Have you ever wondered how much space all the videos circulating on the internet take up? Or better yet, how much information is generated every day with our mobile phones, social networks and connected devices? To know (and understand) the answer, it is necessary to find out what is an Exabyte.
In previous posts we have already explored other related concepts, such as what is Yottabyte o what is a Zettabyte. It is worth clarifying that these terms refer to abysmal storage capacity units. Now, one of those that is receiving the most use today is the exabyte, and in this article we will see why.
What is an exabyte? More data than you imagine!
What is an exabyte? It's few words, is a unit of measurement that represents a colossal amount of data, specifically, one million terabytes. It is clear that this is a storage capacity that is difficult to digest, at least for those of us who settle for a few gigabytes or tera.
And, while computer and mobile device users talk about gigabytes and terabytes, technology giants think in exabytes. Imagine how much capacity is needed to store the millions of data that are uploaded to the web daily. Quantifying them in gigas or tera would be like expressing the distances between planets and galaxies in millimeters.: It is necessary to scale up.
Thus, the term exabyte used to refer to amounts of global computing data stored in multiple data centers. Let's take as an example Google and all the services it uses: Drive, Gmail, YouTube, to name a few. It is estimated that all this data occupies between 10 and 15 exabytes, a figure that continues to constantly increase every day.
For an average user, a few terabytes are more than enough to store all the information they use. But for big tech companies, The need for storage capacity continues to grow. Right now they quantify that capacity in exabytes, but in the future they will surely use higher measurement units (Zettabytes, Yottabytes, Brontobytes, Geopbytes).
How many bytes are in an Exabyte?
To better understand what an exabyte is, it is a good idea to compare it with other related (and better known) units of measurement. To begin with, let us remember that A byte (B) is a basic unit of measurement for information in the digital world. Thus, when we see a photo that weighs 2 MB, it means that two million bytes are needed to store it.
As you can see, the byte as a unit of measurement is very small, so it is not practical to use it to express the size of complex files. It quickly became necessary to use larger units., such as the megabyte (MB) and the gigabyte (GB). For example, a song in MP3 format can take up several megabytes, and an HD movie can take up several gigabytes.
Today, many external storage drives have a capacity of one or several terabytes (TB). In a terabyte there are one thousand gigabytes, enough capacity to store hundreds of movies, an entire music library, or several years of backups. But, as we already said, These units of measurement were too small to express the current conglomeration of global data..
So, How many bytes are in an exabyte (EB)? The answer is difficult to read: In an exabyte there are 1.000.000.000.000.000.000 bytes. To make it easier for you to visualize it, we can express it in the following way: 1 exabyte is equivalent to 1.000.000.000 (one billion) gigabyte or, in other words, it is equivalent to 1.000.000 (one million) terabytes.
What does the word 'Exabyte' mean?
If you are still curious about what an Exabyte is, it will help you a lot to understand the meaning of this word. “Exabyte” is a word composed of the prefix Exa, which means “six”, and the word “byte”, which refers to the basic unit of information in computing. So, literally means “six times a million bytes”.
In recent years, the word Exabyte has become popular due to the exponential increase in the amount of data we generate and store in the digital world. We know this phenomenon as Big Data, a term used to describe very large and complex digital data sets. To store this enormous amount of data, systems and devices with several exabytes of capacity are required..
What is an exabyte: Understanding large storage units
From its beginnings, Humanity has generated and used an enormous amount of data of all kinds. In the past, it was impossible to collect all that information, but things have changed in the digital age. Today, there are multiple tools, not only to collect data, but also to organize, classify, study and understand it. In fact, all this data has become an element of great value for companies, governments, institutions, etc.
The point we want to make with all this is that increasingly larger storage drives are needed to house all that data. Behind the question “what is an exabyte?” is a surprising reality, not only because of its abysmal size, but also because of the repercussions it can have on humanity itself.
From a young age, I've been fascinated by all things scientific and technological, especially those advancements that make our lives easier and more enjoyable. I love staying up-to-date on the latest news and trends, and sharing my experiences, opinions, and tips about the devices and gadgets I use. This led me to become a web writer a little over five years ago, focusing primarily on Android devices and Windows operating systems. I've learned to explain complex concepts in simple terms so my readers can easily understand them.