Cloud data: the elusive space full of years-old photos, middle-of-the-night memos and endless chat histories. It can be easy to send everything to the cloud – but how much is actually stored there?
Sky High Cloud Data
A brand new study by pCloud analysed just how much online storage we actually use. Using the average size of a photo, CD case and A4 paper document, they calculated the physical space equivalent to store the data in real life, should online storage not exist. To illustrate this, they compare the stacked up storage to the height of many world-famous landmarks. In our technologically-dependent world, a single person is said to accumulate an average of 500GB of data. This spans image, audio and document files.
You Think the Eiffel Tower Is Tall?
The findings show that one person’s cloud storage is 3 times taller than the Eiffel Tower! Despite standing at 324 metres, if one person’s documents were stacked up next to the Eiffel Tower it would be three times the height of this famous landmark, standing at 956m! An average person’s photos would stack up at 34m and their CD’s at 9M.
How Much Cloud Storage Does a Single Person Use?
According to the study, the average person uses 46% of the cloud storage for photos – the equivalent to 137,237 photos. Documents take second place, making up 26%, or the equivalent of 9,648,750 pieces of paper. Finally, music accounts for 6% of cloud storage, the equivalent to 6,601 songs or 943 albums.
Other Famous Landmarks
The study looked at other iconic European landmarks. A singular person’s data is the equivalent to 18 times the height of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and 6 times the height of Gaudi’s masterpiece the Sagrada Familia. In fact, the only landmark which is not towered over by one person’s data is the Swiss mountain in Monte Rosa standing at an impressive 4,634m.
The Benefits of Cloud Data
Staggeringly, the entire Amazon rainforest would have to be cut down TWICE in order to print all of Europe’s data. This is the equivalent to cutting down over 725 billion trees! Although many see technology as a hindrance to the environment, the alternative is far worse. In fact, the cloud is an effective and sustainable way to store data which would otherwise become wasteful.
