Technological advancements and the exponential growth of information are fundamentally transforming business operations across various sectors, including government. The volume of government data and digital archiving is increasing rapidly, driven by the proliferation of mobile devices and applications, smart sensors and IoT devices, cloud computing solutions, and citizen-facing portals. As digital information becomes more expansive and complex, the management, processing, storage, security, and disposition of this data become increasingly challenging. New tools for capture, search, discovery, and analysis are enabling organizations to extract valuable insights from unstructured data. The government sector is at a critical tipping point, recognizing information as a strategic asset. Governments must now protect, leverage, and analyze both structured and unstructured data to better serve the public and meet mission requirements. As government leaders work to evolve into data-driven organizations, they are establishing the foundation to correlate dependencies across events, people, processes, and information.
High-impact 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 a key intelligent industry solution, enabling governments to make better decisions by acting on patterns revealed through the analysis of large volumes of related and unrelated, structured and unstructured data.
However, achieving these outcomes requires more than just accumulating massive 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," noted Tom Kalil and Fen Zhao from 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 allocated over $200 million to maximize the potential of the Big Data explosion and the necessary analytical tools.
The challenges posed by Big Data are nearly as formidable as the promise it offers. One major challenge is efficient data storage. With budgets often tight, agencies must minimize storage costs per megabyte while ensuring data remains easily accessible for users to retrieve when and how they need it. Backing up such massive data volumes adds another layer of complexity.
Effective data analysis presents another significant challenge. Many agencies utilize commercial tools to sift through vast amounts of data, 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 fulfilling mission objectives.
Custom-developed Big Data tools are also empowering agencies to meet their analytical 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 assisted medical researchers in identifying links that alert doctors to aortic aneurysms before they occur. It is also employed for more routine tasks, such as screening resumes to match job candidates with hiring managers.
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