How much data is on the internet?

Asked by: Kushil Ganatra, Middlesex

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One way to answer this question is to consider the sum total of data held by all the big online storage and service companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook.

Estimates are that the big four store at least 1,200 petabytes between them. That is 1.2 million terabytes (one terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes). And that figure excludes other big providers like Dropbox, Barracuda and SugarSync, to say nothing of massive servers in industry and academia.

Read more:

• What is the carbon footprint of the internet?
• Is it possible to turn off the internet worldwide?

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