But why would we need so much storage capacity? Did you know 8MB surveillance camera footage requires 36TB of storage space just to keep the record for 30 days!?
Size of the Petabyte
What’s the easiest way to understand a Petabyte? A petabyte is a server capacity that consists of unit bytes and could be measured as follows:
| 1 | Petabyte (PB) | = | 1,000,000,000,000,000 | Bytes (B) |
| 1 | Petabyte (PB) | = | 1,000,000,000,000 | Kilobytes (KB) |
| 1 | Petabyte (PB) | = | 1,000,000,000 | Megabytes (MB) |
| 1 | Petabyte (PB) | = | 1,000,000 (or 1,048,576) | Gigabytes (GB) |
| 1 | Petabyte (PB) | 1,000 (or 1,024) | Terabytes (TB) |
If you are looking for bigger bytes (beyond and above Petabyte), here is a list of larger memory units:
| 1 | Exabyte (EB) | = | 1,000 | Petabytes (PB) |
| 1 | Zettabyte (ZB) | = | 1,000,000 | Petabytes (PB) |
| 1 | Yottabyte (YB) | = | 1,000,000,000 | Petabytes (PB) |
Conversion charts
How to convert Petabytes (PT) to Terabytes (TB)? You can find out how much is 1 Petabyte or more, by using this convenient chart:
| 1 | Petabyte (PB) | = | 1024 | Terabytes (TB) |
| 2 | Petabytes (PB) | = | 2048 | Terabytes (TB) |
| 3 | Petabytes (PB) | = | 3072 | Terabytes (TB) |
| 4 | Petabytes (PB) | = | 4096 | Terabytes (TB) |
| 5 | Petabytes (PB) | = | 5120 | Terabytes (TB) |
| 6 | Petabytes (PB) | = | 6144 | Terabytes (TB) |
| 7 | Petabytes (PB) | = | 7168 | Terabytes (TB) |
| 8 | Petabytes (PB) | = | 8192 | Terabytes (TB) |
| 9 | Petabytes (PB) | = | 9216 | Terabytes (TB) |
| 10 | Petabytes (PB) | = | 10240 | Terabytes (TB) |
Are you trying to convert Petabytes (PT) to Gigabytes (GB)? The following chart will help you with this task:
| 1 | Petabyte (PB) | = | 1,048,576 | Gigabytes (GB) |
| 2 | Petabytes (PB) | = | 2,097,152 | Gigabytes (GB) |
| 3 | Petabytes (PB) | = | 3,145,728 | Gigabytes (GB) |
| 4 | Petabytes (PB) | = | 4,194,304 | Gigabytes (GB) |
| 5 | Petabytes (PB) | = | 5,242,880 | Gigabytes (GB) |
| 6 | Petabytes (PB) | = | 6,291,456 | Gigabytes (GB) |
| 7 | Petabytes (PB) | = | 7,340,032 | Gigabytes (GB) |
| 8 | Petabytes (PB) | = | 8,388,608 | Gigabytes (GB) |
| 9 | Petabytes (PB) | = | 9,437,184 | Gigabytes (GB) |
| 10 | Petabytes (PB) | = | 10,485,760 | Gigabytes (GB) |
Examples of Petabyte
Here are some live examples of Petabytes:
- For those who remember good ‘ol 1.44Mb Floppy discs, 746 million of them would be required to accommodate 1 PT worth of data.
- How about DVDs? Well, 1 Petabyte = 223,000 DVDs (that are 4.7Gb in size).
- In 2008, Google released information that it was processing about 20 Petabytes a day.
- Google Earth and Google Maps are about 20 Petabytes worth of images.
- 10 billion photos on Facebook take up 1.5 Petabytes of storage space.
- A total of over 100 Petabytes of data are being stored on Google and Facebook servers.
- The data-intensive research project, like the Large Hadron Collider‘s (external link) annual storage, is around 15 Petabytes.
- Images from the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (external link) are expected to take about 60 Petabytes of space over a lifetime.
Petabyte server storage
Many big enterprises are already using Petabyte storage systems, with cloud providers going way beyond Petabyte. For small business owners, this solution is not relevant, but as you get into medium and large-size businesses scale, you may decide that more than 100-200TB server would be more appropriate for you.
While Cisco offers a 720TB storage server (external link for this model UCS S3260) today, Intel is coming up with an Exascale Computing project, which is called the Aurora system (external link) and it will be able to support over 230 Petabytes of storage data across 200 racks.
Petabyte harddrive
Wouldn’t it be fun to have a Petabyte size hard drive? With technology getting more and more advanced, it may not be too long before we get to see something like that. But when are they going to come around? With a yearly increase of 16% in storage capacity (12TB in 2017 and 14TB in 2018) we are guessing that we should see them around 2049.
Price of a Petabyte
With the biggest hard drive of 14TB easily available on the market today, here is what it would cost you if you need to compose a Petabyte out of it:
| WD Ultrastar DC HC530 | 14TB @ $364.00 | x 72 | = | 1,008TB @ $26,208 |
| WD HGST Ultrastar DC HC500 | 14TB @ $549.99 | x 72 | = | 1,008TB @ $39,599 |
| Seagate IronWolf Pro | 14TB @ $599.99 | x 72 | = | 1,008TB @ $43,199 |
| Seagate BarraCuda Pro | 14TB @ $579.99 | x 72 | = | 1,008TB @ $41,759 |
| Seagate SkyHawk14TB | 14TB @ $509.99 | x 72 | = | 1,008TB @ $36,719 |
| Seagate Exos X14 | 14TB @ $614.99 | x 72 | = | 1,008TB @ $44,279 |
How about a cloud server? Here is an approximate breakdown:
| 72TB | $500 / m | x 13 (to get PT) | = | 936TB | $6,500 / m |
Petabyte server project
If you are trying to build a Petabyte size cloud server yourself, pros say that it is not impossible! Of course, this is not rocket science, but… that’s a lot of drives!
Attention! This article is for informational purposes ONLY and is NOT a replacement for a professional advice! All statements, prices, contact information, recommendations, and reviews contained herein are based on the information we believe to be reliable, but the accuracy or completeness thereof is not guaranteed. You will need to visit company's website for details and updates, as well as consult your local specialist for appropriate solution to your problem..
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