Estimate total number of cloud storage TB consumed globally annually

Estimate the total net new cloud storage data (in Terabytes / Petabytes / Zettabytes) generated, stored, and managed globally across major public cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP) annually.

Context

Driven by enterprise database backups, 4K video ingestion, AI model training datasets, IoT telemetry, and consumer cloud backups (iCloud/Google Photos).

Clarifying questions to ask first

Are we measuring net new storage added in a year or cumulative total stored data? (Net new storage consumed annually).
Does this include on-premise private data centers or public cloud only? (Public Cloud: AWS/Azure/GCP/Alibaba).

How to approach it

Top-down by Public Cloud Market Revenue: Global Cloud IaaS/Storage Market (~$150B/year) / Average Cost per TB per Year (~$250/TB/yr including compute/redundancy)
Bottom-up by Data Generators: Enterprise Workloads (Structured DBs + Logs + AI Datasets), Video/Media Streaming Repositories, and Consumer Cloud Backups
Unit Conversion: 1 TB = 1,000 GB; 1 PB = 1,000 TB; 1 EB = 1,000 PB; 1 ZB = 1,000 EB
Synthesize total stored cloud data in Exabytes / Zettabytes

Framework: Total Annual Cloud Storage (EB) = (Enterprise Cloud Data) + (Media/Streaming Archives) + (AI/IoT Telemetry) + (Consumer Cloud Backups)

Sample answer

Enterprise Business Data & Logs: ~250 Exabytes/year
Video/Social/Media Streaming (YouTube, Netflix, TikTok archives): ~350 Exabytes/year
AI Training Datasets & IoT Sensor Telemetry: ~150 Exabytes/year
Consumer Mobile Backups (Google Drive, iCloud): ~100 Exabytes/year
Total Net New Cloud Storage = ~850 Exabytes/year (0.85 Zettabytes)

850 Exabytes = 850,000,000 Terabytes (850M TB) of net new cloud storage consumed annually across public cloud providers

Executive estimate: ~850 Million Terabytes (~850 Exabytes or ~0.85 ZB) of new cloud storage consumed annually across public cloud hyperscalers.

What interviewers look for

Cloud Revenue to Storage Modeling
Enterprise vs Consumer Storage Breakdown
Data Growth Rate (~25-30% CAGR)
Precision in Data Storage Units