“Big Data” has been the buzz word floating around federal, state, and local agencies this year. Big Data is a loose term used to describe mass amounts of structured and unstructured digital data flooding government agencies, and it is proving to be problematic. Expanding legacy data combined with growing real-time data requires agencies to devote manpower, funding, and new technology to address changing needs. The FY12 fiscal cycle has been a feeding frenzy for private sector IT giants all battling for a piece agency IT budgets devoted to data management.
In response to the Obama Administration’s March announcement of a $200 million Big Data R&D Initiative, the non-profit TechAmerica recently announced the launch of a new Commission. The Big Data Commission, chaired by Steven Mills, Senior Vice President at IBM, is comprised of industry IT leaders, academics, and government advisors and will focus on providing recommendations on how to secure data, how to do more with less, and the relationship between cloud and Big Data.
The main focus of the Commission will be to help direct agency officials and policymakers on best practices for managing data growth. This guidance will undoubtedly have an impact on how agencies choose to distribute funding and which private sector IT companies will win contracts.
Steven Mills explains, “Winners and losers will be determined by who can innovate faster based on strategic insights drawn from the variety and velocity of new forms of big data being generated every day.” In a new era of cyber security, the winners of agency IT contracts will be those who not only effectively manage the swell of Big Data, but those that can provide a robust cyber security element.