Data is the true currency of the digital age, and it plays an indispensable role in defining and accelerating the mission of Government agencies.
Every level of government is awash in data (both structured and unstructured) that is perpetually in motion. It is constantly generated – and always growing in volume – by an ever-growing range of sources, from IoT sensors and other connected devices at the edge to web and social media to video and more. Harnessing data in motion is a crucial step in gaining command and control of data as a strategic asset – moving it from where it is generated to where it can be managed and analyzed and ultimately used to support timely, informed decision making.
The Value of Public Sector Data
Governments are viewed as critical data providers in the digital world. The consulting firm McKinsey has previously reported that governments are integral players in helping to realize a $3 trillion open-data opportunity for the private sector and society at large.
The value of data can also be measured in non-monetary ways. There are countless use cases for innovative data management that can have exponential positive impacts on the public good, from health to education to military to agriculture to climate to transportation and more. Data drives so many critical missions, from pandemic response to solving supply chain challenges to cybersecurity and national defense.
The public sector already recognizes the enormous potential value of data. That’s ultimately the driver behind the Federal Data Strategy and the 10-year plan, and a host of initiatives such as the State Department’s milestone “Enterprise Data Strategy: Empowering Data Informed Diplomacy” released in 2021.
The First Leg of the Data Journey
Agency leaders need a means to make these initiatives real. How can they effectively ingest and route all data, no matter the source, into a platform where it can be used to its full potential. This “harnessing data-in-motion” — collecting and processing data from thousands of endpoints, devices and sensors — is the first step inthe journey toward unlocking the full value data represents. This critical step is the enabler for real-time scenarios, including IoT use cases like predictive maintenance of critical infrastructure, smart military bases, public utilities management and more. It’s what enables rich data analytics that help agencies make faster, and more timely decisions.
Agency CIOs and CDOs have plenty to consider when designing an effective data infrastructure and strategy. Data goes unutilized or underutilized often because of a lack of access or because it is delivered in formats that are difficult or impossible to use. Once agencies can coherently manage the entire data lifecycle, they can harness data as a strategic asset from discovery to AI driven insights.
The Benefits of a Modern Hybrid Data Cloud Platform
There is a better way: a cohesive enterprise data strategy, managing data from discovery to movement to analytics, built on the foundation of a modern hybrid data cloud platform, that helps agencies harness their data and improve mission outcomes. This reduces silos and fragmentation by bringing all data onto a single, secure and governed platform. This produces myriad benefits for government agencies, and their citizen stakeholders, including:
- Better, faster decisions: Bringing all types of data onto a single enterprise platform creates the foundation for powerful data analytics driven insights, one of the major value drivers in any data strategy.
- Increased productivity and reduced costs: Leveraging a platform with embedded AI and machine learning capabilities enables budget-constrained agencies to boost productivity while keeping costs in check.
- Transparency and trust: A cohesive data strategy and platform helps build and maintain public trust, public-private partnerships and the use of data to improve people’s lives.
- Fraud, waste and abuse detection: Machine learning, paired with predictive analytics and unified data, identifies misuse of public resources so that inefficiency and waste can be eliminated.
- Cybersecurity: Enable a 360-degree data visibility and strong governance power modern cybersecurity tools and practices, enabling cybersecurity posture, detection and response.
Cloudera Data Platform (CDP) with Cloudera DataFlow enables precisely these use cases and more. CDP lets people access and analyze every bit of their data across public and private clouds, and on-premises, empowering your organization to make smarter, data-driven decisions.
These critical issues on data movement and governance can directly impact your agency’s mission. You can learn more about these important issues around data movement and governance at Cloudera’s Government Forum on April 19 in Washington, D.C.
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