The linked GigaOm article may include some scientific tongue-in-cheek but the gap described is real. Currently ~an exebyte of data is generated daily. The metric system only has two official larger orders of magnitude:
- Zettabyte – 1000000000000000000000
- Yottabyte – 1000000000000000000000000
For most of us this isn’t a problem. I keep terabytes of storage at home for years of digital photographs.
The government and businesses, however, retain significantly more data.
GigaOm article – http://gigaom.com/2012/10/30/as-data-gets-bigger-what-comes-after-a-yottabyte/