SIEMENS

The Internet is an extremely intricate and far-reaching infrastructure. It’s much more than just a communication medium or a source of information. Global cooperation between companies is increasingly being carried out via data networks as well. To get an idea of how important this can be, consider that around 100 companies in six countries are involved in manufacturing 70 to 80 percent of the parts in Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner. According to a recent study conducted by market experts at IDC, global data volume is set to increase from 1.2 zettabytes today to 35 zettabytes (1021 = billion terabytes) in 2020. That figure corresponds to two piles of DVDs stretching from the earth to the moon.

Around 75 percent of these 35 zettabytes will be copies of original data and files, so there will be great opportunity to save costs through compression techniques and a reduction of multiple storage operations, say IDC analysts. Experts believe cloud computing (see article "When the Sky's the Limit") will be a key aspect of the future digital world, with over 34 percent of all data worldwide expected to be stored via cloud services in the next few years. Cloud computing offers services such as the provision of storage capacities, programming, and analyses on external computers, all of which are billed according to actual use. As a result, companies will no longer have to pay for the procurement, operation, and maintenance of servers, software, and data storage systems, which should significantly increase their flexibility. A new study from the Gartner market research and consulting firm predicts that the global market volume for cloud services will more than double between now and 2014, from $68.3 billion today to $148.8 billion. Last year cloud service providers in the U.S. accounted for 58 percent of worldwide income in the sector. The second-biggest market is western Europe (23.8 percent), followed by Japan (10 percent). Millions of private consumers and small companies already access IT services from the cloud, including e-mails, office applications, storage capacity, and social networks.

Medium-sized companies in particular are big users of cloud-based services, according to another IDC study, which surveyed 1,500 firms in 87 countries. A total of 41 percent of medium-sized companies in Latin America now get services from the cloud; the figure in Asia is 35 percent, while in Europe only 19 percent utilize such services. Larger companies are in many cases still concerned about data and access security and compliance with legal stipulations. However, they could be saving a lot of money with cloud services. In Germany alone, such savings could total around €38 billion over five years, according to a 2010 study conducted by the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

Social networks such as Facebook and Xing and micro- blogging applications like Twitter are also very important elements of global networking. Facebook, for example, had some 647 million users worldwide at the end of 2010. More than 40 percent of all Internet users in the U.S. are on Facebook, compared to only one percent in India. The figure for Brazil is just under three percent. China had 700,000 Facebook users at the beginning of 2011; Russia had approximately 1.6 million. The Russians and Chinese tend to use their own countries’ networks, such as VKontakte in Russia, which has more than 86 million users, and QZone and Renren in China (390 million and 160 million, respectively).

Social networks are also changing communication habits at companies, where they are being used as internal platforms or for contact with customers and partners. More and more companies are presenting themselves on virtual platforms, through which they monitor statements about their products and brands, engage in discussions, and search for new trends and new employees. So instead of being exposed to one-sided ads, consumers themselves can now communicate with and comment on companies.

Experts at Gartner consider the new communication channels offered by Web 2.0 to be groundbreaking technology trends. One such trend is collective intelligence, which Gartner defines as the voluntary and free-of-charge creation of intellectual content by a large number of individuals. Wikis were among the first platforms for collective intelligence, as their content can not only be viewed by users but also altered online directly in browsers.