Measurements Of Data

The average folk out there like myself may give a big “huh?” when we hear terms such as petabyte. The terms for data measurement may be second nature to those in the tech world, but to the rest of us they are considered another language. With all of the talk about Big Data going around, it would be nice to understand just how much data they are talking about.

Here is a list of the standard units of measurement used to label data storage.

Bit abbreviated as (b) is the smallest unit of measured data. A bit is valued at zero or one and is one eighth of a byte.

Byte is the reference base for measured data. Abbreviated as (B), a byte is worth 8 bits.

Kilobyte (KB) is valued at 1,000 bytes.

Megabyte (MB) is the size of 1,000,000 bytes.

Gigabyte (GB) is one of the more popular terms that we often hear. A gigabyte is 1,000,000,000 bytes.

Terabyte is something we are now starting to hear more of with the Big Data popularity on the rise. Abbreviated (TB) a terabyte is 1,000,000,000,000 bytes.

Petabyte (PB) is the equivalent of 1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes.

Oh yes, it gets bigger….

Exabyte (EB) is the amount of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes.

Zattabyte (ZB) is worth 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes.

Finally the grand finally is the,

Yottabyte (YB) which is the size of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes.

These are the measurements of data storage from smallest to largest. With data storage continually advancing to harness more and more data, who knows maybe we will see a program that can handle a yottabyte!

If you are new to the Big Data world be sure to check out this great article on predictive analytics and how to use them to your advantage!