Cisco Stares into the Developing Cloud

Networking company Cisco Systems released its second annual Cisco Global Cloud Index in October of 2012. The Index examines the current state of cloud computing and extrapolates future developments.

If Cisco's predictions are correct, we're teetering on the brink of a major networking shift from fixed IT networks to cloud data centers. Cisco suggests 2014 will see the turning point, at which time over 50 percent of all workloads will shift to the cloud. The Index defines a workload as the processing power required by a server to run an app and support users interacting with the app.

Cloud Thickness
Presuming Cisco's predictions pan out, by 2016 the cloud will process an overwhelming amount of data, estimated at 6.6 zettabytes a year. A zettabyte equals one sextrillion bytes, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes. Approximately 76 percent of this data will be internal data center traffic, according to Cisco estimates.