Technological advancements and the exponential growth of data are reshaping business operations across numerous sectors, including government. The volume of data generated and archived digitally by government entities is surging, driven by 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 its management, processing, storage, security, and disposition intensify. New 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 information as a strategic asset. Governments must now protect, leverage, and analyze both structured and unstructured data to better fulfill mission requirements. As leaders work to evolve data-driven organizations, they are establishing the framework to correlate dependencies among events, people, processes, and information.
High-impact government solutions are emerging from the integration of disruptive technologies:
- Mobile devices and applications
- Cloud services
- Social business technologies and networking
- Big Data and analytics
Big Data serves as an intelligent industry solution, empowering governments to make superior decisions by acting on patterns revealed through the analysis of vast volumes of data—both related and unrelated, structured and unstructured.
However, achieving these outcomes requires more than merely accumulating large datasets. "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 of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in a post on the OSTP Blog.
The White House advanced this effort by launching the National Big Data Research and Development Initiative in 2012. This initiative allocated over $200 million to capitalize on the Big Data explosion and the tools necessary to analyze it.
The challenges posed by Big Data are as formidable as its potential is promising. Efficient data storage is a primary concern. With budgets often constrained, agencies must minimize the cost per megabyte of storage while ensuring data remains easily accessible for users when and how they need it. Backing up massive data volumes further complicates this challenge.
Effective data analysis presents another major hurdle. Many agencies utilize commercial tools to sift through vast data sets, identifying trends that enhance operational efficiency. (A recent MeriTalk study indicated 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, 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 applied to routine tasks, such as screening resumes to match candidates with hiring managers.
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