If you ’re looking to trasnfer hundred of gigabytes of data , it ’s still — weirdly — faster to send hard drivesvia FedEx than it is to transfer the files over the internet . But why is that , and when will it convert ?
Fortunately , Randall Munroe has tackled the inquiry inhis latest What If ? post . The first part is easy to do . As Munroe explain :
Cisco estimates that total internet traffic currently averages 167 terabits per secondment . FedEx has a fleet of 654 aircraft with a elevation capacity of 26.5 million pound daily . A solid - Department of State laptop driving weighs about 78 gram and can apply up to a terabyte . That intend FedEx is open of transferring 150 exabyte of data per twenty-four hours , or 14 petabits per secondly — almost a hundred times the current throughput of the internet .
But when will the net fascinate up ? Well , Cisco claims internet traffic is growing at about 29 percent per year , which means it should catch up with the FedEx system by 2040 .
But yeah , you fleck it : during that time , the amount of data we can pinch onto a drive will have increased , too . Munroe crunches through some more numbersover on What If ? , but fundamentally it boil down to your belief in the future arc of fibre and what it can provide for us . If experimental petabit - per - second networks come good soon , the FedEx tipping point may come preferably ; if not , the internet may never stick the courier in terms of bandwidth . permit ’s hope for the former . [ What If ? ]
Image bySkyHawkForLifeunder Creative Commons licence
bandwidthDataRandall MunroeWhat If … ?
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