Cisco: Cloud traffic to rise to 5.3 zettabytes by 2017

Cloud traffic is becoming the dominant growth engine in data center traffic, according to Cisco's (Nasdaq: CSCO) third annual Global Cloud Index.

Between 2012 and 2017, cloud traffic will grow at a 35 percent combined annual growth rate (CAGR) from 1.2 zettabytes of annual data center traffic to 5.3 zettabytes.

Likewise, global data center traffic will grow threefold and reach a total of 7.7 zettabytes annually during the same period.

Out of this figure, about 17 percent of data center traffic will be driven by end users accessing clouds for various web-based applications, including web surfing, video streaming, collaboration and connected devices.

Besides end-user traffic, data centers themselves will generate about 7 percent of their own traffic via data replication and software/system updates. Cisco said another 76 percent of data center traffic will reside in the data center and will be generated by storage, production and development data in a virtualized environment.

On a global basis, cloud traffic will grow from 46 percent of total data center traffic (98 exabytes per month or 1.2 zettabytes annually) of total data center traffic in 2012 to 69 percent of total data center traffic (443 exabytes per month or 5.3 zettabytes annually) of total data center traffic by 2017.

The majority of this cloud-based traffic will come from the Middle East and Africa, which are forecast to grow at (57 percent CAGR), followed by Asia Pacific (43 percent CAGR) and Central and Eastern Europe (36 percent CAGR).