Internet traffic to approach a zettabyte by 2015

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 02 June 2011 12:59

IT Industry - Development

Worldwide Internet traffic is set to quadruple in the next four years according to a major network hardware vendor.

Cisco's latest visual networking index (VNI) forecast predicts global Internet traffic will quadruple to 966 exabytes by 2015, driven in part by the number of connected devices increasing to 15 billion in the same period.

Other factors behind the prediction include increases in the number of Internet users (to nearly three billion in 2015) and - most importantly - the amount of video being consumed (to one million minutes per second).

High definition and 3D video will contribute to the load, with continuing growth in the use of Internet-connected TVs.

By 2015, the Asia Pacific region is expected to overtake North America as the biggest generator of IP traffic, but the fastest growing region will be the Middle East and Africa with eightfold growth over the forecast period.

"The explosive growth in Internet data traffic, especially video, creates an opportunity in the years ahead for optimising and monetizing visual, virtual and mobile Internet experiences," said Suraj Shetty, Cisco's vice president of worldwide service provider marketing.

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