Will Data Centres Eventually Run Out Of Storage Space?

We’re bombarded with news about the massive amounts of data that people are producing. Where is all this data going? Should data centres be worried about data centre capacity constraints?

For most of us, running out of storage on our personal devices is a real issue. This is making people wonder if this is the same case for Data Centres.

At the moment, there’s no real need to worry about running out of storage. In 2020, the entire human population generated 64.2 Zettabytes of data. In 2025, it’s estimated that we’ll have generated a total of 181 Zettabytes. Rack Solutions reports that a high-end data centre of approximately 980,000 Sq Ft can accommodate 2.6 M Servers. Companies such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft operate large data storage facilities, and research shows that they’re not operating at their full capacity. If you factor in the millions of small data centres around the world, we’re far from facing a global data storage crisis. But how long will it take for that to change?

If global data production continues to grow as predicted and current data storage technology continues to evolve, we could be looking at running out of data storage space in the far future but not any time soon. But even a brief look at the last decade’s evolution should make it clear that data storage technology isn’t static. We’ve seen massive changes, including the transition from hard disk drive (HDD) technology to solid-state drive (SSD) technology, which is faster, smaller, and more efficient.

In conclusion, there will be no shortage of storage space in data centres. It is highly unlikely that we will face a data storage shortage in the near future. With the development of new technology, our data storage solutions will only become more efficient and resilient as time goes on.