Finding New Efficiencies Through Big Data Analysis

Finding New Efficiencies through Big Data Analysis

Industry Perspective

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Finding New Efficiencies Through Big Data

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EMC Industry Perspective

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Finding New Efficiencies through Big Data Analysis

An Industry Perspective with EMC’s Audie Hittle, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Federal Market at EMC Isilon

“There is a growing recognition that we finally have the tools and are able to extract real insights and knowledge from the data, which is able to help support more efficient and informed decision-making. From a global agency, or even broad agency perspective, that is what is driving big data analysis.” – Audie Hittle

overnment is in the midst of a transformation. As government is collecting, managing, and storing increasing volumes of data, agencies are challenged to find actionable insights from the tsunami of data they are collecting. With the explosion of data from social media, online transactions, and internal systems, government has more opportunities than ever before to transform agencies through big data analysis. The core challenge for agencies is taking the initial steps to understand the risks and challenges to fully leverage big data analysis.

Recently, Audie Hittle, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Federal Market at EMC Isilon, shared his insights with GovLoop as to how big data initiatives will transform government. As Hittle states, “We are only at the tip of the iceberg and I believe big data can be transformational.” Hittle’s statement could not be more poignant, as agencies are looking to streamline processes and identify new efficiencies. In this industry perspective, Hittle shares his expert insights on how agencies can leverage big data to improve government operations, service delivery and find new efficiencies with limited resources.

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Big data is commonly defined using the three v’s: volume, velocity and variety of data. As more kinds of data are being developed, there are many different ways to look at how ‘big data’ can be defined.

Big data should not be defined in terms of quantity or quality; rather, big data should be defined simply as using data in new ways and developing insights that were previously unavailable to agencies.

Hittle states, “Personally I like the definition that was crafted by one of our former Isilon CTO’s Paul Rutherford, who basically said that big data is a relative thing. An organization may not have 100 terabytes or 100 petabytes, but big data is something that currently is more than you can deal with as a person or organization.”

As Hittle described, identifying insights from data, regardless of size, is the common thread across government. Another trend is that when considering big data programs, what becomes readily clear is that big data analysis is part of a much larger strategy for government agencies. Simply, agencies cannot talk about big data analysis without considering the cloud and understanding new ways to

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store and manage data. Additionally, mobile is an essential tool when considering big data, as a way to help provide quick, easy and streamlined information to core stakeholders.

“From my perspective big data appears to be providing a really positive and complementary impetuous for cloud and mobile capabilities, I would say that the demonstrated ability to gain insights from immediate or from forensic analysis from the data, supporting better decision making, really highlights the importance to gain easy access to the data via the cloud and to be able to interact with the data from anywhere for mobile solutions,” states Hittle.

(14%), communications/public affairs (14%) and health and human services (11%) were the leading mission areas in which organizations have leveraged big data analysis.The survey found that the majority of organizations have yet to hire a data scientist, as 61% of respondents do not have one on staff.

Although these statistics are useful, and show applications for big data analysis, they do not convey the impact on efficiency and changing the role of the government worker. Big data can create new efficiencies for the government worker. Hittle notes, “efficiencies enables people to get more gratification out of their job, because they feel they are more efficient, they are accomplishing more, and they are contributing more.Those are great things.”

Hittle also shared a case study from the Air Force, in which he identifies the impact of improved efficiencies for the workforce. Through a big data program, the Air Force was able to reduce the number of dedicated storage professionals on-site. In doing so, the Air Force was able to reallocate staff and place employees on more mission critical and support roles. Hittle states, “In some cases you can see where placing employees on mission critical roles provides a career progression or a career re-training opportunity to move from one highly skilled area, where it deals with IT management, into other areas where it deals with knowledge extraction or analysis.”

Big Data’s Impact on Efficiency for the Government Worker In a recent study, Transforming Your Agency with Big Data, GovLoop conducted a survey of the government community on big data applications. The survey findings highlight the ways government has leveraged big data and reveal that budget/finance

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EMC Industry Perspective

The Air Force is not alone in making improvements to the workforce. A second case study Hittle shared comes from an intelligence agency, which implemented an Isilon scale-out network-attached storage (NAS) solution. With this solution, the agency was again able to reduce service professionals by roughly 90% and, similar to the Air Force, employees could be reallocated to higher priority and direct mission-oriented services.

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Big Data Challenges Another core finding from the GovLoop report, is that to fully leverage big data analysis, agencies need guidance and best practices to fully capitalize on the data that they are collecting. The recent GovLoop survey found that education (19%), acquiring infrastructure (18%), and confidentiality and access control (16%) were some of the challenges facing government.

One of the main drivers of big data is the need for agencies to find new efficiencies in their data. At all levels of government, the core challenge is how to best identify and leverage actionable insights. Due to the current fiscal environment and uncertainty, efficiency is top of mind for every government employee. As Hittle states, “There is one fairly pervasive challenge and roadblock in the US federal sector, which really is dealing with the tremendous uncertainty in federal agency budgets and the fiscal realities right now. While there are many more agencies that could be taking advantage of big data

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solutions, many are really stymied by current budgetary constraints.”

