Will the metric system fail us?

The linked GigaOm article may include some scientific tongue-in-cheek but the gap described is real.  Currently ~an exebyte of data is generated daily.  The metric system only has two official larger orders of magnitude: 

  • Zettabyte –       1000000000000000000000
  • Yottabyte – 1000000000000000000000000

 

For most of us this isn’t a problem.  I keep terabytes of storage at home for years of digital photographs.  

The government and businesses, however, retain significantly more data.

 

GigaOm article – http://gigaom.com/2012/10/30/as-data-gets-bigger-what-comes-after-a-yottabyte/