in the U.S. alone there were roughly 3 million data centers. Increasingly, data centers are storing more data over end-user devices. By 2020 it is predicted that 61% of total data storage will be stored via cloud applications (data centers) in contrast to 2010 when 62% of data storage were on end-user devices. An increase in data centers for data storage coincides with an increase in energy consumption by data centers.

In 2014, data centers in the U.S. accounted for roughly 1.8% of total electricity consumption which equates to 70 billion kWh. Between 2010-2014 an increase of 4% was attributed to electricity consumption by data centers, this upward trend of 4% is predicted to continue through 2014-2020. Globally, energy consumption from all data centers equates to roughly 1.1 to 1.5% of total global energy consumption which is roughly the same energy consumption as 25,000 American households. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) including data centers are responsible for omitting large quantities of CO₂ emissions, it is estimated that by 2020 ICTs will account for 12% of total global emissions.

Google’s Green Initiatives

The energy used by data centers is not only to power their servers. In fact, most data centers use about half of their energy costs on non-computing energy such as cooling and power conversion. Google’s data centers have been able to reduce non-computing costs to 12%. Furthermore, Google’s data centers use 50% less energy than ordinary data centers.

According to Google’s Senior Vice President of Technical Infrastructure, Urs Hölzle, Google’s data centers (as well as their offices) will have reached 100% renewable energy for their global operations by the end of 2017. Google will accomplish this milestone by buying enough wind and solar electricity to account for all the electricity their operations consume globally. The reason for these green-initiatives is to address climate change and Google’s carbon footprint. Furthermore, these green-initiatives have become cheaper, with the cost of wind energy lowering by 60% and solar energy coming down 80%. Google’s ultimate goal is to “create a world where everyone – not just Google – have access to clean energy.”

In order to improve a data center’s energy efficiency, reduce costs and lower the impact on the environment, Google provides 5 of the best practices for data centers to implement:

1. Measure PUE: To track a data center's energy use. The Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) is a ratio used by the industry to measure the energy used for non-computing functions.
2. Manage airflow: Using well-designed containment methods, try to stop cold and hot air from mixing. Also, use backing plates for empty spots on the rack and eliminate hot spots.
3. Adjust the thermostat: Keep the isle temperatures cold for energy savings.
4. Use free cooling: Use free cooling methods to cool data center, including a large thermal reservoir or evaporating water.
5. Optimize power distribution: Eliminate as many power conversion steps as possible to lower power distribution losses.

Facebook and the Open Compute Project

In 2010, according to Facebook, they were able to reinvent the way data centers were being built when they constructed their first data center in Prineville, Oregon. This new data center, at the time of its launch on January 20 2010, was designed in such a way that allowed the data center to be 38% more efficient and 24% less expensive to build and run than the average data center. This development led Facebook (with Intel and Rackspace, Goldman Sachs and Andy Bechtolsheim) to put in motion the Open Compute Project (OCP) in 2011. To date, Apple, Cisco, Juniper Networks, Nokia, Lenova and Google have all joined the OCP.

The OCP believes that the key to boosting innovation is by openly sharing ideas, their mission statement is to provide “a structure in which individuals and organizations can share their intellectual property with others and encourage the IT industry to evolve." Collaboratively, the OCP builds new technological hardware that is more efficient, economical and sustainable in an age where data is ever-growing. The OCP is currently working on several projects, including one specifically focusing on data centers. This project aims to guide the way in which new data centers are built, but also to aid already existing data centers in improving thermal and electrical energy as well as to maximize mechanical performance. The OCP's data center project focuses on five areas: facility power, facility operations, layout and design, facility cooling and facility monitoring and control.