Chair’s Corner: the coming data crisis

As the just-released Holon Data Report highlights, it took humankind until 2011 to generate 1 zettabyte (ZB) of data and Holon conservatively predicts that figure to reach almost 75,000 ZB by 2040. The world’s appetite to consume data is immense and accelerating, and today’s exponential data generation will quickly outstrip data storage capacity, particularly with the recent explosion of generative A.I. platforms producing data at incredible volumes.

What does this mean? It means that in the not-too-distant future, humanity’s ability to store the essential data its creating will come to a crisis point. We’re approaching a data precipice.

It wasn’t that long ago (and I’m showing my age here) where hard copy and local hard drive back-ups were normal. Then the world moved into Cloud data storage where data was continually backed-up ‘somewhere’ by computer servers around the globe. Data storage became out of sight, and so, out of mind.

Just imagine what would happen if you couldn’t store any more data? No more photos, files or critical records could be kept. What would you do? You would have to prioritise what to keep and what to delete. With legislative requirements for data archiving and record keeping becoming more critical around the world, data retention and deletion would be, literally, life and death decisions for governments, regulators, businesses, and individuals.

Additionally, when you delete data, you delete history, and humanity’s history is now, more than ever, recorded digitally. Losing data on a global scale would lead to the extinction of some parts of humanity’s memory at the expense of other parts. What stays and what goes?

What is becoming clearer as the world catapults into the Information Age, is that data is the new, essential commodity. History is written by the victors, and those that can verifiably store data will win, and those that can’t, will lose. It’s as stark as that.

We need a better way, and the good news is the best and brightest have been busy. New technology, such as the Filecoin Network’s distributed and decentralised data storage and compute, is meeting these challenges head on as the digital arena evolves, and Holon is proud to be at the forefront of it.

Will this be enough? For humanity’s sake, it better be.

Disclaimer: This Article has been prepared by Holon Global Investments Limited ABN 60 129 237 592. Holon Global Innovations Pty Ltd (“HGI”) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Holon Global Investments Limited (together “Holon”). HGI is a Filecoin (FIL) Storage Provider and is positioned as a major player in the FIL decentralised data storage arena. FIL Storage Providers are rewarded in FIL for the provision of data storage capacity. Holon, its officers, employees and agents believe that the information in this material and the sources on which the information is based (which may be sourced from third parties) are correct as at the date of publication. While every care has been taken in the preparation of this material, no warranty of accuracy or reliability is given and no responsibility for this information is accepted by Holon, its officers, employees or agents. Except where contrary to law, Holon excludes all liability for this information.