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A petabyte (PB) is a massive unit of digital information storage equal to 1,000 terabytes (TB) or one quadrillion bytes (\(10^{15}\) bytes). It is primarily used to describe the capacity of large-scale storage systems for "big data" applications, rather than the storage of a personal computer.

Petabyte conversions. There is some confusion over whether computer storage units are based on powers of 1,000 or powers of 1,024. The decimal (SI) standard uses powers of 1,000, while the binary standard, often used by operating systems, uses powers of 1,024. 

Who uses petabytes of storage? Petabyte-scale storage is a necessity for large enterprises and research institutions that process "big data". These organizations typically use specialized hardware and software to manage and analyze the data.

Cloud computing: Major cloud providers, such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, manage data on a petabyte and even exabyte scale to support their services.

High-performance computing: Supercomputers used for scientific research, such as climate modeling and genomic analysis, operate on petabytes of data.

Big data analytics: Businesses use petabyte-scale storage to store and analyze vast datasets for machine learning and business intelligence.

Media and entertainment: Companies that produce and distribute high-definition video content require petabytes of storage.

Data centers: Large data centers use sophisticated storage systems and architectures, such as RAID arrays, to handle these massive volumes of data reliably.