Humanity captures approximately 5 billion to 5.3 billion photos every single day. But this number increases to 14 billion images a day through sharing and reposting across messaging and social media. In data terms, this is 50 petabytes of photos, every, single, day!
Adding video to the equation completely blows the doors off the numbers. Video accounts for roughly 82% of all global internet data traffic. the world now creates, captures, or copies roughly 400,000 petabytes (400 exabytes) of data every single day.
To handle this volume, we need to build, finish, and fully pack 2 to 3 brand-new, massive hyperscale data center buildings every 24 hours.
That is the Sci-Fi apocalyptic view–– the pouring of concrete from helicopters onto the homes in rural neighborhoods. Fortunately is doesn’t actually look like this for one simple reason… we delete things. Because we cannot build 1,000 data centers a year, the industry relies on a massive filter. Out of those 400,000 petabytes generated today, 98% to 98.5% is instantly dropped, compressed, or deleted within seconds or hours of creation (temporary video streaming caches, transient network packets, automated logs, and extreme social media video compression).
There are roughly 1,200 to 1,300 active hyperscale facilities running globally and the tech industry builds and activates roughly 120 to 150 brand-new hyperscale data center buildings per year worldwide. A single modern hyperscale building typically spans between 200,000 and 500,000 square feet- or roughly 8 football fields, and many of the established centers are empty in anticipation of them being used.
To handle our actual retained data, we don’t need thousands of new buildings. We need to build about 130 new buildings a year, with each building averaging about 400,000 square feet. The real trick isn’t the square footage; it’s packing those square feet with denser, high-capacity hard drives and securing the massive electrical grid connections required to power them, and fortunately for Moore’s Law, hard-drive technology is still getting faster, smaller and cheaper.
But then there is the power and infrastructure issue– more crucial than the datacenter side of things, but that will be a future post. Until then–slow down on the picture taking. Do we really need to take or share a picture of a parking lot from a train window?
Back in the 1990s, when I was working in Information Technology on Wall Street, I was actively testing early RFID technologies. We were looking at the clear benefits of tracking loaner equipment assigned to investment bankers, and I saw firsthand how that tech could completely automate the inventory accounting industry. Fast forward to today, and the evolution of that foundational tech has found a massive, unexpected playground.
I recently returned from a cruise with my wife aboard the Enchanted Princess, and as a technologist, I was fascinated by how far this ecosystem has come. It all starts before you even step foot on the ship with the pre-delivery of your Princess Medallion—a quarter-sized wearable device we attached to our watch bands that seamlessly combines Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and NFC RFID technologies.
Overcoming the “Big Ship” Skepticism
Having traveled on many high-end, smaller cruise lines, my wife and I were initially skeptical about vacationing on a ship of this scale. However, this tech ecosystem completely altered our thinking—and high-end competing lines had better take notice. The onboarding process alone was a revelation; it felt less like a traditional check-in and more like a car passing beneath a high-speed highway toll scanner at 80 mph.
Beyond the passenger perks, this architecture fundamentally transforms ship operations. By automating thousands of tedious, manual tasks, the system lifts a massive administrative burden off the crew. When the staff isn’t bogged down by clunky logistics or keycard management, they are free to focus entirely on hospitality. Their jobs become genuinely more pleasant, their morale skyrockets, and that energy translates directly into a noticeably higher quality of service overall.
We both agree the entire experience was unmatched. (And as a purely culinary side note: we had hands-down the best filet on the planet aboard the Enchanted Princess.)
Once aboard, the frictionless experience powered by this dual-tech array really shines:
Proximity Automation (via BLE): As you approach your stateroom, the long-range Bluetooth beacon alerts the door controller. The handle ring glows green and unlocks automatically before you even touch the handle. This tech knows if you are in their reserve collection, allowing you to enter private venues such as lounges and dining rooms, No fumbling for keycards, and giving you the experience of being in a ship within a ship.
Dynamic Personalization: The digital billboards in every elevator lobby aren’t showing random ads. As you approach, BLE sensors recognize your specific Medallion ID and instantly display photos taken of you by the ship’s photographers for purchase. Want to interact? A quick NFC tap on the board securely brings up your personalized itinerary.
Spatial Awareness & Logistics: I watched the ship’s server staff effortlessly locate a specific passenger among a literal sea of identical lounge chairs on the crowded Lido deck to deliver a fresh drink order. No table numbers, no guessing—just pinpoint proximity tracking.
Real-Time Theater Metrics: At the end of a destination lecture was a raffle, where the lecturer at the podium had access to real-time room density and location data. They knew exactly who was in the theater and could draw a winner exclusively from the live audience.
Tap-to-Buy Innovation: Accelerating Onboard Revenue: Tap your Medallion to a slot machine or blackjack table or walk into the jewelry shop– all this tech making it not only too easy but convenient.
Beyond the luxury guest experience, the security advantages of this infrastructure are massive. By knowing exactly who is onboard and precisely where they are on the ship at any given moment, bad actors are effectively neutralized. Traditional shipboard crimes like opportunistic theft become nearly impossible when a digital ledger tracks exactly who entered an area and when.
Right now, this tiny device coordinates with thousands of localized sensors across the ship. But the software behind it is poised to get exponentially smarter as it fully integrates with AI to predictive-map passenger behavior and perfect logistics.
In fact, given how far we’ve come since those early Wall Street inventory tracking days, I don’t think it will be long before we cross the frontier into true bio-tech. Instead of a wearable fob, passengers might soon be offered a temporary, rice-grain-sized RFID chip slipped under the skin at embarkation and safely extracted upon disembarkment.
If I were a recent graduate in Information Technology, I wouldn’t just look at Silicon Valley—I would be applying to the cruise line industry. Beyond the obvious perks of traveling the world in luxury, cruise lines are quietly becoming the ultimate testbeds for the bleeding edge of IoT (Internet of Things), mesh networks, and bio-tech guest experiences.
David Nadas 