Cloud storage of consumer content will increase by 36% in 2016, significantly higher than the mere 7% cloud storage in 2011, a new report said.
Research firm Gartner in a report said thanks to the “consumerization” of IT, more consumers desire to share and access content on multiple devices like camera-equipped smartphones and tablets.
As storage increasingly becomes part of the personal cloud, online storage and sync companies should strategically rethink about their future approach, Gartner said.
The increased adoption of camera-equipped smartphones and tablets is allowing users to capture huge amounts of photos and videos.
Gartner predicted that worldwide consumer digital storage needs will grow from 329 exabytes in 2011 to 4.1 zettabytes in 2016.
This includes digital content stored in PCs, smartphones, tablets, hard-disk drives (HDDs), network attached storage (NAS) and cloud repositories, Gartner said.
The bulk of the cloud storage needs of consumers in the near term will be met by social media sites such as Facebook, which offer free storage space for uploading photos and videos for social sharing, the research firm further said. A majority of this growth will come from North America and Western Europe. In the Asia Pacific region, Japan and South Korea will witness the highest growth in cloud storage.
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