Technological advancements and the exponential growth of information are fundamentally transforming business operations across numerous industries, including the public sector. The rate of government data generation and digital archiving is accelerating, driven by the rapid proliferation of mobile devices and applications, smart sensors and IoT devices, cloud computing solutions, and citizen-facing digital portals. As digital information expands in volume and complexity, the challenges associated with information management, processing, storage, security, and disposition become increasingly sophisticated. New tools for capture, search, discovery, and analysis are enabling organizations to derive valuable insights from unstructured data. The government sector is reaching a tipping point, recognizing information as a strategic asset. Governments must now protect, leverage, and analyze both structured and unstructured data to better serve citizens and meet mission requirements. As government leaders strive to evolve into data-driven organizations, they are laying the groundwork to correlate dependencies across events, people, processes, and information.
High-value government solutions are emerging from a combination of the most disruptive technologies:
- Mobile devices and applications
- Cloud services
- Social business technologies and networking
- Big Data and analytics
Big Data is one such intelligent industry solution that empowers government entities to make better decisions by taking action based on patterns revealed through the analysis of large volumes of data—whether related or unrelated, structured or unstructured.
However, achieving these capabilities requires more than simply accumulating massive quantities 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," Tom Kalil and Fen Zhao of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy noted 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 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 daunting as its promise is encouraging. One significant challenge is storing data efficiently. With budgets often tight, agencies must minimize the per-megabyte cost of storage while ensuring data remains easily accessible so users can retrieve it when and how they need it. Additionally, backing up massive amounts of data compounds this challenge.
Effectively analyzing data is another major hurdle. Many agencies utilize commercial tools to sift through vast amounts of data, identifying trends that enhance 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 allowing agencies to address their data analysis needs. For instance, 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 more routine tasks, such as sifting through resumes to connect job candidates with hiring managers.
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