Total WW Storage Data at 6.8ZB in 2020, Up 17% From 2019 – IDC

Despite the dramatic decline in worldwide IT spending brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, International Data Corporation expects the Global StorageSphere – the worldwide installed base of storage capacity – will continue to expand.

In a new update to its Worldwide Global StorageSphere Forecast, 2020–2024: Continuing to Store More in the Core ($4,500) forecast, IDC estimates that the installed base of storage capacity worldwide will grow to 6.8ZB this year, an increase of 16.6% over 2019. Over the course of the 2019-2024 forecast, it expects the installed base of storage capacity to achieve a CAGR of 17.8%.

“The volume of data stored in the Global StorageSphere is doubling approximately every four years,” said John Rydning, research VP, IDC’s Global DataSphere. “While the Covid-19 pandemic will hamper economic growth and IT spending, it will have little impact on the expansion of the Global StorageSphere as consumers and organizations are likely to extend the useful life of existing storage capacity to keep up with the demand for storing more data, especially near term.”

Global StorageSphere measures the size of the worldwide installed base of storage capacity across six types of storage media, and how much of the storage capacity is utilized or available each year. The installed base of storage capacity is a cumulative metric: it is equivalent to the amount of new storage capacity deployed over the span of several years minus the systems or storage devices that either fail or are retired or decommissioned each year. The Global StorageSphere measures how much new data is created and/or replicated each year.

Key findings include the following:
• The amount of data being stored (utilized storage) in the Global StorageSphere is expected to grow to 8.9ZB by 2024, representing a 2019-2024 CAGR of 20.4%. Moreover, the share of utilized storage in the Global StorageSphere installed base is expected to reach 67.5% in 2024, up more than 7 percentage points from the beginning of the forecast.
• The dramatic growth in cloud storage is affecting the mix and share of the Global StorageSphere installed base between core, edge, and endpoint. The core is where the world’s data is progressively being stored and will hold a 60% share of the StorageSphere installed base in 2024, up from 40% in 2019. While the edge is growing nearly as fast as core, it will hold less than 10% of the overall Global StorageSphere installed base in 2024.
• HDD storage makes up the majority of the StorageSphere installed base, although it will decline from 65% of the installed base in 2019 to about 54% of the installed base in 2024.