EMC World 2011: 300 quadrillion files in the digital universe by the end of 2011

LAS VEGAS: Over 300 quadrillion files will be in use by the end of 2011, leading to unprecedented levels of productivity within enterprises, according to Joe Tucci, chairman and chief executive of EMC.

Kicking off the EMC World customer and partner event in Las Vegas, Tucci warned that ever increasing levels of data use will continue to present challenges to enterprises.

Managing data will remain "a daunting task", Tucci said, despite jobs in the IT sector increasing 47 per cent by 2020.

"Between now and 2020 we will go from [managing] 1.2ZB to 35ZB of data. Over 90 per cent of information created will be unstructured," he said.

Together with huge data growth and decreasing IT budgets, data security remains a major concern for enterprises, Tucci acknowledged.

"[Some] 88 per cent of Fortune 500 firms had botnet activity in 2010 and 60 per cent had email address compromised by malware," he said. "There were 60 million variants of malware in circulation in 2010, [so] security is a major issue."

However, Tucci claimed that the cloud can be trusted and has the potential to be more secure than traditional storage platforms.

Information and identities can be protected, leakages prevented and footprints can monitor activity, he said.

Tucci also reiterated his belief that the cloud is bringing the "biggest change within the industry" and that enterprises will continue to move towards public and private clouds.

"The hybrid cloud will become the de facto enterprise model that will [help to] maximise opportunity, speed, cost and agility," he said.