Yet, agencies are presented with numerous unique challenges on how to best implement a big data solution to meet their organizational and operational needs. As Hittle notes, “most challenges actually deal with implementing solutions designed to deal with the shear volume of data being generated or needing to be ingested and analyzed by a particular organization. Dealing with the velocity or speed which the data is being created or changed, needing to be processed, or of course, there is the challenge of dealing with the increasing varieties of data. “

Building a Big Data Culture One of the tasks facing government agencies seeking to implement a big data solution is the need to build a data culture within the agency. In order to do

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so, agencies must focus on best practices and lessons learned from adopting any new, enterprise level initiative.

To create a big data culture, organizations are challenged to manage the cultural, organizational and technical requirements related to big data. Hittle states, “Part of the challenges are cultural and part are organizational.” Additionally, agencies must be able to focus on creating long term and sustainable big data programs. Organizational leaders must understand that a culture of big data indicates the organization has accepted that big data is not a oneshot, linear type of initiative, but is a cyclical and iterative process.

One of the key findings from Hittle is the reminder of the importance of proper project management and goal setting upfront. To work towards a big data culture, agencies can start by focusing on the following steps: Define a Clear Project Scope Agencies must work diligently to define scope, expected outcomes and identify the underlying business value of implementing a big data initiative. This step is essential to fully leveraging big data, and capitalizing on the available data. Also, this step is essential to make sure organizations are working towards a data-driven culture. In a recent interview with GovLoop, Sean Kingsberry, Chief Information Officer, Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board (RATB), states, “The first thing is for federal to get their head around business requirements and not get caught up in the buzzwords and the technology of what seems interesting right now.”

success.This will also build support, and create a culture of openness and trust.

Assess Your Individual, Organizational and Enterprise Requirements To fully leverage big data analysis, agencies should map out the needs for individuals and organizations.

IT leaders should define what kind of tools, strategies and training is needed.

One of the emerging roles needed for big data analysis is the need for data scientists. Although the title “data scientist” may not be a formal role within an agency, leaders must continue to train employees to serve in a data scientist capacity. This means, leaders must have employees on staff that focus on data, learn the best ways to identify intelligence from data collected across the agency or department, and collaborate with partnering agencies. In the recent GovLoop survey we asked: Does Your Organization Have Data Scientist on Staff? 39% of respondents said data scientist were currently on staff, while 61% stated that data scientists have yet to be hired.

DOES YOUR ORGANIZATION HAVE DATA SCIENTISTS ON STAFF?

39% Yes 61% No

Additionally, like with any IT initiative, leaders should meet with core stakeholders, talk through the initiative and allow stakeholders to have a voice. By doing so, IT leaders will gather new insights, findings and craft stronger strategies to set up the initiative for

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EMC Industry Perspective

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Replicate and Build on Previous Successes The final step is that leaders must acknowledge the potential for cultural changes, and understand that leveraging new technologies with big data analysis is an iterative process. For big data programs to excel, leaders must recognize the program will be a cyclical and iterative process. Not every solution will be solved at once, and agencies will constantly be learning about the value and benefits of big data for their own agency.

Hittle articulates the importance of building a data culture, and not looking at big data as a one-off, linear solution. He states, “It’s really looking at big data not so much as a one shot project, but more of an iterative process that an agency is undertaking to be able to extract knowledge and really be able to evolve and transform agencies and organizations over the course of time.”

ernment still is learning best practices, strategies and implementation practices around big data. As Hittle states, “The future for federal big data is very promising.There is a new awareness and realization about the magnitude and the potential of big data, and this is going to lead to appropriate levels of investment in the storage, management and analysis of big data to really achieve the promise of the efficiencies, which are becoming increasingly well known.”

With big data, agencies can transform their decisionmaking and service delivery, and improve the efficiencies within government. In a time when resources are tight, the impact on the government workforce and related efficiencies cannot be overlooked. For government today, IT managers must ensure they are fully leveraging emerging technology as a way to redefine the role of a government employee and fully leverage their skills and knowledge. Big data is one piece of the puzzle to transforming the way government operates and creating a modern government.

Big data analysis holds great potential for government agencies. Like any new technology trend, gov-

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About EMC EMC Corporation, a global IT leader, enables the federal government to transform its operations and deliver IT as a service. Fundamental to this transformation is cloud computing. Through innovative products and services, delivered in partnership with leading government contractors and federal systems integrators, EMC accelerates the journey to cloud computing, helping federal IT departments to store, manage, protect, and analyze their most valuable asset—information—in a more agile, trusted, and cost-efficient way.

Additional information can be found at www.EMC.com/federal.

About Govloop

GovLoop’s mission is to “connect government to improve government.” We aim to inspire public sector professionals by serving as the knowledge network for government. GovLoop connects more than 65,000 members, fostering cross-government collaboration, solving common problems and advancing government careers. GovLoop is headquartered in Washington D.C with a team of dedicated professionals who share a commitment to connect and improve government.

For more information about this report, please reach out to Pat Fiorenza, Senior Research Analyst, GovLoop, at pat@govloop.com, or follow him on twitter: @pjfiorenza.

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