The Sunday Times (UK) reported at the weekend (Registration Required — this is Rupert Murdoch’s new PAID newspaper site) that the sheer number of new internet-connected devices, such as smartphones and tablets, has sparked a desperate need for more infrastructure to support all this flood of data. The proliferation of high-definition video and the launch of the iPad mean that the volume of data traffic will go on soaring.

It might not feel like it, but the boom is still in its infancy. “Less than 1% of all video is watched online,” said Tom Leighton, co-founder of Akamai, whose technology helps clients such as Microsoft and Amazon dodge the traffic jams on the data highways. “In the coming years you are looking at a factor of 1,000 increase and a system that is already under stress.”

Tags: boom, infrastructure, iPad, online video, shortages, smartphones, tablets