Capacity sizing: Google Drive disk space and network throughput for the coming year

You are a product manager on Google Drive. Estimate how much storage capacity and how much network bandwidth the Drive service will need next year. Show how you structure each estimate, label every assumption, and finish with a figure and a range for each. ```hint Stock versus flow Treat storage as something that accumulates across years and bandwidth as a rate that must cover the busiest hour, then decide what unit each estimate is built from. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Is the scope global, or one country or region? - Does "storage" mean the data users have saved, or the physical disk capacity including redundant copies and spare headroom? - For bandwidth, do we need average or peak throughput, and does it include traffic between Google's own data centers or only traffic to and from users? - Does Drive here mean only files stored in Drive, or also the Gmail and Photos data that counts against the same account quota? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - Scope settled before the math: geography, logical versus physical storage, and average versus peak bandwidth - A storage equation that starts from users and stored data per user and carries it forward a year - A bandwidth equation built from data moved per user per day and converted to a peak rate with consistent units - Labeled, round assumptions with correct arithmetic and unit conversions - A sanity check from an independent angle, a final range, and the assumption that moves the answer most ### Follow-up Questions - If you had last year's actual storage and traffic figures, how would your method change? - How would deduplication, compression and moving rarely opened files to colder storage change what you provision? - A new feature automatically backs up phone videos to Drive. Which parts of your estimate change, and by roughly how much?