The Impact of the Electronic World

An article went up on Sci-Tech Today's website yesterday discussing the impact of the electronic world on the document and records management industry. The author methodically breaks down the massive changes brought about by the digital age and the advent of the computer and Internet - noting the gradual shift away from traditional off-site document management to more technologically advanced forms of the same idea like tape storage, scanning and archiving and eDiscovery.

According to the article:

"The amount of digital information to be managed is truly staggering. According to a March 2008 IDC white paper called The Diverse and Exploding Digital Universe, the size of the digital universe in 2007 was 281 exabytes (1 exabyte = 1 billion gigabytes), and it is estimated the size of the digital universe by 2011 will be 10 times that figure. In The Sedona Principles: Best Practices Recommendations and Principles for Addressing Electronic Document Production, The Sedona Conference Working Group notes that compounding the management complexities is the fact that most information is being created in electronic form. "