Technological advancements and the exponential growth of information are reshaping business operations across numerous sectors, including government. Government data creation and digital archiving are accelerating, driven by the proliferation of mobile devices and apps, smart sensors, cloud computing solutions, and citizen-facing portals. As digital information becomes more voluminous and complex, the management, processing, storage, security, and retention of this data become increasingly challenging. New tools for capture, search, discovery, and analysis are enabling organizations to derive valuable insights from unstructured data. The government sector is at a critical juncture, recognizing information as a strategic asset. Governments must protect, leverage, and analyze both structured and unstructured information to better serve citizens and meet mission requirements. As government leaders strive to evolve into data-driven organizations, they are establishing the foundation to correlate dependencies across events, personnel, processes, and information.
High-impact government solutions are emerging from the integration of disruptive technologies:
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Mobile devices and applications
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Cloud services
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Social business technologies and networking
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Big Data and analytics
Big Data serves as an intelligent industry solution, enabling governments to make better decisions by acting on patterns revealed through the analysis of large volumes of data—both related and unrelated, structured and unstructured.
However, achieving these goals requires more than just accumulating vast amounts of data. "Making sense of these volumes of Big Data requires cutting-edge tools and technologies that can analyze and extract useful knowledge from vast and diverse streams of information," wrote Tom Kalil and Fen Zhao of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in a post on the OSTP Blog.
The White House took a significant step toward helping agencies identify these technologies by establishing the National Big Data Research and Development Initiative in 2012. This initiative included over $200 million to capitalize on the Big Data explosion and the tools needed to analyze it.
The challenges posed by Big Data are nearly as daunting as its promise is encouraging. Efficient data storage is one such challenge. With budgets always tight, agencies must minimize the cost per megabyte of storage and ensure data is easily accessible, allowing users to retrieve it when and how they need it. Backing up massive quantities of data further compounds this challenge.
Effective data analysis is another major hurdle. Many agencies utilize commercial tools to sift through vast amounts of data, identifying trends that improve operational efficiency. (A recent MeriTalk study found that federal IT executives believe Big Data could help agencies save over $500 billion while also fulfilling mission objectives.).
Custom-developed Big Data tools are also enabling agencies to meet their analysis needs. For example, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Computational Data Analytics Group has made its Piranha data analytics system available to other agencies. This system has helped medical researchers identify links that can alert doctors to aortic aneurysms before they occur. It is also used for routine tasks, such as screening resumes to connect job candidates with hiring managers.
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