According to ITBusinessEdge , Cisco recently announced the results of the annual Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast. The VNI Forecast covers years 2011 to 2016, and projects the amount of IP traffic on public and private networks, including the Internet, managed IP, and mobile devices used by consumers and business. By 2016, annual global IP traffic is forecast to be 1.3 zettabytes — a zettabyte is equal to a sextillion bytes, or a trillion gigabytes. The projected increase of global IP traffic between 2015 and 2016 alone is more than 330 exabytes, which is almost equal to the total amount of global IP traffic generated in 2011 (369 exabytes). This significant level of traffic growth and service penetration is driven by a number of factors, including: 1. An increasing number of devices: The proliferation of tablets, mobile phones, and other smart devices as well as machine-to-machine (M2M) connections are driving up the demand for connectivity. By 2016, the forecast projects ther...