Global Cloud Traffic will Dominate the Data Centers

Cisco, in its third annual Cisco Global Cloud Index (2012 2017) has revealed that global cloud traffic is expected to grow 4.5-fold a 35 per cent combined annual growth rate (CAGR) from 1.2 zettabytes of annual traffic in 2012 to 5.3 zettabytes by 2017. Overall global data center traffic will grow threefold and reach a total of 7.7 zettabytes annually by 2017.

It means 107 trillion hours of streaming music, 19 trillion hours of business web conferencing and 8 trillion hours of online high-definition (HD) video streaming by 2017.

Approximately 17 per cent of data center traffic will be fueled by end users accessing clouds for web surfing, video streaming, collaboration and connected devices, all of which contribute to the Internet of Everything, which is the networked connection of people, data, process and things.

Other data center traffic is not caused directly by end users, but by data centers and cloud-computing workloads used in activities that are virtually invisible to individuals.

For the period 20122017, Cisco forecasts that 7 per cent of data center traffic will be generated between data centers, primarily driven by data replication and software/system updates. An additional 76 per cent of data center traffic will stay within the data center and will be largely generated by storage, production and development data in a virtualized environment.

"People all over the world continue to demand the ability to access personal, business and entertainment content anywhere on any device, and each transaction in a virtualized, cloud environment can cause cascading effects on the network, said Doug Merritt, Senior Vice President, Product and Solutions Marketing, Cisco. Because of this continuing trend, we are seeing huge increases in the amount of cloud traffic within, between and beyond data centers over the next four years."

From a regional perspective, the Cisco Global Cloud Index predicts that through 2017, the Middle East and Africa will have the highest cloud traffic growth rate (57 per cent CAGR), followed by Asia Pacific (43 per cent CAGR) and Central and Eastern Europe (36 per cent CAGR).

Key Highlights/Findings:

• Global data center traffic growth will increase threefold by 2017 - Cisco forecasts that global data center traffic will triple from 2.6 zettabytes in 2012 to 7.7 zettabytes annually in 2017, representing a 25 per cent CAGR
• Global cloud traffic will grow faster than overall global data center traffic - The transition to cloud services is driving global cloud traffic at a growth rate greater than global data center traffic. Global data center traffic will grow threefold (a 25 per cent CAGR) from 2012 to 2017, while global cloud traffic will grow 4.5-fold (a 35 per cent CAGR) over the same period
• Global cloud traffic will account for more than two-thirds of total global data center traffic - Globally, cloud traffic will grow from 46 per cent of total data center traffic (98 exabytes per month or 1.2 zettabytes annually) of total data center traffic in 2012 to 69 per cent of total data center traffic (443 exabytes per month or 5.3 zettabytes annually) of total data center traffic by 2017
• Cloud traffic growth by region: The Middle East and Africa will have the highest cloud traffic growth rate from 2012 to 2017 - The Cisco Global Cloud Index now includes regional forecast data for cloud traffic growth.

Booming APAC:

• Asia Pacific, data center traffic will grow 3.6-fold by 2017, at a CAGR of 29 per cent from 2012 to 2017- Data center traffic will reach 2.7 Zettabytes per year (228 Exabytes per month) in 2017, up from 772 Exabytes per year (64 Exabytes per month) in 2012
• Asia Pacific cloud data center traffic will grow 5.9-fold by 2017, at a CAGR of 43 per cent from 2012 to 2017 faster than overall data center traffic - Cloud data center traffic will represent 68 per cent of total data center traffic by 2017, compared to 41 per cent in 2012. Consumer will represent 79 per cent of cloud data center traffic by 2017, compared to 74per cent in 2012
• Asia Pacific leads in the number of subscribers throughout the forecast period due to the regions large population

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