Exaflood - Internet Video Traffic - Zettabyte by 2015

From YouTube, IPTV, and HD video, to “cloud computing” and ubiquitous mobile cameras–to 3D games, virtual worlds – the new wave is swelling into an exaflood of Internet traffic. An exabyte is 10 to the 18th. The Discovery Institute estimates that by 2015, U.S. IP traffic could reach an annual total of one zettabyte (1024 bytes), or one million million billion bytes.

Video and rich media is expected to dominate IP traffic. TDP's IP Traffic Projection in the U.S. by 2015 shows:

• video calling and "virtual windows" could generate 400 exabytes
• Internet video, gaming, and virtual worlds could produce 200 exabytes
• movie downloads and P2P file sharing could be 100 exabytes
• non-Internet “IPTV” could reach 100 exabytes, and possibly much more
• business IP traffic will generate some 100 exabytes
• cloud computing and remote backup could total 50 exabytes
• other applications (phone, Web, e-mail, photos, music) could be 50 exabytes

Will this huge data traffic increase drown the Internet? No, it won't - argues Nate Anderson of ars technica.