At the time this section of my book went to press (2008), Apple’s most recent iPod was capable of storing 80 gigabytes–or approximately 20,000 songs. Assuming that one had the all free time to listen to that much music–and a person very well may if she or he has a daily commute in one of the major cities of world–it would take that person just over a month, listening nonstop, to work his way through every song. Regardless of whether such a scenario is closer to your idea of heaven or hell, I think we can all agree that storing 80 GB of data on a device about the size of hotel-sized bar of soap is, for now, an impressive accomplishment.
Of course, this much data can be used for things besides just listening to music or downloading a recent episode of Desperate Housewives. A number of businesses are already using this capacity to walk the escalator by redesigning and retooling basic business operations.
In 2006, Siemens, the giant German-based conglomerate, purchased all of its medical technicians MP3 players at a cost of $30,000. By the end of the year it had reaped an eightfold return on its investment by cutting in half the number of training sessions it had to hold for those employees. (The cost per training session was $125,000.) More importantly, the MP3 players are being used to help ensure Siemen’s employees stay abreast of the latest advances in their field by downloading and listening to relevant podcasts.
Data storage is by no means limited to MP3 players. Safely and securely housing vast amounts of financial, marketing, and personnel and customer information is a chore, especially for smaller companies. Here again, a number of organizations are walking the escalator by outsourcing this task to companies that have mastered the data storage business. For instance, Amazon and Seagate are both now offering businesses of almost every size the ability to store and retrieve any amount of information, at any time, from anywhere on the Web. The systems are fast, reliable, scalable, and have the added benefit of allowing smaller businesses to dispense with the cost and overhead for the personnel and equipment that are necessary to handle such responsibilities.
The bottom-line is that as data storage continues to grow exponentially the ability to store and access vast amounts of data will change how many simple and common business operations are performed. If you want to survive, it’ll be necessary to reorganize your data storage closet on an increasingly frequent basis.
Related Posts
Jump the Curve Strategy #6: Let the Computer Do It
Jump the Curve Strategy #5: Bet On It
Jump the Curve Strategy #4: Just “Wiki” It
Jump the Curve Strategy #3: Look to the Kindness of Strangers
Jump the Curve Strategy #2: Take a Bird’s Eye View of the World
Jump the Curve Strategy #1: Learn to Spell Zenzizenzizenzic
Introduction to Chapter Two: The Power of Zenzizenzizenzic
Welcome to the Exponential Economy: Prepare to Jump the Curve
Introduction to Jump the Curve
