The second annual Cisco Global Cloud Index (2011-2016) says global data center traffic will reach a total of 6.6 zettabytes annually by 2016, a four fold growth in packets travelling on the global information superhighway. The fastest rates of growth will come from EMEA and Asia.

Global cloud traffic will be the fastest growing component of data center traffic and will multiply by a factor of six, thanks to a 44% combined annual growth rate (CAGR). The 683 exabytes that travelled in 2011 will seem minute in comparison with the 4.3 zettabytes that will travel in 2016.

The network traffic for 2016 will be the equivalent of 60 trillion hours of streaming music or 12 trillion hours of web conferencing. Though we've all been on web conferences that seem to last that long, a 12 trillion hour conference is rare, according to Doug Merritt, senior vice president at Cisco, who explained that the boom in data center traffic is a universal trend across the globe.

“It's all driven by our growing desire to access personal and business content anywhere, on any device,” said Merritt.

“Couple this growth with projected increases in connected devices and objects and the next-generation Internet will be an essential component.”

Merritt said this called for much greater data center virtualization and a new world of interconnected clouds.

The vast majority of the data center traffic is not caused by end users but by data centers and cloud-computing workloads used in activities that are virtually invisible to individuals. Cisco has forecast that roughly 76 per cent of data center traffic will stay within the data center from 2011 to 2016 and will be largely generated by storage, production and development information.

An additional 7% of traffic will be generated between data centers, primarily by data replication and software and system updates. The remaining 17% will be fuelled by end users accessing clouds for Web surfing, emailing and video streaming.

There are interesting regional variations which reflect the way the balance of trade is shifting and new economies are emerging as centres of commerce. According to the Cisco Global Cloud Index the year 2016, will see the Middle East and Africa enjoying the highest cloud traffic growth rate, while the Asia Pacific region will process the most cloud workloads. In 2011, North America generated the most cloud traffic. By 2016 the US and Europe will be outgrown by today's developing economies.