(Mashable) -- There's a massive telescope on the drawing board that hasn't even started construction yet, but when it's finished in 2024, it'll generate more data in a single day than the entire Internet. For scientists to ensure they'll be able to handle all that raw information, they need to start working on new computing technologies now. Fortunately, IBM is on it. The computing giant is collaborating with ASTRON (the Netherlands Institute of Radio Astronomy) to develop the next-generation computer tech needed to handle the colossal amount of data captured by the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), a new radio telescope that will spread sensing equipment over a span 3,000 kilometers wide, or about the width of the continental U.S.A.IBM is teaming up with ASTRON to develop what is needed to handle data captured by SKAThe new technology will still rely on one of the oldest storage technologies: magnetic tapeThe SKA won't be completed until 2024, but the process has the potential to change industries
It's possible the social networks and search engines of the future will be powered by _'s coming tech or something like it, enabling them to process an entire Internet's worth of data for anyone and everyone.