4 ms·
Isn't it possible that these numbers reference the amount of data moving through the system ("handle and process") instead of raw storage capacity, which is pro
by robszumski 12y ago
Isn't it possible that these numbers reference the amount of data moving through the system ("handle and process") instead of raw storage capacity, which is probably significantly less and matches more realistic private-sector abilities?
- adventured 12y agoI think it's very plausible the datacenter will be capable of storing five zettabytes by the end of this decade (yottabytes are impossible, short of the NSA having wildly advanced technology we know nothing about yet; the energy cost alone based on today's technology would 'bankrupt' the NSA). I'm skeptical it got up and running with that kind of scale on day one. It'd be ridiculously far beyond their storage needs for many many years. I wouldn't be surprised if it was designed with that kind of scale in mind however, as the NSA would be thinking 10 and 20 years out. Five zettabytes would of course be enough storage to allocate roughly one terabyte for every person on the planet the NSA could even theoretically hope to grab a single byte of data on in the next 20 years. In ~20 years I have to suspect 5 ZB will not be nearly enough storage for what the NSA has in mind (due mostly to the expansion of information being stored in ever higher definition video and plausibly in some VR format within a decade).