In seven years, both Cisco (2011 report) and SAP (2013 report) estimate that there will be 50 billion ‘things’ connected to the Internet. That means that in 2020 there will be 3-6.5 devices for every man, woman, and child on this planet. The Internet of Things “movement” expects almost seven Internet connected devices for every baby in the world. It’s a revolution akin to the massive overhaul we saw some two centuries ago when machines shifted America’s economy away from agriculture. The Industrial Revolution built everything … The Consumer Revolution used everything … The Data Revolution will optimize everything.

We’re entering the Data Revolution. The Consumer Internet is leading into the Internet of Things and it will dwarf the Consumer Internet data-wise. Where in the heck is of that data going to be stored?

Those chatty machines are talking about you

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication is going to be just as important as human-to-human communication in the next seven years. We already have smart devices: laptops, computers, phones, tablets, TVs, etc.— and we can all see down the pipeline that watches, eye wear, bracelets and other wearable smart devices are coming. These are the products we understand and think of as being “Internet connected,” or in broader terms, part of the Consumer Internet.

But what normal folks like you and I often forget about are all of the other “devices” in the world that currently are or will be “Internet connected“: Cars, household appliances (refrigerators, washers and dryers, toasters), cash registers at stores, gas pumps, vending machines, surveillance cameras, health monitoring equipment, utility meters, containers for shipping goods, industrial equipment, machinery, highway sensors, cameras at toll booths, jet engines, weather monitoring equipment, roller coasters, lights, subway trains, banks, atm machines …. (are you getting the picture yet?).

Without storage, our Data Revolution falls flat on its face

All of those reports, sensor readings, information and analytics make up Big Data and that Big Data has to be stored somewhere so that it can be analyzed. Storage is the link between collecting and analyzing data. First the data is collected, through the sensors and analytics. Then it has to be stored somewhere. Without storage, the data produced by the Internet of Things never makes it to the final step of being optimized and acted on. Without storage, our Data Revolution falls flat on its face.

In 2013 data volume will reach four billion terabytes. 65 percent of the IT decision-makers polled in SAP’s research thought the biggest challenge in M2M is managing and analyzing the real-time data. The managing side of that coin is storing the data. The data infrastructure requirements needed to handle the onslaught of Big Data memory storage requirements currently don’t exist. This is why you see the big boys such as IBM, HDS, EMC, Hewlett-Packard, Dell and NetApp investing heavily in building out services for the Big Data market that is coming to a smart city near you like a monsoon.

Can storage keep your data secure?

The more data that is created, the more knowledge and optimization opportunities people can obtain. The only caveat to that is the security of the data that is created. Fast forward to 2020. We have 50 billion Internet connected ‘things’ — how comfortable do you feel with protecting your ‘things’ and the data they are providing to GE, Apple, Nike, LG, Hoover, Frigidaire, Indiana Power & Light, Brighthouse, McOuat Place LLC and Citizens Energy Group? (I looked around my apartment from my computer chair and picked every ‘thing‘ that could potentially be connected to the Internet.)

The estimated amount of digital information that is generated daily is about 2.5 quintillion bytes, according to a report from IBM. Ninety percent of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone. Security at the storage layer will need to be addressed in order to meet the demand of that growing 2.5 quintillion bytes of personal data. Encryption is going to be the new “buzz” word around data security at the storage level.

Futhermore, the consumerization of IT has made its mark on the enterprise in the form of BYOD. Ever check your phone on your companies Wifi for something non-work related? (nods uncomfortably).  BYOD has led to a healthy debate over where the responsibility of mobile security lies: with the IT department or the end-user? One storage provider has addressed the burden of security with the recent launch of NetApp Connect. The application enables end users the ability to view sensitive information from their mobile devices without fear of data leakage.