Technological advancements and the exponential growth of information are fundamentally reshaping business operations across numerous sectors, including the public sector. The volume of government data generation and digital archiving is accelerating, driven by the proliferation of mobile devices and applications, smart sensors and computing infrastructure, cloud-based solutions, and citizen-engagement portals. As digital information becomes increasingly vast and complex, the tasks of managing, processing, storing, securing, and disposing of this data become more intricate. New tools for capturing, searching, discovering, and analyzing data are empowering organizations to derive valuable insights from unstructured sources. The government sector is reaching a critical juncture, recognizing information as a strategic asset that must be protected, leveraged, and analyzed in both structured and unstructured forms to fulfill mission requirements effectively. Government leaders are working to evolve into data-driven organizations capable of successfully executing their missions, laying the groundwork to correlate dependencies among events, personnel, processes, and information.
High-value government solutions will emerge from the integration of the most 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 represents an intelligent industry solution that enables government agencies to make superior decisions by acting on patterns revealed through the analysis of large volumes of data—encompassing related and unrelated, as well as structured and unstructured, information.
However, achieving these capabilities requires more than simply amassing vast 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 supported agencies in identifying 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 develop the necessary tools for its analysis.
The challenges posed by Big Data are as significant as the opportunities it presents. Efficiently storing data is one such challenge. With budgets often constrained, agencies must minimize storage costs per megabyte while ensuring data remains readily accessible to users when and how they need it. Backing up massive data volumes further compounds this difficulty.
Effective data analysis is another major hurdle. Many agencies utilize commercial tools that allow them to navigate through large datasets, identifying trends that enhance operational efficiency. (A recent study by MeriTalk indicated 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 analytical 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 assisted medical researchers in identifying links that can alert doctors to aortic aneurysms before they occur. It is also utilized for routine tasks, such as reviewing resumes to match job candidates with hiring managers.
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