Big Data: A Big Problem That’s Getting Bigger

Big Data is a word that’s being thrown around a lot recently. It’s a new term for an old problem; having too much data. Not an overly complicated issue to grasp, albeit the solution to the problem is a much more complicated one. With the federal Big Data market being estimated at $4.9 billion, government agencies need to begin looking toward a resolution.

Chris Dorobek, of the DorobekINSIDER program, recently sat down with Alex Rossino, a principle research analyst at Deltek, to discuss possible solutions and learn what steps government agencies can take to start moving in the right direction:

What is Big Data?

“Big Data is any data set that is so massive that analysis of it using traditional analytical tools cannot yield timely and optimal insight…already we have identified more than 150 different programs that can be classified as big data and they were already in use in the federal government,” said Rossino.

What Are the Issues With Big Data?

• Disorganized Data

“It’s really the volume of what’s coming in to networks and storing it that’s the issue…the fact that a lot of it is not organized very well or cannot be searched very easily, that’s really causing the problem,” said Rossino.

• Budget Constraints

“One of the big challenges that we found was that there are with the rising inflow of data there are rising storage needs…that challenges budgets…the real issue is what financial resources agencies will be able to devote to big data…any kind of investment in big data tools or resources will probably have to be cannibalized from some other investments,” said Rossino.

• Lack of Personnel

“There are problems and challenges with personnel, understanding what the data is saying, having personal dedicated to that, as well as having the right tools to be able to parse the data into groups or blocks that you can then use and get accurate intelligence from,” said Rossino.

• Bandwidth Limitations

“There is a really big one that I don’t think really is mentioned very often and that’s bandwidth limitations. Networks are always strained with the amount of tools being used and the number of capabilities that agencies are trying to drive through them so adding big data capability and strain those limitations even further,” said Rossino.

How Do We Solve Big Data?

“The first step is always the hardest and I think that there are enough industry programs and solutions that are available that an agency could do this with relatively little cost at the outset and build internal experience and then build on that and see where it fits into their IT infrastructure…we determined that ROI really needs to be based on what the mission requirement is and how well the analytics that are available can be used to achieve that mission requirement,” said Rossino.

For more information or to download the report discussed in the interview; CLICK HERE