Technological advancements and the exponential growth of information are fundamentally changing how businesses operate across various sectors, including government. The volume of government data generation and digital archiving is accelerating due to the widespread adoption of mobile devices and applications, smart sensors, cloud computing solutions, and public-facing digital portals. As digital information becomes more voluminous and complex, managing, processing, storing, securing, and disposing of this data presents greater challenges. Emerging tools for capturing, searching, discovering, and analyzing data are enabling organizations to extract valuable insights from unstructured information. The government sector is at a critical juncture, recognizing that information is a strategic asset. Governments must protect, leverage, and analyze both structured and unstructured data to better fulfill their missions and serve the public. As government leaders work to transform their organizations into data-driven entities, they are establishing the foundation to connect dependencies across events, personnel, processes, and information.
High-impact government solutions will emerge from the integration of several transformative 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 represents an intelligent industry solution that enables government agencies to make better decisions by acting on patterns identified through the analysis of vast amounts of data—both related and unrelated, structured and unstructured.
However, achieving this requires more than just accumulating large volumes 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 launching the National Big Data Research and Development Initiative in 2012. This initiative allocated over $200 million to maximize the potential of the Big Data explosion and the tools necessary to analyze it.
The challenges posed by Big Data are nearly as formidable as its promise is promising. One such challenge is storing data efficiently. With budgets remaining tight, agencies must minimize the cost per megabyte of storage while ensuring data remains easily accessible so users can retrieve it efficiently when and how they need it. Backing up massive amounts of data further complicates this challenge.
Effective data analysis is another major hurdle. Many agencies utilize commercial tools to sift through vast data sets, identifying trends that enhance operational efficiency. (A recent MeriTalk study revealed that federal IT executives believe Big Data could help agencies save over $500 billion while also meeting mission objectives.)
Custom-developed Big Data tools are also enabling agencies to meet their analysis needs. For instance, the Computational Data Analytics Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory 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 matching job candidates with hiring managers by sifting through resumes.
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