Will Data Centres Eventually Run Out Of Storage Space? - Cross-Guard (2024)

FAQs

Will Data Centres Eventually Run Out Of Storage Space? - Cross-Guard? ›

We'll go on record as saying no – datacenters won't run out of storage space in the near future. And it's unlikely that we'll have to worry about a shortage of data storage anytime soon. While physical space is a constraint, the world has not maxed out its current data storage.

After all, with digital storage, what's the harm? But, space can quickly fill up if left unchecked. The thing is, although cloud storage is fantastically convenient, it can sometimes become an unorganized mess. It's also possible that you'll eventually run out of storage space and won't be able to save any new files.

The problem: new data centers risk becoming obsolete. This is largely driven by the ever-increasing power needed to deal with expanding amounts of data, which is projected to double in the next five years, when compared to the past decade, according to business intelligence firm Statista.

Data stored in data centers worldwide surged from 547 exabytes in 2018 to 1,327 exabytes in 2021. Recent reports show that in 2021, data centers stored 1,327 exabytes of data. This is a significant increase from 2018, when 547 exabytes of data were stored in data centers.

At the moment, there's no real need to worry about running out of storage. In 2020, the entire human population generated 64.2 Zettabytes of data. In 2025, it's estimated that we'll have generated a total of 181 Zettabytes.

We'll go on record as saying no – datacenters won't run out of storage space in the near future. And it's unlikely that we'll have to worry about a shortage of data storage anytime soon. While physical space is a constraint, the world has not maxed out its current data storage.

At current rates of global data storage generation—and sticking with current storage technology—humans will have to cover the entire surface of the planet with data storage centers by the year 2060, according to DNAli Data Technologies Co-Founder Kyle Tomek.

It's no secret that businesses are currently replacing traditional data centers with the cloud.

Digital Realty owns arguably the largest data center footprint in the world with more than 300 facilities across 25 countries on six continents, along with more than 45 million square feet of data center space.

With one of the large data centre markets, the United States holds the most data centre sites in the world. Data centre revenue is expected to reach US$99.16bn in 2024. The US' market influence cannot be overstated.

Who has the biggest data storage? ›

Located in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, the China Telecom Data Center claims the title of the largest data center in the world. With a staggering 10.7 million square feet of space, this facility is part of the Inner Mongolia Information Park.

Power consumption is one of the most significant ongoing costs in a data center. The energy required to run servers, storage units, networking equipment, and other IT hardware constitutes a major portion of operational expenses.

Since the Earth's size is limited, we can't build an infinite number of servers and storage devices. How long will it take until there is no more free space for servers and data centers? The Internet will never “run out of space”. Ever.

So, Will Google Ever Run Out of Storage Space? The answer, as you may have suspected, is no. A company of Google's size and scope can't be limited by storage space for an extended period. This is because they can simply scale up their systems by adding more and better hard drives and building more server farms.

If your cloud storage is full: If your cloud storage is full, you'll need to either: renew / buy more storage, or. reduce the amount, or size of the files you have.

As mentioned, it is theoretically possible to provide unlimited cloud storage, but in reality, it is not all that technically and financially feasible. The true gauge of the capacity of cloud storage is the number of servers and hard drives available to the cloud provider.

If your cloud storage is full, you'll need to either: renew / buy more storage, or. reduce the amount, or size of the files you have.

So will the cloud ever run out of space? No. But where does all that cloud data go? The cloud exists in data centers—physical buildings that host servers connected across the world.

Human Error & Misconfigurations – One of the leading causes of data loss in cloud computing includes mistakes such as accidentally deleting important files, misconfiguring settings, or failing to back up correctly or version data.