According to most experts, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are being created each day, and 90% of the data in the world has been created in the last two years. By the year 2020, it is estimated that 1.7 megabytes of new information will be created every second for every human being on the planet.

More data brings more opportunity and a lot of new promise to businesses, but only to those who have the ability to gain insight at the right scale. In a blog, Mike Krasnow, Product Manager of Qumulo, compared storage consumption to your car’s dashboard. Without critical tools like the fuel gauge, you would run out of gas; it’s the same with storage. Without knowing your current capacity and data usage, you could put your business in a critical situation.

Luckily, many companies are already utilizing data analytics to their advantage and innovating their businesses. With real-time insights into storage usage, organizations can analyze storage capacity and performance to determine what projects are growing the fastest, what can be archived, and what directories are a top priority.

This influx of machine data requires companies to look for ways to better leverage and scale-out their storage environments. Unlike in the past, when Solid State Disk technology was prohibitively expensive, there are now affordable flash appliances that can feasibly be used in tandem with Hard Disk Drive (HDD) storage devices. These hybrid systems provide a cost-effective balance of performance and capacity.

Welcome to the new age of data!