Technological advancements and the exponential growth of information are fundamentally reshaping business operations across various sectors, including government. Government data generation and digital archiving are accelerating due to the proliferation of mobile devices and applications, smart sensors, cloud computing solutions, and citizen-facing portals. As digital information expands and grows more complex, the challenges associated with information management, processing, storage, security, and disposition intensify. Emerging tools for capture, search, discovery, and analysis are enabling organizations to derive valuable insights from unstructured data. The government sector has reached a critical juncture, recognizing information as a strategic asset. Agencies must now protect, leverage, and analyze both structured and unstructured information to better serve the public and fulfill mission requirements. As government leaders work to evolve into data-driven organizations capable of achieving their missions, they are establishing the foundation to correlate dependencies among events, personnel, processes, and information.
High-impact government solutions are being developed through 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, empowering government entities to make superior decisions by acting on patterns identified through the analysis of large volumes of related and unrelated, structured and unstructured data.
However, achieving these results requires more than merely accumulating vast amounts of data. As Tom Kalil and Fen Zhao of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy noted in an OSTP Blog post, "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."
The White House moved to support agencies in identifying these technologies by launching the National Big Data Research and Development Initiative in 2012. This initiative allocated over $200 million to capitalize on the surge of Big Data and the necessary analytical tools.
The challenges presented by Big Data are as significant as its potential benefits are promising. Efficient data storage remains a key challenge. With budgets often constrained, agencies must minimize the cost per megabyte of storage while ensuring data remains readily accessible for users when and how they need it. The requirement to back up massive data volumes further complicates this task.
Effective data analysis is another major hurdle. Many agencies utilize commercial tools to sift through large datasets, 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 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 employed for routine tasks, such as screening resumes to match job candidates with hiring managers.
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